As the West Virginia Legislature approaches the final hours of its 2025 session, the Senate has been busy passing important legislation, with a strong focus on education oversight and child welfare. One of the most debated measures passed was House Bill 2755, which allows the West Virginia Board of Education to propose rules or policies that must be reviewed and approved by the Legislature.
This bill passed narrowly in the Senate with a 19-15 vote and now heads back to the House for agreement on Senate changes. Notably, HB 2755 was amended to include the provisions of Senate Bill 705.
These changes require all rules passed by the Board of Education to first be authorized by the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability before advancing to the full Legislature for possible approval, amendment, or rejection.
Supporters say this step strengthens legislative oversight as intended by the state Constitution. “This is good legislation that ensures accountability under the Legislature’s primacy of authority provided by the West Virginia Constitution,” said Senator Tom Willis, R-Berkeley, Vice Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
However, not everyone agreed with this approach. Senate Minority Leader Michael Woelfel, D-Cabell, pushed back against the bill’s direction, citing its resemblance to Amendment 4, which voters rejected in 2022.
That amendment sought to clarify that education policymaking and rulemaking would be subject to legislative review. “The voters rejected the direction this bill takes us. They did so fairly recently,” Woelfel said. “It will be challenged, and I just feel like this is an overreach where it’s not needed.”
In addition to education oversight, the Senate also passed House Bill 2880, a child welfare bill that includes the creation of a parent resource coordinator. The bill was approved with a 33-1 vote after a major amendment was added by the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee.
This amendment incorporated the contents of Senate Bill 817, which had stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee despite national attention from celebrity advocate Paris Hilton, who endured abuse at a similar facility as a youth.
These provisions impose strict requirements on residential and therapeutic programs for troubled youth, including annual licensing, thorough background checks for staff, and bans on the use of physical violence or threats. It also mandates private, unsupervised phone calls between children and their parents, aiming to safeguard youth rights and wellbeing.
“This is a comprehensive child welfare bill,” said Committee Chairwoman Laura Wakim Chapman, R-Ohio. “We have a duty to our children in West Virginia to ensure their safety and … we’re failing them. This bill is common sense.”
However, Chapman’s handling of the amendment drew criticism from Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, who said it was not clearly communicated that the language of SB 817 was being moved into HB 2880. “It would be more helpful in the future if that could be stated first,” Oliverio noted. Chapman acknowledged that the provisions were indeed from SB 817 and had been integrated into HB 2880.
Meanwhile, attempts to weaken West Virginia’s school immunization laws were unsuccessful. Several proposed amendments to different bills, including House Bill 2402 and House Bill 2776, aimed at limiting immunization requirements or allowing religious exemptions, were either withdrawn or failed to gain support.
HB 2402, which allows parents or guardians access to a child’s medical records, passed the Senate 32-2. However, an amendment that would have prohibited schools or other entities from requesting immunization records was pulled. Chapman had introduced a similar amendment but also withdrew it.
A separate effort to insert religious exemptions into HB 2776 was also dropped. That bill, which requires reporting of alpha-gal syndrome cases (a tick-borne allergy) to the CDC, passed the Senate in a 32-0 vote.
A broader religious exemption bill, Senate Bill 460, which would have allowed parents to opt out of school vaccines with a notarized statement, had already failed in the House weeks earlier. Lawmakers cited constitutional concerns about combining unrelated provisions in a single bill, which would violate Article VI, Section 30, of the state Constitution.
With the clock ticking toward the session’s end at midnight Saturday, the Senate had passed 21 House bills by Thursday evening, with another 35 still under consideration. The legislative flurry reflects both consensus on urgent child welfare reforms and continued division on the issue of education authority and public health policy.
