Senate 1080

WEST virginia legislature

2026 regular session

Originating

Senate Bill 1080

By Senators Grady, Clements, Azinger, Bartlett, Deeds, Guller, Garcia, Hart, Oliverio, Roberts, Tarr, and Taylor

[Originating in the Committee on Education; reported February 24, 2026]

A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9A-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-9A-13, relating to requiring the amount of any reduction in state aid from the previous fiscal year to be appropriated to the West Virginia Department of Education for the support of the 10 lowest enrollment county school districts that have a maximum excess levy in effect and extremely remote schools in a county school district with a maximum excess levy in effect; providing for proportional distribution based on the number of certain grades kindergarten through five students; requiring a student be counted twice for the purposes of calculating the amounts of the distributions in certain instance; and defining terms.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.

§18-9A-2. Definitions.

For the purpose of this article:

(a) "State board" means the West Virginia Board of Education.

(b) "County board" or "board" means a county board of education.

(c) "Professional salaries" means the state legally mandated salaries of the professional educators as provided in §18A-4-1 et seq. of this code.

(d) "Professional educator" shall be synonymous with and shall have the same meaning as "teacher" as defined in §18-1-1 of this code and includes technology integration specialists.

(e) "Professional instructional personnel" means a professional educator whose regular duty is as that of a classroom teacher, librarian, attendance director, or school psychologist. A professional educator having both instructional and administrative or other duties shall be included as professional instructional personnel for that ratio of the school day for which he or she is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis in appropriate instruction, library, attendance, or psychologist duties.

(f) "Professional student support personnel" means a "teacher" as defined in §18-1-1 of this code who is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis as a counselor or as a school nurse with a bachelor’s degree and who is licensed by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses. Professional student support personnel shall also include professional personnel providing direct social and emotional support services to students, as well as professional personnel addressing chronic absenteeism. For all purposes except for the determination of the allowance for professional educators pursuant to §18-9A-4 of this code, professional student support personnel are professional educators.

(g) "Service personnel salaries" means the state legally mandated salaries for service personnel as provided in §18A-4-8a of this code.

(h) "Service personnel" means all personnel as provided in §18A-4-8 of this code. For the purpose of computations under this article of ratios of service personnel to net enrollment, a service employee shall be counted as that number found by dividing his or her number of employment days in a fiscal year by 200: Provided, That the computation for any service person employed for three and one-half hours or fewer per day as provided in §18A-4-8a of this code shall be calculated as one-half an employment day.

(i) "Net enrollment" means the number of pupils enrolled in special education programs, kindergarten programs, and grades one to 12, inclusive, of the public schools of the county. Net enrollment further shall include:

(1) Adults enrolled in vocational programs: Provided, That  net enrollment includes no more than 2,500 of those adults counted on the basis of full-time equivalency and apportioned annually to each county to support Advanced Career Education programs, as provided in §18-2E-11 of this code, in proportion to the adults participating in vocational programs counted on the basis of full-time equivalency: Provided further, That beginning with the 2021 fiscal year and every year thereafter, a career technical education center may only receive the funding for enrollment as authorized by this paragraph if the center has satisfied the requirements of §18-2E-11 of this code;

 (2) Students enrolled in early childhood education programs as provided in §18-5-44 of this code, counted on the basis of full-time equivalency;

(3) A pupil may not be counted more than once by reason of transfer within the county or from another county within the state, and a pupil may not be counted who attends school in this state from another state;

(4) The enrollment shall be modified to the equivalent of the instructional term and in accordance with the eligibility requirements and rules established by the state board; and

(5) For the purposes of determining the county's basic foundation program only, for any county whose net enrollment as determined under all other provisions of this definition is less than 1,400, the net enrollment of the county shall be increased by an amount to be determined in accordance with the following:

(A) Divide the state's lowest county student population density by the county's actual student population density;

(B) Multiply the amount derived from the calculation in §18-9A-2(i)(5)(A) of this code by the difference between 1,400 and the county's actual net enrollment;

(C) Add the amount derived from the calculation in paragraph (B) of this subdivision to the county's actual net enrollment and increase that total amount by 10 percent; and

(D) If the net enrollment as determined under this subdivision is greater than 1,400, the calculated net enrollment shall be reduced to 1,400; and

(E) During the 2008-2009 interim period and every three interim periods thereafter, the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability shall review this subdivision to determine whether these provisions properly address the needs of counties with low enrollment and a sparse population density.

