Lawmakers Tackle FAFSA, School Discipline And More Education Topics At August Interims

Fall classes are well under way across the state. But state lawmakers meeting at the Capitol in Charleston over the weekend learned about lingering issues with a federal form from last year.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA, unlocks both federal and state financial aid for students. An update to the form released late last year has been plagued with issues that continue to this day.

Sarah Armstrong Tucker, Chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC), told the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability (LOCEA) Sunday that paper FAFSAs are still being processed. She also warned the U.S. Department of Education has already announced the release of the form will be delayed again this year for next year’s students.

“Typically, the FAFSA is ready October 1,” Tucker said. “The department has come out and said that it will not be ready October 1. They are shooting for December 1.”

Tucker said she’s also concerned the change of administration after the November election will cause further delays.

“One of the things that happened with this FAFSA rollout was that nobody was paying enough attention to the vendor who was trying to build this form,” she said. “So as people are starting to leave now, and may not get higher leadership until January, February, what happens to the FAFSA? Who’s minding the shop to make sure that it actually comes out December 1? I have a lot of concerns about that, and I’ve asked a lot of questions about that. I’m not getting great answers about those questions.“

In late April, Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in higher education, opening a path for the state to circumvent its own FAFSA completion requirement for state education awards. During a special session in May, the West Virginia Legislature formally extended the state of emergency to October via Senate Concurrent Resolution 102.

Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, asked Tucker about the $83 million loan package the legislature approved during the May special session to backfill federal monies delayed by issues with FAFSA. That package included some $32 million for colleges and institutions to help with some of their operation costs. 

“The institutional dollars that were to help offset some other costs, that has all been deployed,” Tucker said. “The institutions have that money, and they’re using it okay in the way that it was intended.”

Tucker also said students are using the other portion of the package, $40 million, to supplement their financial aid awards.  

“As far as emergency grants are concerned, most are helping students meet whatever that sort of gap is between what their state aid is, their federal funding is, and what their tuition and fees are,” she said.

Health Policy Changes

Hank Hager, counsel to the Senate Education Committee, told LOCEA about the proposed replacement and repeal of West Virginia Board of Education (WVBOE) Policy 2423 – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. 

The changes would remove several existing health requirements including health  and oral health checks for students in grades two, seven and 12. Requirements for those entering pre kindergarten or kindergarten are maintained. Similarly, a requirement that all students to receive a Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis) vaccine before grade 12 is also removed for students who have completed the primary DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis) series. 

The policy is open for public comment until Sept. 16.

In response to questioning from Sen. Rolland Roberts, R-Raleigh, state deputy superintendent Sonia White said the policy change was largely cleanup.

“This policy had not been touched since 2015, and since 2015 we’ve had a global pandemic and some other things, changes in state code,” White said. “So we just cleaned up the policy and added new pieces of code that had been put in there, cleaned up the language so that if, say, federal code changes, it’ll refer back to the most current federal code, and we wouldn’t have to open the policy over and over again.”

School Discipline Data

State lawmakers also got a chance Sunday to see the direct impact of their work on the issue of school discipline. Passed in 2023, House Bill 2890 allows a teacher to remove a disruptive student to a different environment to protect the integrity of the class for the duration of that class period.

Jeff Kelly, assistant superintendent of accountability programs for the Department of Education presented LOCEA with disciplinary data for the 2023-2024 school year, the law’s first year of implementation. 

“Per that code, which reads, ‘Students who are removed from the classroom three times in one month are required to be suspended,’ that number was 204,” Kelly said.

HB 2890 suspensions represent a fraction of the more than 29,000 students that were suspended more than 35,000 times across the state in the 2023-24 school year.

Kelly also pointed out that kids who have no discipline referrals represent about 80 percent to 82 percent of the student population.

More in-depth analysis of the data is expected to be presented at the upcoming WVBOE meeting Sept. 11.

“You’re talking about 60,000-plus pages of discipline data,” Kelly said. “Trying to get that down to a level where we can give you guys something to work with is kind of a hard place to get. We spent a lot of time talking about that very thing.”