Action is needed to preserve child labor protections in West Virginia that keep our kids safe.
HB 4005 passed the House Government Organization Committee and is now headed to the full House of Delegates. This bill would eliminate state rules that define which jobs are too dangerous for minors and remove requirements for direct supervision when children work with hazardous machinery.
West Virginia already allows 16 and 17-year-olds to develop real workforce skills through approved Youth Apprenticeship Programs—programs that work precisely because they include proper safeguards. HB 4005 isn’t about expanding opportunity. It’s about removing the protections that keep young workers safe.
This bill is part of a nationwide effort to weaken child labor laws at the state level. The consequences are serious: minors are more likely than adults to be injured or killed on the job, and child labor violations have increased across the country as these protections have eroded.
Federal rules are not a substitute for state standards—they don’t apply to all employers the way our state rules do, and they’re also under attack. West Virginia needs to maintain its own strong protections.
Contact your Delegate today using this form. Urge them to vote NO on HB 4005 and keep West Virginia’s child labor protections intact.
SB 137 as introduced would increase the penalty on second degree homicide, first degree homicide, and voluntary manslaughter. This bill will cost the taxpayers more money, increase the aging prison population, and take West Virginia in the wrong direction. Under SB 137, West Virginians would pay an additional $484,490 for each life sentence.
Longer sentences over time have led to an older prison population. In 2002, one in eight people in prison were age 50 or older. By 2025, people over 50 made up one in three people in prison. To meet their needs, state prisons have spent millions on hospice and dementia units, while the state spends more each year on prison medical services.
Parole eligibility means consideration for release, not guaranteed release. If the Parole Board decides a person presents a safety risk, they will not be released. According to DCR, people released from prison on a homicide conviction had a much lower recidivism rate (19.8 percent) than DCR’s overall recidivism rate (35 percent).
SB 137 will not prevent harm, but it will increase how much taxpayers have to pay. Take action today by using this form to send a message to your Senator to oppose SB 137.
Read this op-ed to learn more about how SB 137 would harm individual West Virginians and our state budget.
The WVCBP is thrilled to share that our very own Rhonda Rogombe was recently recognized as a Health Advocate of the Year by Families USA!
Rhonda is one of four incredible advocates from across the country that was honored this week for their tireless efforts to expand access to health care, improve quality of care, and advance equity and justice. Congratulations, Rhonda, and thank you for all you do to strengthen health care in the Mountain State!
Thanks to all who joined us this past Wednesday at our third annual Budget and Bites!
It was wonderful to see so many people from around the Mountain State come together to learn more about our current budget landscape and what we can do to work toward a West Virginia budget that serves all West Virginians—not just the wealthiest.
If you were unable to attend, you can view the presentation slides here.
You can support our ongoing work to create a more prosperous West Virginia by making a donation here.
You can learn why further cutting the personal income tax would be fiscally reckless in this recent article, featuring comment from Sean.
You can read Kelly’s response to Governor Morrisey’s State of the State address here.
West Virginia spends almost $870 less per student than the national average. For $288 million, we can increase spending to meet the national average and fund improvements to public schools across the state. There are currently 34 school districts that spend less per student than the national average. Investments in these school districts could fund improvements such as increased staffing, better pay and benefits for staff, and more resources for other areas to expand learning opportunities for students and community engagement.
These investments can also benefit the 21 school districts that spend more per pupil than the national average. Current spending in these school districts supports the everyday needs and future success of students by contributing to smaller class sizes; improved staff pay and benefits; and better supplies, equipment, and facilities, all of which helps boost student achievement and adulthood employment and earnings. Additional investment can help these school districts better meet the needs of the children and communities that they serve and offset costs for services like special education and student transportation.
West Virginia can fund critical investments in our public schools by repurposing the Hope Scholarship funds. Cost estimates for the Hope Scholarship for the next fiscal year range from $245 million to $315 million. Since its creation in 2021, the cost of this program has grown exponentially each year while covering private and home school expenses for families that can typically already afford these costs. Meanwhile, public schools across the state have been closing and consolidating, terminating staff, and cutting programs and course offerings to stay open amid inadequate funding.
View or download individualized fact sheets for all 55 counties here.
West Virginia’s Fatality and Mortality Review Team (FMRT) recently published their 2025 annual report, which offers the latest available data and insights into the causes of infant and maternal deaths in the state. These measures serve as two key indicators of overall health in the state.