(j) "Sparse-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to §18-9A-2(i)(5) of this code, of the definition of "net enrollment", to the square miles of the county is less than five.

(k) "Low-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to §18-9A-2(i)(5) of this code, of the definition of "net enrollment", to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than five but less than 10.

(l) "Medium-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to §18-9A-2(i)(5) of this code, of the definition of "net enrollment", to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than 10 but less than 20.

(m) "High-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to §18-9A-2(i)(5) of this code, of the definition of "net enrollment", to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than 20.

(n) "Levies for general current expense purposes" means 85 percent of the levy rate for county boards of education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to §11-8-6f of this code.

 (o) "Technology integration specialist" means a professional educator who has expertise in the technology field and is assigned as a resource teacher to provide information and guidance to classroom teachers on the integration of technology into the curriculum.

(p) "State aid eligible personnel" means all professional educators and service personnel employed by a county board in positions that are eligible to be funded under this article and whose salaries are not funded by a specific funding source such as a federal or state grant, donation, contribution, or other specific funding source not listed.

(q) "Extremely remote school" is a school that meets all of the following criteria, as determined by the State Superintendent:

(A) Located 20 miles or more, measured by the most reasonable route, from an existing public school, public charter school, and private school, established prior to 2024; and

(B) Serves a minimum of 20 students.

(r) "Reasonable route" means the roadway or combination of roadways that a school bus would ordinarily and safely travel from the location of an extreme remote school and the nearest public school.

(1) A reasonable route shall include roadways that provide a minimum of two travel lanes, each having a minimum paved width of 10 feet, or otherwise meet or exceed applicable state or federal roadway standards for school bus operation.

(2) A roadway that is less than two travel lanes, each having a minimum paved width of 10 feet, unimproved, or otherwise unsuitable for the safe and regular passage of a standard school bus may not be considered a reasonable route, regardless of whether such roadway would result in a shorter distance or reduced travel time.

(q) (s) The amendments to this section during the 2019 2026 First Extraordinary Session of the Legislature shall be effective for the 2019-2020 2026-2027 funding year, and the provisions of this section existing immediately prior to the 2019 2026 First Extraordinary Session of the Legislature remain in effect for funding years prior to the 2019-2020 2026-2027 funding year.

§18-9A-13. Support for certain low enrollment counties and extremely remote schools.

(a) The amount of any reduction in state aid from the previous fiscal year shall be appropriated to the West Virginia Department of Education for the support of the 10 lowest enrollment county school districts that have a maximum excess levy in effect and extremely remote schools, as those schools are defined in §18-9A-2, in a county school district with a maximum excess levy in effect. No county school district may receive funding pursuant to this section unless it has a maximum excess levy in effect.

(b) The West Virginia Department of Education shall distribute the appropriation to the 10 lowest enrollment county school districts that have a maximum excess levy in effect and to those county school districts with an extremely remote school and that have a maximum excess levy in effect. The distribution shall be made proportional based on the number of grades kindergarten through five students in the 10 lowest enrollment county school districts that have a maximum excess levy in effect and the number of grades kindergarten through five students in extremely remote schools located in a county school district with a maximum excess levy in effect so that the per student allocation to the county school districts of the appropriated amount is equal: Provided, That if a grades kindergarten through five student is enrolled in one of the 10 lowest enrollment county school districts that has a maximum excess levy in effect and in an extremely remote school, that student shall count twice for the purposes of calculating the amounts of the distributions to the county school districts.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the amount of any reduction in state aid from the previous fiscal year to be appropriated to the West Virginia Department of Education for the support of the 10 lowest enrollment county school districts that have a maximum excess levy in effect and extremely remote schools in a county school district with a maximum excess levy in effect.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.