Hope Scholarship Meets Eligibility Expansion Requirement for All West Virginia Students in 2026

TREASURER W.V.A. RILEY MOORE

CHARLESTON — The Hope Scholarship — an education savings account program in West Virginia that provides vouchers to certain eligible students for private and homeschooling expenses — is set to be available to all eligible students in 2026.

The State Treasurer’s Office announced Tuesday that the Hope Scholarship program reached its enrollment cap by July 1 to be open to all students and families in West Virginia public, private and homeschool schools by the 2026-2027 school year.

“I am pleased to announce that enrollment in the Hope Scholarship Program has reached the threshold set by the Legislature to expand the program to all school-age children in West Virginia beginning in the fall of 2026,” said State Treasurer Riley Moore, chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board. “This will be a monumental step forward for school choice, enabling tens of thousands of additional West Virginia families to access this program.”

The Hope Scholarship — passed by the Legislature in 2021 and effective early in 2023 after a legal battle and a favorable decision by the West Virginia Court of Appeals — gives parents the ability to use an equivalent portion of the state’s School Aid Formula per-student budget for educational expenses such as private or religious school tuition, homeschooling, tutoring, academic supplies and other allowable expenses.

For the 2024–2025 school year, eligible families will receive 100% of the $4,921 Hope Scholarship Program award if they apply between March 1 and June 17, with the amount reduced by 25% depending on when parents apply within the three application periods (September 15, September 16–November 30, and December 1–February 28, 2025).

For the 2026–2027 school year, the Hope Scholarship is available only to children who are eligible to enroll in kindergarten in the school system in the year in which parents apply, public school students who were enrolled in full-time education in the school year preceding the application, or public school students who were enrolled in school for at least 45 days in the current school year.

In order for the Hope Scholarship to be awarded to all West Virginia children, regardless of enrollment status, state code required that the total number of Hope Scholarship participants and applicants not exceed 5 percent of the net enrollment in the public schools in the previous school year as of July 1. The number of Hope Scholarship students and applicants as of Monday was 9,980, short of the state’s goal of 12,416, according to the State Treasurer’s Office.

The Legislature budgeted $18 million for the Department of Education for the Hope Scholarship Program this fiscal year. Lawmakers appropriated another $27.3 million for the Hope Scholarship Program during a special session in May to meet growing demand for the program.

According to Moore, the opening of the Hope Scholarship Program could allow 30,000 to 40,000 West Virginia children to benefit from the program by fall 2026.

“This expansion will make it possible for all West Virginia families to take advantage of this program to choose the educational opportunities they believe will work best for their children.”

Opponents of the Hope Scholarship program have complained about the cost to taxpayers. A fiscal note provided by the Department of Education in 2021 estimated that the Hope Scholarship could cost taxpayers $126.6 million by the 2026-27 school year. County school systems also lose money from the school aid formula for every student who leaves public school for private schools or homeschools.

“Statewide, the loss of public education funding for Hope Scholarship is projected to total $21.6 million in the 2024-25 school year,” according to a December 2023 report from the West Virginia Center for Budget and Policy, a left-leaning public policy research organization. “…School districts across West Virginia will lose state aid funding for about 364 employees, including about 301 professional teachers and 63 school support staff.

“As lawmakers consider expanding the Hope Scholarship program, research across the country shows that expanding voucher programs produce mixed or negative outcomes for students who participate in them, while a lack of accountability for public spending raises questions about where funds diverted from the public education system go,” the report continued.

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