WV Senate committee advances bill removing curriculum, vaccine and standardized test requirements for private schools

A West Virginia Senate committee recently advanced a bill that would significantly reduce regulations for private schools, giving them greater freedom to operate independently of the government. 

 SB 216 would allow private schools to teach students virtually anything — or nothing at all. It would remove a requirement that private schools observe at least 900 hours of instruction yearly, establish curriculum objectives and provide an educational program “that will make possible the acquisition of competencies necessary to become a literate citizen.” 

SB 216 removes the requirements that private schools keep detailed records of students’ attendance and immunization records and doesn’t require them to send them to the state. It would also make private schools exempt from currently required standardized testing, and they would no longer be required to give schoolwide data regarding performance on standardized tests to prospective parents or state officials.  

Before passing the bill on to the full Senate last week, the Senate Select Committee on School Choice heard testimony. 

Eric Kerns, the Superintendent of Faith Christian Academy in Martinsburg said SB 216 will give private schools more flexibility regarding assessments, attendance, school days and hours. Originally, he had concerns about how the bill would impact accountability for private schools, but he sat on it for a week and discussed SB 216 with other Christian schools in the state. 

“If people are not satisfied with the education they are receiving, then they can go to another private school or go back to the public schools or homeschool,” Kerns said. 

Sen. Charles Clements, R-Wetzel, tried amending SB 216 to make private schools follow the same standardized testing requirements as public school and homeschool students. 

“In reading the bill, I get the impression that they can make up their own standardized tests,” Clements said, before his amendment was rejected. 

Committee Chair Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, confirmed that SB 216 does read that way in its current state.

Rucker talked about standardized testing and how, in her opinion, West Virginia falls behind in recognizing alternative standardized tests that other states across the country recognize. She said SB 216 would simply give private schools the choice to pick their own tests. 

“The nationally recognized tests—that we require—still exist,” Rucker said. “They’ll still be available…There are new ones. We often lag in recognizing them so this will allow them to jump on them quicker.” 

Last year, Rucker introduced a bill that would require colleges to accept the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an alternative to the SAT or ACT in West Virginia college admissions and scholarship awarding. BBG Folk Reporters wrote about that back in 2025. 

Several senators expressed doubt over passage of that bill, given there has not been investigation into the CLT’s ability to predict college readiness with the same accuracy as those tests. The bill never made it to the Senate Floor. 

Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, tried to pass another amendment to SB 216, changing the bill so private schools would still be required to keep immunization records.

 “I want these children to be vaccinated,” Woelfel said. “I want those records to be maintained by the schools.” 

Woelfel said he was not very optimistic about the amendment passing, and it ultimately did not. 

SB 216 passed the committee and now needs to be voted on by the full Senate. 

The bill comes at a time when West Virginia’s public schools face many challenges,  including deferred maintenance, teacher shortages and test scores that are improving, but remain low. In 2024, three-quarters of the state’s fourth graders were not proficient in reading, according to West Virginia Watch. 

The West Virginia House of Delegates recently hired the RAND Corporation to create a report with recommendations for how to improve the state’s public schools. 

RAND recommended putting more funding into West Virginia public schools, but Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s proposed budget would slash them by $2.2 million annually, according to reporting from Mountain State Spotlight. It would also increase funding for the Hope Scholarship by roughly $130 million annually.  

This school voucher program currently allows some parents to use taxpayer money for public schools and put it toward private schooling, homeschooling, microschools and other education services, according to West Virginia Watch. 

Because of the Hope Scholarship, an unprecedented amount of public funds will likely be spent in West Virginia’s private schools, including religious schools. At the same time, SB 216 proposes a near-complete deregulation of those schools, striking existing requirements in state law and replacing them with this line: 

“As autonomous entities free of governmental oversight of instruction, private, parochial, or church, schools may implement such measures for instruction and assessment of pupils as leadership of such schools may deem appropriate.” 

SB 216’s advancement raised questions about the separation between Church and State, during a week when Senators also passed another high profile bill: SB 388. 

That bill would require the Aitken Bible to be present in fourth grade, eighth grade and tenth grade public school social studies classrooms.  SB 388 maintains that public schools cannot use public funding to purchase bibles, but may accept private donations to acquire them. 

The bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Amy Grady, has said the bill simply allows bibles to be used as study tools. 

“It doesn’t force religious practices, beliefs on anyone,” Grady said. “It helps students understand why ideas and values were important when this country was formed.” 

Grady is a fourth-grade teacher and has already had the Aitken Bible in her classroom, as the U.S. Constitution only prohibits public school teachers from teaching religion out of the biblical text.

SB 388 has already been introduced in the House. Next it has to pass two House committees.