The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy (WVCBP) is excited to announce the release of the 2024 KIDS COUNT® Data Book for West Virginia. KIDS COUNT in West Virginia is a joint effort by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the WVCBP which provides an annual snapshot of the well-being of West Virginia children statewide and on a county-by-county basis via the publication of annual data books. This data helps to inform policymakers, advocates, and the general public about the current strengths and needs of West Virginia kids and helps provide a path forward for policy change to improve the lives of all children in the Mountain State.
You can read the full 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book to find data on all West Virginia counties or visit the WVCBP’s KIDS COUNT: County-level Fact Sheets page to find individualized fact sheets for each of the Mountain State’s 55 counties.
West Virginia as a whole ranked 44th in overall child well-being when compared with all other states in the 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book.
West Virginia’s 55 counties vary widely in measurements of child well-being. In addition to demographics, income, and poverty data, the individual county fact sheets include data under four key categories: education, health, economic, and family and community. Statewide data is also provided for comparison.
The county-level data presented here reinforce the importance of policy decisions on the well-being of West Virginia’s children. While state and federal policymakers have prioritized child and family health during and following the pandemic, policies that would increase economic stability and improve educational outcomes have not been adequately addressed. West Virginia policymakers must recognize the inherent link between poverty and overall well-being to truly address the needs of the state’s children and families.
Access the full 2024 KIDS COUNT Data Book.
Visit the WVCBP’s KIDS COUNT: County-level Fact Sheets page.
For additional data related to children, youth, and families in West Virginia, visit the KIDS COUNT Data Center.
Beginning July 1, 2024, many displaced workers in West Virginia became subject to more onerous bureaucratic red tape as a condition of retaining their earned unemployment benefits. As part of the much-discussed and hastily drafted SB 841, which dramatically overhauled the state’s unemployment insurance system in the waning days of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers quadrupled the number of work search activities a West Virginian on unemployment insurance must conduct every week–regardless of whether suitable jobs are readily available where they live. As of 2022, only seven states have statutory requirements as strict as the ones West Virginia adopted for work search, despite no research or evidence showing that these additional bureaucratic requirements result in higher employment or wages.
Further, serious questions remain as to how unemployed workers without access to reliable internet or transportation will be able to prove on a weekly basis that they are complying with these new requirements.
Research in neighboring Maryland found that eliminating a specific amount of required work search activities led to workers’ post-unemployment insurance wages increasing, suggesting that reducing bureaucratic red tape allows displaced workers increased time and opportunity to find a higher paying job that better suits their skills. This finding aligns with other research about the generosity of unemployment insurance benefits strengthening individual economic security and the broader state economy.
No available research has indicated that stringent work search requirements offer any employment or wage benefits. Stricter work search requirements simply lead to fewer displaced workers receiving unemployment insurance benefits. In fact, in the 10 states with the most stringent work search requirements, unemployment claims are denied at more than twice the national rate–often not because workers are ineligible for unemployment insurance, but rather because they cannot jump through the bureaucratic hoops of repeatedly proving their work search activities.
Requirements Fall Heavily on Smaller Counties
Like many other proposals that take a one-size-fits-all approach to policy, the new work search requirements implemented as part of SB 841 do not account for the number of jobs available within a given county. Displaced workers in all 55 counties must conduct at least four job search activities per week, but according to data obtained via FOIA from WorkForce West Virginia, as of July 30, over half of the jobs available through Workforce were in a single county: Kanawha.
Thirteen West Virginia counties had less than 10 jobs listed through WorkForce West Virginia, and only 14 counties had more than 100 jobs listed through the agency. This disparity across regions highlights the unfairness unemployed workers face in smaller and more rural parts of the state.
Requirements Fail to Consider the Reality of Job Search
Claimants must complete and document four work search activities per week throughout their entire unemployment claim. Word search activities can include registering for work, taking civil service examinations, and engaging in reemployment services such as skills assessments and workshops. However, many workers front-load their job search activities in the early weeks of their unemployment rather than repeating these activities weekly until they find a job. This reality, in conjunction with the low number of available jobs in many counties, can make it difficult for workers to find and complete four new job search activities week after week, particularly in more restricted labor markets.
Requirements Increase Hardship in Counties with Sudden Job Losses
Earlier this year, Allegheny Wood Products, one of the largest wood product producers in the world, announced (without warning) they were shuttering their doors. The announcement left 600 non-union workers unemployed immediately with an estimated additional 250 contractors to be impacted. The sudden closure is a prime example as to why unemployment benefits should be easy to obtain and hold onto and why enhanced work search requirements are unfair to smaller, more rural counties.
Compliance With Requirements Relies Heavily on Access to Broadband and Transportation
In addition to completing work search activities, claimants are also instructed to document and retain proof of each activity each week to provide to WorkForce West Virginia “upon request.” They are recommended to upload proof of work search activities during each certification.