Infant Mortality in West Virginia
Infant mortality measures the number of children under one year old who die per 1,000 live births. The 2025 annual report covers infant deaths between 2017 and 2022, breaking them out to show trends before and after the COVID-19 pandemic started. The overall and white infant mortality rates remained relatively flat, reaching their lowest point that data exists for between 2020 and 2022. Over the same period, the Black infant mortality rate decreased. As of the most recently available data, Black infants are still more than twice as likely to die within their first year of life compared to their white counterparts.
Over the period covered in this data, West Virginia had a higher infant mortality rate than the United States overall.
The report also provided data about causes of infant deaths and their level of preventability. Nearly 70 percent of deaths were medical in nature, with top causes including congenital abnormalities, prematurity, and other medical and perinatal conditions. Fewer than five percent of these medical deaths were deemed preventable. The FMRT panel could not determine the cause of death for 20 percent of infant deaths, which was the next largest category; however, 90 percent of deaths in this category were related to an unsafe sleep environment. Of these, 72 percent were deemed preventable. Overall, about 25 percent of infant deaths between 2017 and 2022 were determined preventable.
Two in three infant deaths happened during the neonatal period, which comprises the first 28 days of life. And while 15 percent of infant deaths were caused by prematurity (born before 37 weeks of gestation), preterm babies made up two in three overall deaths. While prematurity was not the primary cause of death in most cases, its prevalence reflects research outlining the additional risks that premature babies face.
Other risk factors that were prevalent in many cases, but not always the primary cause of infant deaths, were related to unsafe sleep environments, maternal smoking, and a lack of prenatal care. As previously stated, most undetermined infant deaths were sleep-related, including sleeping outside a crib or bassinet and having unsafe materials like pillows and blankets in the sleeping area.
There was a significant overlap between unsafe sleep environments and maternal smoking. In fact, 60 percent of sleep-related infant deaths had documentation of secondhand smoke exposure. One study explains that infants’ airways are most compromised during sleep. Another reason is that tobacco exposure at any stage impacts development and makes babies more vulnerable to death in the first place, including within unsafe sleep environments. West Virginia has one of the highest rates of tobacco use in the country across populations, including among pregnant and postpartum people. Between 2017 and 2022, one in five mothers reported smoking at some point during pregnancy, which is four times higher than the national average. These parents were twice as likely to experience the death of their infants than nonsmokers.
Lastly, researchers found that babies whose parents received no prenatal care were over three times as likely to die within their first year of life, with a mortality rate of 20.2 per 1,000. Prenatal care allows medical professionals to monitor the health of pregnant people and their babies, treat abnormalities and prevent them from progressing, and educate families about best practices—including around smoking and safe sleep—during a vulnerable time. It is imperative that families have access to prenatal care to reduce infant deaths.
Maternal Mortality in West Virginia
The FMRT annual report also included updated data on maternal mortality in the state and has aggregated it between 2017 and 2023. The maternal mortality rate is the number of pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth. While infant deaths remained stable or fell between 2020 and 2023, the rate of maternal deaths in West Virginia nearly doubled over the same period.
One-third of maternal deaths occurred one to six weeks postpartum, followed by 28 percent during pregnancy. The leading causes of maternal deaths during this period included infections (including COVID-19), mental health conditions, hemorrhages, embolisms, and cardiovascular conditions. Nearly 70 percent of maternal deaths were deemed preventable by the review team.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health outcomes in many ways, from decreased access to the health care system to increased isolation which played a major role in maternal health outcomes. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study finding that the COVID-19 pandemic had a direct relationship with worsened mental health and increased substance use. Further, the review team found that one in five maternal deaths since 2020 have been due to COVID-19 infections.
While substance use disorders caused 12 percent of maternal deaths, they were a contributing factor in 40 percent of cases, indicating the continued prevalence of the opioid epidemic in West Virginia communities. These deaths followed the overall trend of opioid deaths in the state; as opioid deaths in the state rose and fell, so did those among pregnant and postpartum people. Another eight percent of deaths were caused by depression and other mental health conditions, though they were present in one in five maternal deaths. Providing care for mental health crises in the state, including substance use disorders, must be a priority to reduce maternal deaths in West Virginia.
