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Student Behavior, Phone, Tobacco, Focus Of House Subcommittee

The House of Delegates Public Education Subcommittee started the week looking at two ways to help students focus and behave, as well as bills to change accountability for state school entities.

Student conduct and discipline has been a focus of legislative activity for the past several years. The House of Delegates Public Education Subcommittee started the week looking at two ways to help students focus and behave, as well as bills to change accountability for state school entities.

House Bill 2003 would limit the use of cell phones and other devices in classrooms. It is one of the bills introduced this year by House Speaker Roger Hanshaw on behalf of Gov. Patrick Morrisey.

Katie Franklin, deputy general counsel to the governor, told the subcommittee Monday evening that under the bill, cell phones and other devices like headphones or earbuds cannot be seen, heard, or in use, while school is in session.

“It also empowers teachers to take control of their classrooms and to once again become the object of their students’ attention,” she said. “This bill allows both teachers and children to focus on class instead of fighting against the never ending diversions of modern life.”

Across the country, close to a dozen states have either implemented or considered implementing legislation to restrict phone usage in schools. That includes neighboring states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, which have all taken steps to restrict phone usage in schools in the past year.

At least three West Virginia counties implemented device restrictions for the current academic year.

Del. Jeffrey Stephens, R-Marshall, asked about a district’s ability to go further than what is outlined in the bill.

“Would schools be able to have stricter rules than what are provided in the bill?” Stephens asked.

“I believe so,” Franklin said. “The point of having the legislative rules and the additional policies is to allow for them to do that. This should be seen as a floor for schools and not as a ceiling.”

House Education Chair Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, pointed out that the West Virginia Board of Education already promulgated their own policy to limit the use of personal electronic devices in schools, which is open to public comment until March 20.

“This bill goes a little further in what that looks like and how that works again, to create a little more of a foundation and to give it further weight of a codified statute,” Franklin said.

House Bill 2003 does allow for exceptions to comply with the the Americans with Disabilities Act or the West Virginia Human Rights Act, and Tuesday afternoon the sub-committee voted to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

Another bill relating to student conduct on school grounds, House Bill 3099, would authorize law enforcement to issue citations to students caught using nicotine or tobacco products on school property or during school activities.

Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, and the bill’s sponsor, said Monday one of the counties he represents had specifically requested an enforcement mechanism for existing rules.

“They clearly state that they have a policy in place to work with these issues, but they feel that vaping is up in the schools,” he said. “They need this piece of legislation in order, if they have to go to that route, that they would be able to give a citation to those students after multiple times of trying to work with them to get them to basically not use (tobacco) which are not allowed to in the schools.”

The Public Education Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

Other Business

The subcommittee also took up some bills with more administrative and legal implications for the state’s schools.

House Bill 2897 would require the Legislative Auditor or Post Audit Division to conduct periodic performance audits of the West Virginia Department of Education. The West Virginia Board of Education is, per code, one of the only government entities that can create its own policies without legislative approval.

Reviews done by the Legislative Auditor on cabinet level departments and regulatory boards were previously on a cyclical and on annual schedule. But with the passage of Senate Bill 687 last year, these reviews are now made at the discretion of the Speaker of the House, the Senate President and by recommendations from the Joint Standing Committee on Government Organization.

The governor pointed to audits of state agencies and departments as key to “repurposing and rightsizing” government during his inaugural address.

Justin Robinson, director of the Legislative Post Audit Division, clarified to lawmakers that his office does not conduct financial audits.

“Traditionally, we perform performance audits under the generally accepted government auditing standards issued by the United States Government Accountability Office,” he said. “And through those standards, we can effectuate many of the financial implications that I discussed with Chairman Ellington earlier, given the intent of this bill to ensure that funding by the districts and the department overall is utilized in an efficient, effective and economical manner.”

Robinson also warned that the December 1 deadline for an initial audit report wouldn’t allow for “deep dive audits on any particular in-depth subject matter.” Instead, he said his office could provide an initial report by that date.

The Public Education Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

House Bill 2973 directly addresses two of the legal issues that so significantly impacted state football and volleyball playoffs last year.

Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. He explained that the bill would make the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC) subject to lawsuit in the same manner as a government agency. Those wishing to sue the WVSSAC would now need to provide a 30 day notice and would be required to file that suit in Kanawha County.

Lawsuits against the WVSSAC over school seeding in volleyball and football playoffs were filed in Hardy, Wood and Mercer county circuit courts last November, requiring the intervention of the state supreme court. The lawsuits were also filed just days before playoffs were set to begin.

“This would eliminate that strategy,” Gearheart said. “The reality is that the WVSSAC has to make a variety of decisions, some of which may not be popular and may generate lawsuits. But by delaying action until that point in time, it caused a lot of damage….Filing it in Kanawha County also puts it in the position to make it somewhat apolitical.”

The Public Education Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance the bill to the House Education Committee.

Student Welfare Bills Passed By Senate

The Senate had a lively day to start the week, passing 10 bills on issues ranging from optometry to carbon sequestration. Two of those bills deal with the wellbeing of students in the state’s public schools.

For the past several years, Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, has sponsored Senate Bill 155, establishing the “Summer Feeding For All” program. He said certain counties like Cabell have been able to successfully feed students when school isn’t in session, but childhood hunger remains a problem across the state.

“And unfortunately, around the state, there are still pockets of poverty where children are hungry in the summer,” Woelfel said. “This will identify those pockets and make sure that we can get food to those children.”

According to the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit organization that works to end hunger and improve health outcomes for people in poverty, only 15% of children who received a free or reduced-price lunch nationally during the 2022–2023 school year received a summer lunch. The West Virginia Department of Education estimates that close to 70% of the state’s school-aged children qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.

Woelfel said his bill doesn’t require counties to establish summer feeding programs or even engage with existing programs like the federal Summer Food Service Program.

“It doesn’t impose any unfunded cost on the county boards of education,” he said. “This is just to find a way to identify the kids that are hungry and let social services, the churches – the communities can feed them, but if we don’t know who they are, they’re going to be hungry in the summer.”

The bill has found success in the Senate, passing in both 2023 and 2024, but never in the House of Delegates. Despite its many failed attempts, Woelfel said he is happy to see it run again this year and hopes the House will advance it as well. But he did not leave things to chance, and on the Senate floor Monday Woelfel urged his Republican colleagues to apply some pressure in the lower chamber.

“This bill did not get taken up in the House last year, if you’d imagine that, so kids just continued to suffer from hunger over the summer,” he said. “So if those in the majority party feel so inclined, please reach out across the hallway and try to encourage folks in the house to stand up for these hungry kids. Thank you.”

A similar bill, House Bill 3254, was introduced in the House on Friday and was sent to the House Education Committee.

Another School Discipline Bill

For the past several years, legislators have heard from concerned citizens and educators about the rise in violent behavior in younger and younger students. Last week the House of Delegates passed House Bill 2515, which would give teachers from Kindergarten to grade six the ability to remove students from their classroom for extreme disciplinary issues.

Monday the Senate passed Senate Bill 199, their own version of elementary school discipline. Senate Education Chair Sen. Amy Grady, a Republican from Mason County, presented a similar bill last year and said in committee that she put significant effort this year to ensure the bill provided the best outcomes for students. That includes requiring that students work with mental health professionals.

“The school counselor, social worker, psychologist or behavior intervention is required to establish a behavior plan for the student,” Grady said while explaining the bill on the Senate floor Monday. “The behavior plan is required to be followed for a period [of] two weeks. After that, a re-evaluation of the student’s behavior is to be made. If adequate progress is being made, the behavior plan is continued.”

Requirements in both the House and Senate versions of the bill that students be placed in alternative education settings have raised concerns from lawmakers and school administrators about costs. Only 13 such programs exist in the state at this time, and many more would need to be established to comply if the law were to pass.

The two discipline bills will now need to clear the legislative process again in the opposing chambers and be reconciled before being able to find their way to the governor’s desk for signature.