While claimants may bring proof of their work search activities to local WorkForce West Virginia locations, physical offices are heavily concentrated in the state’s population centers. This leaves unemployed workers without access to public or personal transportation in a difficult position to comply by providing documentation in person. Even with access to a vehicle, the amount of time it would take to travel to and from a regional WorkForce West Virginia office would be costly for many and better spent traveling to and from interviews with potential employers.
While there are online options to demonstrate compliance, it should be noted that West Virginia has some of the worst internet connectivity issues in the country, particularly in rural areas. These barriers to compliance regarding the new work search requirements will undoubtedly lead to struggling workers being kicked off their earned unemployment benefits.
Losing a job is nothing short of a crisis for workers and their families. Unemployment insurance is a critical bridge that ensures workers have a measure of stability until they find new work or the economic conditions that led to their joblessness improve. When lawmakers enact needless hurdles such as enhanced work search activities and overly bureaucratic compliance measures, they put families and communities at genuine risk for dire consequences.
Read Seth’s full blog post.
In 2021, the West Virginia Legislature established the Hope Scholarship Program. West Virginia is one of many states offering school voucher programs, which divert public funds from public schools to private schools and other educational service providers. Extensive research supports that voucher programs have harmful impacts on funding for public education, but provides little evidence that these programs lead to improvements in student achievement and success. A recent article provides further details on the consequences of the Hope Scholarship for West Virginia public schools. Excerpt below:
The state school board last Wednesday approved another round of school closures in West Virginia after county superintendents repeated a similar problem: student enrollment is rapidly declining and causing financial distress.
Seven schools throughout Clay, Preston, Wetzel and Wood County will close in the next few years. Impacted students will be moved into already-existing schools.
“Most towns die after a closure of a high school,” said Charles Goff, mayor of the town of Hundred in Wetzel County. He spoke to board members in Charleston ahead of the vote. “[Towns] lose incorporated status, lose elected officials in town, and it leads to fire departments closing and town charters being revoked. That includes losing EMS. We are an hour away from the hospital, and fire and EMS are crucial in our community.”
There has been a wave of proposed school closures this year as counties are faced with budget holes spurred by student population loss. West Virginia’s overall population is declining. Roughy 4,000 students left public schools this year; some of those students left to attend private and charter schools or to be homeschooled.
Under the current school funding formula, counties receive state funding based on the number of students.
Fifty-three schools have closed in the previous five years, and counties this year have proposed or been approved to close 25 schools. In November, the state school board voted to close or consolidate six schools in Kanawha County as the district has lost thousands of students over the last few years.
More than 10,000 students statewide opted this year to use the Hope Scholarship, the state’s broad education savings account program that gives roughly $4,400 per student in taxpayer money to families to use for private school, homeschooling and more.
Wood County has more than 300 students using the Hope Scholarship this year, which meant the district didn’t get $1 million in state funding because those children were no longer counted in the enrollment-based formula. In Clay County, dozens of students are using the scholarship, equating to $157,000 in state funding no longer available to the county.
Several members of the West Virginia Board of Education have called the GOP-heavy Legislature to revise the state’s school funding formula. Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said he plans to expand school choice in the state, where the vast majority of students in the poor state attend public schools.
“The state needs to revise the funding formula for these schools. It hasn’t been done for years and years,” said state school board Vice President Victor Gabriel. “We just don’t have the people and money, and it’s getting worse. Every time we lose students we lose dollars.”
Counties are required to keep balanced budgets.
“We’re a poor county, so we have to live within the state aid formula. We reduced our personnel by about 10% last year, 26 [people]. That includes positions that were paid for by COVID dollars,” Clay County Superintendent Philip Dobbins told board members.
The board voted to close Clay County Middle School, the county’s only middle school, due to declining student population and the age of the building. Sixth grade students will attend the elementary schools; seventh and eighth grade students will attend Clay High School. It will take effect at the end of the 2026-27 school year.
The county has less than 8,000 people, down from 10,000 a few years ago, and there has been a 31% decline in students since 2016.
Superintendents say school closures necessary for finances
Like Dobbins, superintendents from Preston, Wetzel and Wood said funding woes were the driving reason for the closures. Some of the schools that will close need millions of dollars in repairs that don’t make sense for older buildings.
Wetzel County Superintendent Cassie Porter said the closures of Hundred High School and Paden City High School were necessary as the county’s population continued to decline. The district has lost 800 students.
She said her district couldn’t offer the rigorous courses needed at all the high schools in its current situation.
“Our test scores rank very, very low. We need to pull our resources together, in our opinion,” Porter said.
Several parents, students and community members attended the meeting to voice opposition to the closures.
The board voted to consolidate Hundred High School into Valley High School. Paden City High School, which already faced a possible temporary closure due to environmental concerns, will be consolidated into Magnolia High School.
In Preston County, schools Superintendent Brad Martin said Fellowsville Elementary School in Tunnelton has seen a 50.8% decrease in student enrollment over the last 10 years. There are 59 students enrolled in the school this year. The school needs $2 million dollars in repairs; Martin said that closing it would save around $684,000.
