Allow education employees to donate sick leave to co-workers for maternity leave
HB 4485 allows public school and higher education employees in West Virginia to voluntarily donate accrued sick leave to coworkers taking maternity leave. The bill establishes a formal leave donation program where employees can transfer personal leave days to colleagues experiencing maternity leave or a catastrophic medical emergency, with specific rules: donors may transfer unlimited days to spouses but face limits for others, and unused donated days revert to the donor after the leave period ends. It prohibits using donated leave for retirement credit or insurance extensions and requires voluntary participation without coercion. This policy directly affects educators in K-12 schools and colleges who qualify for personal leave under state law.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 16, 2026
Last action Feb 20, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced Version
→
Committee Substitute
·
3 edits
MINOR
The bill was amended to expand its scope from public school educators to include higher education employees, aligning the leave donation rules between the two sectors. The committee substitute also updated the bill's title and origin details to reflect these changes and corrected a section number reference.
Scope change
The bill now applies to both public school personnel and higher education employees, whereas the introduced version only applied to the public school system.
SCOPE
Expanded applicability to include higher education employees in addition to public school educators.
DEFINITION
Updated the bill title and origin information to reflect the expanded scope and correct section references.
REQUIREMENT
Revised the definition of 'employee' in the higher education section to include classified, nonclassified, and faculty members eligible for sick leave.
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
10
Key actions
0
Committee
6
Feb 20, 2026
Committee
To House Finance
lower
Feb 20, 2026
Committee
By substitute, do pass, but first to Finance
lower
Feb 8, 2026
Committee
To House Education
lower
Jan 19, 2026
Committee
To House Public Education
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Committee
To House Education
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in House
lower
Jan 16, 2026
Committee
To Education then Finance
lower
1 primary · 3 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Bill Bell
RRepublican
Co
Elliott Pritt
RRepublican
Co
Gary Howell
RRepublican
Co
Jeff Stephens
RRepublican
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