More Than 7,500 Students Change Schools After West Virginia Expands Transfer Law

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More than 7,500 public school students in West Virginia transferred from their zoned schools to other schools both in and out of their county during the 2023-24 school year.

Over the last few years, state lawmakers have expanded students’ ability to transfer for education and sports, giving schools limited reasons to deny requests.

West Virginia Department of Education data showed that 6,135 students transferred to a school in their county (known as intracounty transfers), and 1,425 students transferred to a public school out of their county.

Parents accessing child care and after school care was a major driver for transfers in elementary school, where the bulk of the transfers occurred, according to the state education department.

“A vast majority of it is because of the parents and where they’re working and what’s available with day care and things like that at the elementary level,” Sonya White, deputy superintendent of the West Virginia Department of Education, told lawmakers last month while sharing the data.

High school transfers were less common, White said, and many were due to athletics. A 2023 West Virginia law permits student athletes to change schools one time during their high school career without having to change residency. The law was linked to lopsided football scores and athlete injuries.

During the 2023-24 school year, 432 athletes transferred to high schools in West Virginia — tripling the number from the number of transfers from the previous year-and-a-half. The West Virginia Secondary Schools and Activities Commission did not return a request for updated numbers for the current school year.

Students transferring within the county do not impact state aid funding unless the student is transferring from a county board of education to a public charter school, according to the WVDE.

Cabell County Schools, one of the state’s largest school districts, had the state’s highest rate of transfers, with 788 students approved to transfers within the county and 136 students transferring out of county.

Keith Thomas, Cabell County Schools’ director of health, wellness and student support services, explained that accessing after-school care or schools closer to parents’ jobs often drove the transfers in his county.

“Not all schools have after-school programs and many of our parents work until five or six,” Thomas said, adding that only some programs accept the state’s child care assistance payments.

He added, “A lot of our transfers are that we have parents who are teachers, and they want their kids to go to school with them,” he said.

Accessing special education services also spurred transfers, Thomas said. And some schools are better equipped and certified to teach students with autism.

In Lewis County, Samantha Ribeiro Matos has transferred her six- and seven-year-old boys, who need special education services, to three schools in three years in search of the right academic fit.

One transfer happened after Matos said she found out three days before school started that her zoned elementary school didn’t offer a self-contained classroom, which one of her sons needed. School leaders asked her to transfer the largest elementary school in the county, she said.

“We felt like that was a good option as it was presented to us, but we also did not have a choice,” she said.

State can deny transfers for limited reasons

West Virginia lawmakers expanded students transfer eligibility in 2023 amid the Republican-led Legislature’s push for school choice. The legislation, signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice, was expansion of 2019 open enrollment legislation. It allows a county board to permit any eligible student to apply for enrollment in any school in the county as long as the school has the grade-level capacity and certain programs and services that aren’t available in the students’ attendance zone.

The law also allows for open enrollment for public school students between counties without requiring the approval of the county the student resides in prior to transfer.

Denials are permitted for limited reasons, including classroom size limits and student discipline history.

The state education department’s data showed that 483 students were denied transfers last school year. The majority of the denials were students looking to transfer to another school within their county.

White said that a lack of classroom space was the leading reason behind denials.

“The denials are mostly elementary because we have a cap on class sizes in [kindergarten] through five, and we don’t in seventh grade and beyond,” she said.

Jason Huffman, state director for conservative grassroots organization Americans For Prosperity, reviewed county-level denials through information he received through the Freedom of Information Act.

Counties denied student transfers for reasons not permitted under the law, he said, including academic performance, tardies and parent conduct.

“I think particularly with things like absences or tardies, perhaps it is a case that the child is being bullied or or the child is unhappy in their learning situation,” Huffman said. “I don’t think that’s a viable reason to deny a transfer. It kind of disregards the individuality of the student.”

Huffman also noted that only five of the county school districts in the state published their open enrollment data on their website as required under the 2023 law.

He raised these concerns in a letter to education committee leaders in the Legislature, and he wanted the West Virginia Department of Education to remind counties about the appropriate reasons for transfer denials and publishing open enrollment data.

Sen. Patricia Rucker, chair of the Senate’s School Choice Committee, said she had heard from a few parents whose transfers were denied. “When they appealed to the superintendent, transfers were approved,” she said in an email.

“I was actually pleased when seeing the letter from AFP and felt the numbers demonstrate there are hundreds of parents seeking and getting the education they need for their children. And staying in the public education system,” Rucker, R-Berkeley, continued.

Christy Day, spokesperson for the education department, said the department will continue to work with county school systems to assist them with compliance with the resident and non-resident transfer statute.

Huffman said his organization plans to continue the implementation of the law.

“We want to make sure that the intent that lawmakers wanted to give to parents — the power of choice — is being followed to the full fruition of the law,” he said. “It’s for the future of the children in our state.”

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com. Follow West Virginia Watch on Facebook and X.

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