WVCEA Legislative Update 3-15-2026
12:01 AM The 2026 Regular West Virginia Legislative Session is Complete
These Legislative Updates are compiled by Mike Wilson, Legislative Liaison, West Virginia Christian Education Association.
The 2026 legislative regular session is complete. Bills originating in the House of Delegates are designated by the prefix HB, Senate bills by SB. During the course of the session, the House introduced 1,694 bills and 1,084 have been introduced in the Senate for a total of 2,778 bills. The 2026 Regular Legislative Session ended at midnight, Saturday, March 14.
As many of you already know, the big legislative crisis was dealing with limitations on the HOPE Scholarship.
Thanks to many of you, we were able to defeat the measures that would have been damaging to many of our families.
Another piece of legislation that we were not successful with would have set up the mechanism to distribute funds through the tax credits that were a part of President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that allows businesses and individuals to designate up to $1,700 of their federal tax dollars to go toward school choice scholarships. Delegate Burkhammer introduced a bill in the House and Senator Rucker introduced a similar bill in the Senate. The differences in the bills were the Burkhammer bill ordered the State Treasurer’s office to set up the program and was the preferred version of the WVCEA, while Senator Rucker’s bill designated the Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Authority to organize the distribution mechanism. Senator Rucker’s bill passed the Senate but died in House Education. Delegate Burkhammer’s bill passed the House but when it reached the Senate School Choice Committee, it was amended in committee to basically the original bill that failed in the House. The committee substitute passed the Senate. Upon arrival in the House, they voted not to accept the Senate version and the clock ran out on it Saturday night.
I believe this bill would have been successful had there been better communication and compromise with school choice stakeholders and the Legislature. We will now have to investigate the possibility of executive action to set up the scholarship distributions.
A brief synopsis of bills that made it to the end of the session is below:
Christian Education Bills:
HB 5686 (House Finance Committee) – HOPE Scholarship Bill. The original bill would have included, freezing the scholarship amount, restrict extra-curricular expenditures, limited technology purchases, and banned out of state payments among other items. After several days of pulling the bill off the Finance Committee agenda, a revised version of the bill was brought up for mark-up and discussion in committee on 2/26/26. The only change from the original HOPE legislation is the payout schedule, changing HOPE payments from bi-annually to quarterly. This allows Hope payments to be spread out over the fiscal year and as a result helps WVCEA schools’ cash flow. Passed the House, 91-1, 3/4/26. Passed the Senate, 34-0, 3/10/26. Legislation Complete.
HB 4425 (Gearheart) - The purpose of this bill is to repeal the section of code allowing for the athletic eligibility of transfer students. Passed the House, 78-19, 3/3/26. Passed the Senate, 20-14, 3/13/26. Passed to the Governor for signature.
HB 4588 (Burkhammer) – The purpose of this bill is to require the State Treasurer to participate in the federal tax credit scholarship program; and to identify qualified scholarship organizations and schools. *See explanation above.
HB 4798 (Pinson) - The purpose of this bill is to implement a wearable panic alert system, to be known as Alyssa's law, in all schools in the state. Passed the House, 96-0 on 2/25/26. Passed the Senate, 34-0, 3/9/26. Sent to Governor. *This bill permits all schools to wear the panic button. The original bill was amended so it seems that it applies to public schools. In addition, funds will be raised privately and put into a state account to pay the expenses of the program.
SB 644 (Rucker) - The purpose of this bill is to require the State Treasurer to participate in the federal tax credit scholarship program; and to identify qualified scholarship organizations and schools. Passed the Senate, 32-0, 3/2/26. Referred to House Education Committee. *Similar to HB 4588. WVCEA supports this legislation. Died in House Education Committee. See explanation above.
SB 890 (Roberts) - The purpose of this bill is to change the minimum public school 180 instructional day requirement into a minimum 900 instructional hour requirement; change the minimum public school employment term from 200 days to 1,600 hours; convert other public school calendar provisions from days or months to hours; increase the time to be designated by the county board to be used by the employees for preparation for opening school; and allow nonpublic schools to deliver instruction through alternative methods that count toward up to 25 hours of instructional time when schools are closed due to inclement weather or other unforeseen circumstance. Passed the Senate, 23-5, 2/21/26. Passed the House, 90-2, 3/12/26 with amendments. Amendments were concurred on. *Applies to public schools. Legislation Complete
SB 1020 (Oliverio) – The purpose of this bill is to include up to five educational leave days within the definition of excuses absence for school attendance purposes. Passed the Senate, 34-0, 2/26/26. Ordered to the House, referred to House Education Committee. *Died in House Education.
Other Conservative Christian Issues:
HB 4412 (Chirarelli) - The purpose of this bill is to create liability for publishers and distributors of sexual material harmful to minors, to provide definitions, to create a cause of action, and to provide for the administration, applicability, exceptions, and penalties for violation of the article. Passed the House, 94-0, 2/12/26. Passed the Senate, 34-0, 3/10/26 with title amendment. Legislation Complete.
SB 173 (Rose) – Prohibiting abortifacients. Passed the Senate 31-1 on 2/13/26. Referred to the House Judiciary Committee. *Died in House Judiciary.
SB 804 (Grady) - The purpose of this bill is to provide that students participating in good standing in an extracurricular sport are not required to comply with the statutory middle school and high school physical education requirements. *Similar to HB 4593 (Hornby). Passed the Senate, 33-0, communicated to the House, 2/16/26. On House Education Committee agenda, 3/6/26. *Died in House Education.
SB 805 (Helton) - The purpose of this bill is to add the abortion pill reversal as covered expense. Passed the Senate, 31-1, 3/4/26. Ordered to the House. Passed through House Health and Human Resources Committee. *Died in House Finance.
SB 1026 (Willis) – Increasing criminal penalties and fines for disturbing religious worship. Passed the Senate, 34-0, 3/3/26. Passed the House, 97-0 with amendments, 3/11/26. Legislation Complete
Mike Wilson
Mr. Mike Wilson, the WVCEA Legislative Liason, has a rich educational, governmental, and experiential background that he brings to his role with WVCEA. Mike monitors legislation in Charleston and works to preserve freedoms for our Christian schools, churches, and families