County-wide enrollment is down with a decline in local coal mining jobs, Martin said, spurring a drop in state funding for schools. County residents opted not to approve two different excess levies that could have provided extra money.
“Based on this year, the district will be required to eliminate 12 professional positions and 16 service positions. We made substantial cuts in positions last year,” Martin said.
Fellowsville will be consolidated into South Preston School at the end of this school year.
The board also approved consolidating Rowlesburg School, an elementary school also in Preston County, into Aurora School at the end of this school year due to a drop in students and the price tag of building maintenance.
Fairplains Elementary School in Wood County will be closed and merged into Martin Elementary School at the end of the 2024-2025 school year.
Read the full article.
West Virginia lawmakers have considered sweeping, punitive school discipline measures over the last two years in response to an increase in disruptive student behaviors. This issue is not unique to West Virginia—87 percent of public schools nationwide report that the pandemic has negatively impacted student socioemotional development. An excerpt from this West Virginia Watch article offering details from a recent legislative meeting focused on addressing disruptive student behaviors is provided below. While teachers and schools certainly need more support to address student behavioral issues, policymakers must recognize the harms in failing to address the root causes of these behavioral issues as well as the disproportionate rate at which punishment policies fall on students of color, as detailed in the WVCBP’s recent fact sheet.
The Republican-led Legislature is trying to figure out how to help teachers deal with worsening elementary student behaviors that are crippling teaching time.
“I’m not really sure what the answer is,” said Tina Wallen, a principal in Raleigh County Schools. “I don’t feel like sending these kids home is the best answer because that’s kind of where these things are allowed to take place most of the time. We do everything we can to try to help them.”
West Virginia classrooms often include children who have experienced trauma stemming from the state’s high rate of childhood poverty, thousands of kids in foster care and children living with grandparents. There aren’t enough resources in and outside of schools to help them.
Lawmakers earlier this year considered legislation, crafted by a senator who is a teacher, that would have given elementary teachers greater authority to remove students for disruptive, aggressive or violent behaviors. It outlined steps for how schools should deal with students who needed to be removed from their classrooms.
The measure died on the final night of session in March as the Senate and House were bickering over other bills.
Lawmakers want to tackle a complex problem
Senate Education Committee Chair Amy Grady, a fourth grade teacher, stressed that a school discipline bill needed to be a priority for lawmakers during the next regular session in February 2025.
This year’s school discipline bill, crafted by Grady, faced criticism from Democrats and school employees who said it could result in children in need of serious mental health support being disproportionately removed from their classrooms. It didn’t come with funding for behavior support programs; Grady had suggested that counties use opioid settlement funds to pay for it.
Only 13 of the state’s 55 counties had an elementary alternative discipline program last school year, according to the West Virginia Department of Education. Wallen said an alternative learning program for elementary students in Wyoming County can only accept six students at a time.
Read the full article.
Read Tamaya’s fact sheet examining disparities in use of student discipline in West Virginia schools.
The WV Criminal Law Reform Coalition is excited to invite you to their 2025 annual convening! The coalition is made up of organizations and people directly impacted who are working to reduce our reliance on incarceration and law enforcement in West Virginia. We work at the community and state levels to influence and enact policy that will break the school-to-prison pipeline, end the overpolicing of communities of color, stop the predatory practice of cash bail, confront the criminalization of poverty, and more.
Led by those with lived experience, this one-of-a-kind, in-person conference will be a shared space to connect and create winning criminal law reforms in West Virginia. The convening will take place January 13-15, 2025 at the John XXIII Retreat Center in Charleston.
You can register for the event here and learn more on the event landing page here.
Join the WVCBP for our second annual Budget and Bites event!
This convening will be held at the WV School Service Personnel Association Convention Center on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. Tickets include appetizers and drinks, available from 4:00-6:30 pm. Please note, registration is required. You can find event registration here.
The program begins at 5:00 with opening remarks by Kelly Allen, WVCBP’s executive director. Following, senior policy analyst, Sean O’Leary, will give a brief analysis of the Governor’s 2026 budget. You’ll also hear from other members of the WVCBP team and coalition partners about the budget impact on West Virginians.
Stay to mix and mingle, get information about upcoming budget priorities, and learn more about the Center and our team. Come and stay or drop in for short conversation in a laid-back pub atmosphere.
To become an event sponsor, email event coordinator, Krysta Rexrode Wolfe, or fill out the sponsorship form here.
The Black Voter Impact Initiative and Black by God, the founders of West Virginia’s Black Policy Day, are excited to invite you to their webinar series focused on specific aspects of the Black Policy Agenda. This is an excellent opportunity to deepen your knowledge and engage with experts across various issue areas ahead of the 2025 West Virginia legislative session.
You can register for the webinar series here.
You can share what you would like to see prioritized in the Black Policy Agenda by filling out this survey.
Mark your calendars for Black Policy Day 2025, which will take place on March 10, 2025. You can become a Black Policy Day sponsor here. Please see the yellow flyer below for further details.
