Title I Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

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.

Federal Funding Freeze Creates Uncertainty, Concern For Local Educators

It is unclear what local programs will be impacted by the federal funding freeze.

A federal funding freeze has left many scrambling for answers.

The freeze was first outlined in one of President Donald Trump’s inauguration day executive orders. But a White House memorandum released Monday orders federal agencies to temporarily halt “all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” starting at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28.

West Virginia received more than $7 billion in federal funds for fiscal year 2021, the most recent year data is available. According to analysis by the data nonprofit USAFacts, almost 9% of that money – more than $600 million – went to the state’s schools and other educational programs.

Kristie Skidmore, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV), said it is unclear how the payment stop will impact workers paid through federal programs ranging from Title I to Head Start.

“I’ve had teachers contacting me today that are paid through federal programs saying ‘How’s this affect me?’ and I just can’t answer their questions,” Skidmore said. “There are still a lot of unknowns, but what we do know is that it is creating some panic, some confusion and chaos in the lives of our working families.”

Initial analysis indicates that programs like Title I, which distributes its funds months ahead of school semesters, would not be immediately affected by the freeze, but Skidmore said the fate of the federally funded school meal programs like the National Free Lunch Program are also unclear at this time.

“We also know that our students are fed with federal funds in our schools, so that’s a concern at this time as well,” she said.

Title I aims to close educational achievement gaps by allocating federal funds to schools with a high percentage of low-income students. More than half of West Virginia schools qualified for Title I funding in the 2021-22 school year, and the state received more than $60 million from the program.

The Head Start program, which provides early education and comprehensive services to children and families in greatest need, provided more than $80 million to West Virginia in fiscal year 2024.

Federal agencies that provide Federal financial assistance now have until Feb. 7 to complete a spreadsheet asking questions such as:

Does this program provide Federal funding to nongovernmental organizations supporting or providing services, either directly or indirectly, to removable or illegal aliens?
Does this program promote gender ideology?
Does this program promote or support in any way abortion or other related activities identified in the Hyde Amendment?
Does this program support any activities that must not be supported based on executive orders issued on or after January 20, 2025 (including executive orders released following the dissemination of this spreadsheet)?

House Education Committee Hears Report On School Funding

The West Virginia Department of Education, reviewed the Public School Support Program (PSSP) during a House Education Committee meeting this week.

Federal school aid funding was up for review in the House Committee on Education this week.

Samuel Pauley, school operations officer for the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), talked about the Public School Support Program (PSSP), or state school aid funding formula.

PSSP is a plan of financial support for the public schools in the State of West Virginia. It covers the state’s responsibilities as well as that of the 55 county school districts.

Pauley provided an overview of the funding formula allowance, including calculations used for areas of funding for school personnel, transportation and fixed costs.

He explained that local governments provide a local share of funding which is calculated based on the regular levy or tax base of each school system.

Annually, the WVDE receives information from assessors across the state in each county that enables them to calculate how much is borne by local tax dollars in those counties.

The rest is net state aid to schools – the amount appropriated to school districts by the West Virginia Legislature. It is based on student population and densities of counties.

The student census for school aid funding is conducted each year by Oct 1. Any student entering a school after that date is not eligible for state aid funding.

Del. Michael Hornby, R-Berkeley, asked about future projections for student counts.

“Are you able to be proactive with the growth counties?” Hornby asked. “Because it seems if you’re doing a calculation, Oct. 1, and a county is growing 15 percent, or declining 15 percent – are you able to project out or do any kind of calculation with those school aid formulas based on previous growth?”

Pauley responded that the only projection his department has authority over in the statute is their increased enrollment funding calculation.

“Essentially, it looks at each individual school district and what their enrollment was the previous year,” Pauley said. “So we have a state policy that governs how we estimate increased enrollment, because we don’t really know what their enrollments are going to do until after the budget bill’s passed and the new school year has already started.”

Melanie Perky, federal programs officer for the West Virginia Department of Education updated the committee with a report on federal programs including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, National School Lunch Program and one time COVID-19 relief funding.

Perky talked about strict auditing and financial procurement requirements or accountability systems schools must meet when using federal dollars.

“Many of these programs have tests built in that counties and states have to verify that they are maintaining the state base level – that we’re using the federal funding to meet the requirements of this and the responsibilities of the state,” Perky said.

Asked by the committee chair if there was a cap on federal funding, Laura Pauley, director of the office of federal programs for the West Virginia Department of Education explained that it depends on how Congress appropriates money.

“Unfortunately, most of our funding is due to poverty,” she said. “So we do get, you know, a decent share considering our size and our population. I believe we’re one of only a handful of states to where every district in our state qualifies for Title I.”