This bill would allow public schools and charter schools in West Virginia to refuse enrollment to students who are unlawfully present in the United States, provided the student or their parent has exhausted all available legal appeals. The legislation requires schools to verify a student's immigration status through documentation before enrollment, accepting only U.S. citizenship, citizenship applications, or legal visa status as valid proof. By adding a new section to state law, the bill creates an eligibility standard for public school enrollment that differs from current federal precedent, permitting schools to deny access to students with final removal orders without charging tuition.
HB 5194 prohibits the use of calculators and math computational devices (like graphing calculators or digital math tools) in all K-8 public and charter school classrooms across West Virginia. The bill directly affects students in kindergarten through eighth grade and their teachers, requiring classrooms to operate without these devices for math instruction. Key provisions explicitly ban such devices in all public school settings, removing their use from math lessons for this age group. The law aims to ensure students develop foundational math skills without technological assistance during early education.
HB 5362 would amend West Virginia's Hope Scholarship Program by establishing income limits for eligibility, requiring scholarship recipients to use public school testing resources, and restricting scholarship use to in-state schools. The bill would require the Board of Education to create rules for reimbursing counties when public schools provide services to scholarship students. It directly affects families applying for Hope Scholarships for their children attending public or private schools in West Virginia. The bill is currently in the early stages of the legislative process, having been introduced on February 9, 2026, and referred to the House Education committee.
HB 5249 would amend West Virginia's Hope Scholarship Program to prohibit the use of state funds for private school tuition or educational services provided by out-of-state schools or providers. This change directly affects families who currently use Hope Scholarship funds to pay for education at schools or services located outside West Virginia. The bill restricts all scholarship funds to only in-state private schools and educational service providers within West Virginia. As a result, families seeking to use state-funded scholarships for out-of-state education would no longer be eligible for that funding.
SB 215, the West Virginia Constitutional Schools Act of 2026, requires public schools in West Virginia to implement daily prayer or meditation time, include a specific pledge honoring both U.S. and West Virginia flags, and provide students and parents with the state constitution for review. It mandates removing mandatory state "Next Generation" curriculum standards by the 2026/2027 school year, allowing districts to choose classical or locally developed standards instead. The bill also replaces statewide standardized testing with district-level testing choices, offers national assessments like the SAT or CLT for parents, and limits statewide testing to random samples for policy research. These changes directly affect all public K-12 schools in West Virginia beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year.
HB 4914, the West Virginia Education Freedom and Parental Empowerment Act, creates education savings accounts (ESAs) funded by federal block grants to give parents direct control over K-12 education spending. It requires state funds to be allocated equally per student into parent-controlled accounts, usable for tuition at private/charter schools, tutoring, materials, and other qualified educational expenses. The bill dissolves the State Board of Education’s regulatory powers over K-12 education, limiting it to only transferring federal funds to the State Treasurer, who administers the program and tracks spending. This directly affects all West Virginia K-12 students and their families by shifting educational funding and decision-making from state authorities to parents.
SB 600 would limit eligibility for West Virginia's Hope Scholarship Program by requiring that a student's parent or parents have a combined federal adjusted gross income under $100,000. This change directly affects families applying for the scholarship, as it sets a new income threshold for qualification. The bill also requires unused scholarship funds to transfer to the student's local county school system at year-end and mandates that all scholarship funds be spent only on education services provided within West Virginia. These provisions amend existing sections of the state code governing the Hope Scholarship Program.
SB 684 exempts private, parochial, and church schools in West Virginia from the state's requirement to teach specific courses, including state and U.S. history, civics, the U.S. Constitution, and government structure. This bill removes these schools from the curriculum mandates that apply to public schools for those subjects and from Celebrate Freedom Week obligations. As a result, private, parochial, and denominational schools will no longer be subject to these course requirements under state law. Public schools will continue to be required to follow the existing curriculum standards for these subjects.