For the first time, the review panel included some racial data on maternal deaths. Previously, small sample sizes prevented the panel from sharing this data. They found that while Black women comprised just 3.6 percent of live births in the state between 2017 and 2023, they represented eight percent of pregnancy-related deaths. While this ratio is lower than the national average (between 2021 and 2023, Black women made up 14 percent of live births but roughly 50 percent of maternal deaths), Black women are dying at a disproportionate rate in West Virginia, highlighting an important racial disparity previously unknown publicly in the state.
The review team had several recommendations to address infant and maternal deaths. Chief among these is increasing access to health care and improving access to resources such as safe sleep education, mental health services, and substance use disorder treatment. And yet, access to health care and resources are disappearing for families in several ways across the state.
Since 2006, West Virginia has seen half of its labor and delivery units close, with just 18 left of the 35 that existed two decades ago. Several factors, including hospital consolidation, have contributed to the increase in maternal care deserts, especially in rural areas of the state.
As previously highlighted, there is a direct relationship between a lack of prenatal visits and infant deaths, with infants who received no prenatal care dying at three times the overall rate. Health care access goes beyond access to health insurance; this map indicates long distances between where a person may live and where they may receive care, preventing even people with health insurance from receiving necessary services. Other factors like access to transportation, time off work, child care, and more can reduce a person’s ability to seek prenatal health care. Doulas and midwives offer one means of addressing these barriers and improving birthing outcomes while reducing health care costs.
In July 2025, the United States passed HR 1 (“One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), a sweeping bill that significantly reduces access to the social safety net, including Medicaid and the ACA Marketplace, SNAP, and other programs that many families rely on. This legislation will further decrease West Virginians’ access to health care in several ways, including for pregnant and postpartum populations meant to be excluded from these cuts. Make no mistake, these health care and other cuts will cost West Virginia the lives of infants and mothers. This policy puts state decision-makers in a difficult position wherein they must generate and dedicate more state dollars to federal programs to keep them afloat. Lawmakers and administrators in West Virginia must prioritize mitigating the impact of these policies, as well as making up for lost federal funds through the state budget.
Read the full blog post.
County jail bills are increasing rapidly in West Virginia. After years of subsidies, the state has begun to charge counties what it costs to jail people awaiting trial ($67.27 per person per day) and as more of these expenses are beginning to be directed to counties, many are struggling to keep up. A recent article, including data and insight from the WVCBP, provides further details. Excerpt below:
County jail bills continue to skyrocket, but revenues can’t seem to keep up.
It’s an issue commissioners have brought to lawmakers for years. Kanawha County Commissioner Lance Wheeler said they’re expecting a $1 million increase at minimum this year for their jail bill.
“I don’t believe those revenues are going to exceed the costs of the jail bill,” Wheeler said.
Last year, at least nine counties had to dip into their opioid settlement funds just to pay at least a portion of their jail debt.
According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, counties can expect to pay $8.4 million more on their jail bills, even if the jails aren’t used more than they were last year.
This is due to the state charging counties $67.27 per person per day. As for counties with an excess of people jailed, they will pay a penalty rate of $80.72 per person per day.
“It’s not wise to continue blowing up the budget line items of DOCR from fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2025. Adjusted for inflation the budget for the department of corrections and rehabilitation has increased 38%,” Seth Distefano with the W.Va. Center on Budget and Policy said during a news conference.
What are counties pushing for in the upcoming legislative session? Wheeler said they’re working with lawmakers to look at any ways they can get the bill lowered.
“This cost is getting passed on to the taxpayers in this county, and it’s reducing essential services that we need to meet to make sure that we’re taking care of everybody,” he said.
Read the full article.
Read Sara’s recent blog post explaining the importance of Day One representation as one pathway to reduce rapidly increasing jail costs.
After a several month delay due to the federal government shutdown, West Virginia’s jobs report resumed this month, showing a sluggish economy that lost 700 jobs in November, and 5,800 jobs since July, for five straight months of job losses. The steepest losses of the year were in the federal government sector, as the federal DOGE initiative has led to 2,200 lost federal government jobs in West Virginia over the past year.
The delayed jobs report revealed a loss of 1,700 jobs in October and 700 jobs in November. As of November, West Virginia has lost jobs in seven of the 11 months of 2025.
