The Senate completed legislative action on a child care tax credit bill as well as a high school sports transfer repeal during the day’s first floor session.
House Bill 4191 is intended to enhance child care accessibility and support for families and employers in West Virginia by introducing several key provisions.
The legislation expands tax credits for employers who provide or sponsor child care for their employees, defining “employer sponsored child-care facility” to include third-party licensed providers financially supported by employers, and allowing these facilities to be located anywhere in the state without strict proximity requirements.
The bill also establishes a system for licensed child care programs to receive subsidy payments based on monthly enrollment, with a requirement for children to attend at least 8 days per month on average to remain eligible, defining a “day” as 4 hours of attendance in a child care program or 2.5 hours in an out-of-school time program.
Furthermore, the bill mandates the Department of Human Services (DHS) to use a cost of care modeling tool to determine subsidy amounts and report findings, and requires them to implement an electronic filing system for all days of attendance billed by child care providers by July 1, 2026.
A significant component of the bill is the focus on mitigating the “child care subsidy cliff effect,” which refers to the abrupt loss of child care assistance when a family’s income increases slightly, by allowing the DHS to adopt policies that gradually phase out subsidies as income rises, encouraging employment and wage growth while ensuring continuity of care. This mitigation is to be implemented by January 1, 2027, with annual reports to the Legislature on its impact.
The Senate also passed a bill repealing the high school sports transfer rule during the morning floor session.
House Bill 4425 repeals a law that previously allowed students to transfer between schools without losing their athletic eligibility.
In simpler terms, this means that if a student transfers from one school to another, they may no longer automatically be allowed to participate in sports at the new school without facing some form of eligibility restrictions. The original law provided a specific provision for these transfer students, which this bill eliminates.
There was vigorous debate on this bill. Proponents of the legislation argued that the current law has created a serious inequity in high school athletics across the state. They also said that the rampant transferring has caused some schools to lose their sense of community with regard to athletics.
Opponents of the bill argued freedom for students and parents and argued that families should be able to decide where kids should attend and that the student’s athletic eligibility should not be compromised.
The bill passed on a 20-14 vote.
Both bills now head to the Governor’s desk.
The Senate is in recess until 1:45 p.m.