MU Students Protest DEI, Voice Career Concerns

Students at Marshall University recently spoke up on the future of the school’s many Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), related programs.

The campus rally also brought out students concerned that their majors and minors may not lead to the career paths once expected.

Last week, more than 150 students chanted and rallied before a march across campus. Parkersburg senior Matthew Lebo said he worried about the future of the Office for Student Success at East Hall, and its diverse programs that help many simply adjust to a new environment,

“They have different centers available for LGBTQ people at Marshall,” Lebo said. “For racial minorities at Marshall, to enable them to find a place of community on campus, to feel welcome, to help them through struggles for living in what is a very hostile state towards a lot of marginalized communities.”

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, was a prime protest target. He issued an executive order his first full day in office banning state funding for any West Virginia entity that has DEI programs. That includes Marshall University. But it is up to the West Virginia legislature to determine how state funds are allocated.

Among the campus crossing throng, was McDowell County graduate student Donald Hansbury. In 2021 he ran for Marshall’s homecoming court on a Diversity Equity and Inclusion platform. Hansbury had a message for those who pull the state pursestrings.

“I wrote a letter to the Capitol already about some of the ways I feel about the issues,” Hansbury said. “One thing that I would love to say about my legislators is to take a deeper look at who you are impacting and kind of what that legislation you’re trying to challenge is really doing for the people of the state that you’re in charge of.”

Many of those protesting felt the same way as recent Marshall graduate Lillian Ramsier. She worried that the loss of programs that support and offer security to those who are marginalized will cause irreparable damage.

“We may be over exaggerating and nothing can change,” Ramsier said. “But I highly doubt that will happen. We already have laws in place that say you cannot discriminate against people. So getting rid of this is just pandering to the right.”

It’s not just concerns over funding or collapse of DEI programs that these students have come out to protest. There are a number of executive orders on the federal and state level that are garnering concern.

Ella Hiles, a senior from Ohio, was one of many who rallied and marched out of concern for career futures. Hiles hopes to forge a career in library science.

“If library funding is cut, I don’t know what I will do as a job,” Hiles said. “Libraries have always been my safe, happy place, and seeing them cut would be awful, especially for future generations as well. I also grew up going to the National Park Service with my family. Those were our vacations. With the National Park funding cuts happening right now and effectively shutting them down to a minimum level – that is so detrimental to everyone.”

Marshall Communications Director Leah Payne said the university is now working toward DEI executive order compliance. Students like Matthew Lebo worried that compliance will go against what he sees as true Mountain state values.

“It is critical that West Virginia maintains our place as a state bound by love and acceptance for people,” Lerbo said. “We are a state that is famous for helping your neighbor no matter what. It is critical that our legislators not forget that message to ensure that West Virginia is a place where everybody feels welcome to live and build a life and secure a future for themselves and our state.”

No one from the university came out to meet with these students. Payne said that Marshall DEI program changes are expected in the coming weeks.

Two Bills Take On Aspects Of School Safety in Senate, House Education Committees

Education committees on both sides of the Capitol have focused on bills that failed to pass the previous year to start this year’s session.

It is not uncommon for lawmakers to reintroduce a bill one year that failed the previous year, especially when that bill progressed out of at least one chamber. Education committees on both sides of the Capitol have focused on such bills to start this year’s session.

Monday afternoon the House Education Committee discussed House Bill 2187, which would permit teachers in K-12 schools to carry concealed firearms as a designated school protection officer (SPO). It is a reworked version of last year’s House Bill 4299, which passed the House but failed to move out of committee in the Senate.

Currently, West Virginia residents including teachers are prohibited from bringing guns onto school property, regardless of whether they have a permit.

The bill’s sponsor, Del. Doug Smith, R-Mercer, said the need exists for protection at schools with limited resources.

“It’s for schools in my district. Every elementary school in my district has no resource officer,” he said. “Teachers would like to be able to protect themselves, and the reality of it is, there’s not enough funding to pay for it all for every school across the state. That’s the reality.”

The bill designates an entire section to the training requirements for SPOs, including four hours of scenario-based or simulated training exercises, in addition to tactical live firearms training.

Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia, spoke to the potential personal trauma a staff member may endure.

“Because most mass shootings that take place in schools are done by students, will these teachers also get training in the event that a mass shooting takes place and they have to shoot their student?” she asked.

Smith responded that active shooter training was a requirement, including responding to casualty situations with interventions like “Stop the Bleed.”

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, expressed a concern shared by law enforcement groups that have opposed similar bills. He said having more armed individuals in schools could further complicate a potential active shooter situation for first responders.

“They’re going to have to go to this list and be like, ‘Okay, at this school, we’ve got 10 teachers that might be walking around with guns too, while we’re looking for an active shooter. We have these 10 other possible people,’” Pushkin said. “‘We just had their name. We don’t know what they look like.’”

The issue of students gaining access to a teacher or staff member’s weapon has been a point of concern for several years with similar bills, and came up again Monday afternoon.

Jim McJunkin, a retired critical care pediatrician, spoke to the committee as part of the committee’s public hearing. He recounted his personal experience of treating a child permanently injured by the negligent discharge of an unattended gun before discussing the need for preventative measures rather than more firearms.

“We believe in that primary prevention is very important, which includes secure school entry ways, threat assessment, suspicious activity reporting, mental health access and safe storage education for safe storage of guns at home,” McJunkin said.

McJunkin pointed out that secure entryways for schools are required in code. But schools across the state struggle to comply with the mandate, an issue that lawmakers have followed during interim meetings this past fall.

As part of the new House committee procedure, the Monday meeting was merely a committee hearing and no action was taken on the bill. House Bill 2187 is not on the committee’s agenda for its next meeting Wednesday.

Senate Education

Monday the House of Delegates passed another school safety bill, House Bill 2515, which would give teachers from kindergarten to grade six the ability to remove students from their classroom for extreme disciplinary issues.

A very similar bill originated in the Senate last year, and Tuesday morning the Senate Education Committee discussed Senate Bill 199, their own version of that elementary level disciplinary bill.

Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, said the issue is worth so much attention because of the experiences shared by educators that have dealt with violent students.

“We’ve talked to teachers who have been stabbed, who have been beat up and bruised,” he said. “We’re really trying to address this issue, primarily with a lot of love to these students, because we understand these students are in a very difficult place, maybe difficult environment.”

He said the bill will not only help the students causing the issues, but their classmates and educators as well who are having their learning environment disrupted by outbursts.

Like its counterpart in the House, the bill calls for school counselors, social workers, and psychologists to conduct assessments for students exhibiting violent or threatening behavior. Students removed from their classroom would be placed on a behavioral plan for two weeks, with reevaluation and potential referral to a behavioral intervention program if progress is insufficient.

Senate Education Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, the bill’s sponsor, said she delayed introducing the bill several times to make sure it was the best version it could be.

“It could be better. Definitely funding could be better. Definitely having more behavioral interventionists would be great. We just don’t have those things right now,” Grady said. “This gives teachers, I think, something they can start with and something they can do to begin with, and then we can move towards a more perfect solution in the future.”

The bill was advanced to the full Senate with the recommendation it pass.

For Third Straight Year, A School Discipline Bill Moves On

Updated on Tuesday, March. 4, 2025 at 2:53 p.m.

A bill to address disciplinary issues in West Virginia schools passed the House of Delegates Monday.

House Bill 2515 passed 92 to four. All four delegates who voted against the bill were Democrats. It is the latest in a line of bills introduced in the legislature over the past three years to try and address the most extreme disciplinary issues in schools. Passed in 2023, House Bill 2890 originally allowed teachers at any level from Kindergarten to 12th grade to remove disruptive students, but ultimately was limited to grades seven and above.

HB 2515 is functionally identical to last year’s Senate Bill 614, which failed to pass the House on the final day of session. Requirements including suspension of unruly students, placement in alternative education and behavioral assessment mandates underwent substantial changes in the House Education Committee before arriving on the floor.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, voted no on the bill. He questioned House Education Committee Chair Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, about the bill’s waiver from statewide disciplinary policy.