While DOGE had been cutting federal jobs throughout the year, many federal workers were encouraged to take deferred resignations or face firing or dismissal. The deferred resignation program allowed federal workers to be paid through the end of September, meaning their job losses began to appear in the jobs data in October. An estimated 150,000 federal workers nationwide agreed to take a buyout under DOGE cuts, with an estimated 100,000 officially losing their jobs on September 30 (the end of the federal fiscal year), which was reflected in the October jobs data. Another 50,000 are estimated to leave at the end of the calendar year, and will likely appear in the January jobs report.
In West Virginia, federal employment fell by700 jobs from February to September 2025, before sharply dropping in October by another 1,300 jobs, reflecting the deferred resignation DOGE cuts.
Federal government job losses have had the biggest impact on West Virginia’s overall jobs picture over the past 12 months. Total federal government employment is down 2,200 jobs from November 2024 to November 2025, offsetting some of the job gains in the health care and construction sectors; total nonfarm employment is down 1,400 jobs during this period.
State and local government jobs have not been immune to losses either, as state tax cuts and federal funding losses have eroded support for these positions. Total state and local government jobs in West Virginia are down by 5,100 jobs since 2019, straining the state’s ability to provide basic public services like education, foster care, health care, child care, infrastructure, and more.
The public sector (federal, state, and local government jobs collectively) is the largest employment sector in West Virginia. While lawmakers often talk about government’s role in private sector jobs–which they have relatively little control over–they have immense power to protect and improve public sector positions, which are often well-paying, family-sustaining jobs for our state’s people. Between federal DOGE cuts and a shrinking state budget, thousands of West Virginia families have lost those good jobs over the last several years, striking a blow to their own financial security and the broader economy.
Read Sean’s full blog post.
In spite of the wide ranging challenges that West Virginia public schools are facing such as inadequate funding, an outdated funding formula, and the rapidly expanding Hope Scholarship voucher program, our public school system continues to educate and support the vast majority of children in our state. These ongoing challenges have led to waves of school closures and consolidations, terminations of school employees, and cuts to programs and course offerings as school districts attempt to balance their budgets and remain open.
Hancock County is just one of many West Virginia counties where these challenges have come to a head. The school district is facing a $7 million deficit for the current fiscal year and will likely be unable to make payroll later this month. To address this issue, legislators have proposed a bill to support Hancock County and others that are in financial distress. This bill aims to establish an emergency reserve loan that will be administered by the state school board and cover costs like payroll and operating expenses to allow schools to remain open.
While this effort to quickly address the financial needs of school districts is admirable, the broader challenges plaguing public schools continue to go unaddressed.
But that need not remain the case. There are a few actions that legislators can take to enact meaningful and long-term solutions for our public schools. These include addressing inadequate school funding, modernizing the school funding formula, and reining in the Hope Scholarship.
Addressing Inadequate School Funding
More than half of West Virginia school districts spend less per student than the national average. Hancock County spends almost $250 less per student, but with an investment of about $784,500 the district can meet the national average. This could fully cover the cost of 10 new classroom teachers, or nine new student support staff (e.g., nurses, counselors), or 17 new service staff (e.g., food service employees, maintenance workers). Alternatively, this could offset the cost of these positions if they are currently funded through local funding or help fund important services and offerings such as special education, student transportation, parent and family supports, community programs, tutoring, and after-school and summer programs.
Even with an excess levy to provide additional local funding to support their community schools, many school districts are still in need of state funding to adequately meet the needs of their students. Annually, Hancock County’s excess levy provides over $8.6 million to support staff costs, legal and medical services for students, social and emotional supports for students, student meals, capital improvements, supplies, and equipment.
If we repurposed the state funding intended for the Hope Scholarship to instead support underfunded public schools, we could increase spending across the state to meet the national average. By repurposing these funds and supplementing what the state is already investing in public schools, we can fund improvements without impacting funding in other school districts, including those that are currently spending at or above the national average.
Modernizing the School Funding Formula
The current approach to public school funding in West Virginia is outdated and does not sufficiently consider student needs. Research shows that students living in poverty and students with disabilities require more resources and funding to achieve the same outcomes as their peers. However, West Virginia is one of just a handful of states that does not weight for poverty in the funding formula. This leaves high-poverty school districts with less funding than wealthier districts. On average, high-poverty school districts in our state receive $1,412 less per student than low-poverty school districts. West Virginia is also one of about one-third of states that does not include special education funding in the primary funding formula. West Virginia provides supplemental funding to school districts when the cost of special education services exceeds the funds that the district has available. This leaves gaps in funding for special education services that must be filled, often by diverting funds from other aspects of education.
