Education, flooding, hunger on the docket for West Virginia interims

According to the agendas posted at this time, here are some of the presentations lawmakers are expected to hear:

• Education — After recording the state’s worst math and reading scores ever in 2022, lawmakers have made a number of significant changes to how lower-level classrooms will teach the subjects in an effort to improve outcomes. Lawmakers are expected to hear an update on those efforts, including how the state is rolling out some of its “Third Grade Success Act” requirements as some schools have reported issues with meeting its staffing requirements. Lawmakers are also expected to hear the latest developments with Alderson Broaddus University and school counselor issues.
• Jails — Lawmakers failed earlier this year to pass bills that would have raised the pay for corrections workers and offered other solutions to the ongoing staffing crisis at the jails and prisons. The staff vacancy rate is currently at 33%. According to the agenda, lawmakers are expected to hear presentations about a nonviolent offense parole program, the parole board and other business.
• Flooding — Severe flood risk is significant in West Virginia, and a 2021 study said that more than half of the state’s infrastructure, including power stations, are at risk of becoming inoperable during flooding. One scheduled presentation on flooding issues will focus on the history and current status of funds utilized from the July 2016 flood, which killed 23 people and affected 12 counties.
• Foster care — Lawmakers cited the state’s troubled foster care system as a reason behind their decision to split the state health department. They’re expected to hear a few presentations on the issue this week, including an update on the state’s work to reduce its reliance on out-of-state facilities to house foster kids. The state has previously sent children to unsafe and abusive out-of-state facilities, and its reliance on facilities for children was one part of a sweeping lawsuit against the state health department, which oversees foster care. The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources disputed the lawsuit, and agency leaders have said the state does not have enough in-state foster homes for the more than 6,000 kids in state care.
• Energy industry — Representatives from the oil and gas industry and the coal development industry are expected to share information about market and government trends.
• PEIA — Lawmakers earlier this year made broad changes to the Public Employees Health Insurance program, including a rate hike, in an effort to prevent program collapse due to financial stress. An estimated 230,000 residents, including teachers and state employees, use the insurance plan.
• Food insecurity — One in seven West Virginia residents struggle to access enough food. Food bank employees are concerned that the state’s hunger rate will rise with a new work requirement for some people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to buy groceries.