“A school that receives Title 1 funding, is eligible for that, they can apply to get a waiver from this law?” Pushkin asked.

“If they have a successful program, yes,” Ellington replied.

Title I schools have high numbers or percentages of poor children and receive federal funds to help those students succeed. One of Pushkin’s concerns with HB 2515 has been the cost of the bill’s requirement that students be placed in alternative education programs. The education committee was told that only 13 such programs existed across all of West Virginia and more would need to be established to comply with the new law.

“If it’s a school like we have an elementary school in the district that I represent, the Title 1 school, they have behavioral interventionists there,” Pushkin said. “They would apply for it, but they’re not guaranteed to be granted that waiver, right? “

“Correct. They’re not guaranteed,” Ellington said. “But in the situation you’re talking about, most likely it would be.”

Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, questioned the constitutionality of the bill’s requirement that the State Board of Education adopt a statewide disciplinary policy. HB 2515 makes the proposed policy subject to approval by the legislature, but the state board of education has the power to create its own policy without oversight from the legislature.

A constitutional amendment to establish legislative authority over the board was rejected by voters during the 2022 general election.

“Wasn’t there a constitutional amendment that failed two years ago for us to be able to approve their policies that failed?” Young asked. “So in the Constitution we can’t approve their policies?”

“There was a constitutional amendment that failed two years ago,” Ellington replied. “I don’t know the specific words to it. I don’t recall that at the time.“

Ellington conceded that the state constitution allows the state Board of Education to function independently, but speculated that specific policy promulgated by the legislature could be subject to review.

The bill now heads to the Senate for further review.

**Editor’s Note: This story was updated to clarify that only four Democrats voted against HB 2515, and the vote was not along party lines as previously stated.

Hope Scholarship Continues To Grow

Over 19,000 participants are expected to enroll in the Hope Scholarship program for the 2025-26 school year, almost doubling the 11,000 that were approved this academic year.

Participation in the Hope Scholarship program is expected to double this fall.

Amy Willard, the assistant treasurer for the Hope Scholarship Program, presented a program update to a meeting of the Hope Scholarship Board of Directors on Thursday.

Willard reported that 10,805 Hope Scholarship applications were approved for the 2024-25 school year, with thousands more declined or deemed ineligible. That number is expected to nearly double next year.

“We are projecting that the participation in the program will be over a little over 19,000 participants for the 25-26 school year, based on the historical growth of the program over the past few years,” she said.

Willard also reported more than 60% of current scholarship recipients have at least started their applications to remain eligible for the program next year. As of Feb. 26, the Hope Scholarship has distributed close to $34 million for the current academic year.

Presentations to the legislature this year have indicated that Hope Scholarship costs could rise to as much as $100 million next year and $300 million by 2027 after current eligibility restrictions are lifted.

As is often the case, much of the meeting was spent discussing the consideration of qualified expense requests. The board rejected requests for approval to spend program funds on items such as paper shredders or ski rentals and lift passes. The board did create an exception for specialized seating for students with disabilities to be an allowable expense.

“We have received a very high volume of requests for such seating, but currently we have no mechanism to make an exception, since all furniture is currently disallowed under the program,” Willard said. “Requests are most commonly for our students with autism or ADHD who may need sensory or flexible type seating to help their child remain calm or focused. Most of the sensory seating requested to date has been below $100 in cost.”

It was recommended the board require medical documentation of a student’s disability if the cost for a chair was excessive.

“Depending on the severity of the student’s disability, if they needed a really high dollar specialized chair, some of those were thousands of dollars,” Willard said.

Thursday was also State Treasurer Larry Pack’s first meeting in his role as the chair of the board. He categorized himself as a strong advocate for educational freedom and said he was thrilled to vote for the program when serving in the state House of Delegates.

“I’m really excited to be able to oversee the program and work with you as we continue to try to roll out and grow this,” Pack said. “This program, it’s a really important part of our office, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that the parents have the resources they need to make the education choices they want for their children.”

Pack also announced he will be traveling the state to find out how the Hope Scholarship has helped parents and students around the state.