The state can modernize the school funding formula and better meet student needs by adopting weighted funding to provide more funding for high-poverty school districts and for student groups that require more resources, like students with disabilities. West Virginia can also increase the number of teacher and student support positions that are funded to improve staff to student ratios and reduce classroom sizes. In school districts like Hancock County, where four in 10 students are from low-income families and two in 10 students have a disability, these adjustments to the formula would provide much needed state funding.
Reining in the Hope Scholarship
For Hancock County and many school districts across the state, the Hope Scholarship voucher program has contributed to their local financial challenges as well as the availability of state funding at large. In the first year of the program, there were 45 Hope Scholarship participants in Hancock County. Now in the fourth year of the program, the county is on track to exceed 250 participants, according to data received from the West Virginia State Treasurer’s Office via FOIA request; this reflects an increase of nearly six times or 500 percent from the first year of the program to the fourth. At the full voucher amount, 250 participants equate to $1.3 million. This is money that could have otherwise supported public schools.
Over the course of just a few years, the Hope Scholarship has siphoned hundreds of millions of tax dollars to fund private schooling and homeschooling for families that can largely already afford these options. When the budget process started for the current fiscal year (FY 2026), there was a $400 million budget gap that was closed through a combination of measures, including one-time funding and almost $110 million in budget cuts. While the program is budgeted to cost $110 million in FY 2026, just $24.6 million is funded though the regular budget, with 80 percent coming from one-time supplemental funding. And if the Hope Scholarship continues without any guardrails, lawmakers will have to come up with 10 times the amount that they budgeted via the state budget in FY 2026 to cover the nearly $250 million cost for FY 2027.
Lawmakers cannot address the needs of our public schools and provide adequate funding and investment while allowing the Hope Scholarship to continue unchecked. Lawmakers can reign in this program and promote responsible use of state funds by stopping the universal expansion of the program and implementing guardrails including cost and enrollment caps, income limits for applicants, comprehensive public reporting requirements, and location and accreditation requirements for schools.
During the 2026 legislative session, lawmakers have the opportunity to adopt these recommendations and enact meaningful and long-term solutions for public schools, rather than continue to turn to quick fixes and band-aids that leave the public school system that serves 90 percent of West Virginia children underfunded.
Read Tamaya’s full blog post.
Read this op-ed to learn how the dismantling of the US Department of Education is harming West Virginia students and schools.
The enhanced premium tax credits (PTCs) that millions nationwide depend on to afford their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace expired on December 31, resulting in massive premium spikes for people across the country.
As a result, many marketplace enrollees are being forced to make impossible decisions, like whether to pay for their health coverage or be able to afford basic costs such as rent, groceries, and car payments. Congress’s failure to date to address the premium spikes comes on top of huge cuts to Medicaid and other marketplace changes in the Republicans’ megabill passed this summer that will leave even more people without coverage over time.
Earlier this month, the US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill to extend the PTCs. If the Senate acts, Congress can lower premiums for the rest of the year and extend the enrollment period so families who were priced out can get covered again. But if the Senate fails to act, premiums will remain unaffordable and thousands more could lose coverage altogether.
Contact your US Senators today and tell them to extend the ACA Premium Tax Credit enhancements with no delays and no cuts, and give families relief now. You can contact them using our form here.
Black Policy Day was established by Crystal Good (Black By God), Katonya Hart (Partnerships for the Arts & Education), and Dr. Shanequa Smith (WV Black Voter Impact Initiative) who shared a vision of creating space for historically oppressed and ignored groups to amplify their stories and participate in the policymaking process.
This free event welcomes all to visit the Capitol to engage with their state leaders, discuss the issues that are most impacting Black and minority communities, and learn how to take action to make impacts in their communities.
Throughout the day, there will be opportunities to engage in meetings with lawmakers, space for vendors and tabling opportunities, youth activities, and much more. Information about current opportunities and resources will be provided. The afternoon will include a youth-centered lunch event with accompanying activities. Child care is available all day.
You can register for free or make a donation to the event here.
You can learn more about Black Policy Day here.
