The House Educational Choice Subcommittee heard from Deputy State Superintendent of Schools Sonya White Monday afternoon during October legislative interim meetings at the State Capitol.
White briefed lawmakers on the development of a new parent portal application by the West Virginia Department of Education, intended to streamline the process for homeschool applications and other educational transactions.
The school choice portal would allow parents who are homeschooling to submit the required applications and find a certified teacher who could approve a homeschool student’s portfolio of schoolwork. Parents could also submit their students’ test scores onto the portal.
Homeschool students are required to submit a portfolio each grade level. State law doesn’t require a certain type of teaching certification or experience to review the students’ portfolios.
The portal is based on legislation that passed the House of Delegates last year but ultimately stalled in the Senate Finance Committee. House Bill 3422 would have required the state Board of Education to design, test and deploy an internet-based reporting system for homeschool families.
White said the homeschool portal should be ready by the end of October for initial review and testing. The portal is being developed by the Department of Education in-house and will cost taxpayers no additional money to operate according to White. The department is also redesigning the notice that homeschool families submit to county school officials to be compatible with the new portal. After this work is done, the portal will offer a parent registration component and a teacher registration component for those teachers who review portfolios, according to White.
With the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program opening up to all eligible students, including private and homeschool students by next July, White said phase two of the homeschool portal could include a way to connect Hope Scholarship applications with applications for new homeschool students.
Delegate Kathie Hess Crouse (R-Putnam 19) told the committee there will likely be legislation next year to create a state Office of School Choice.
White said the Department of Education is exploring the possibility of running the the office at the estimated cost of $500,000, which includes paying for a manager and four program assistants to work around the state. Those figures are contingent on legislative appropriation.
Crouse told members she is rethinking whether such an office should be under the department or separate.
“My vision for it may be a little different than the state board’s vision for it, but it’s basically to give parents a place to go to ask the questions and get the truthful answers on school choice,” Hess Crouse said, adding that she has talked to parents that often receive conflicting information from school boards about their students’ options and records.
“It’s something that I want to look further into, so I don’t know where the School Choice Office will go yet,” Crouse said.
