The Legislative Oversight Commission on Education met this afternoon.
The Commission received an update on the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The Chancellor stated that 43,540 students received the Higher Education Grant or Promise for the 2024-2025 academic year. With new funding the Higher Education Grant was able to be double the award to $6,800 and a College Access Grant of $2,000 was able to be provided to students who needed additional help. Due to last year’s delay and issues with the new FAFSA guidelines, paper applications were filled out and are still being processed. With the new FAFSA process, institutions will not be able to do bulk corrections this year, which is placing an administrative burden on the institutions. The Higher Education Policy Commission did receive a grant to fund a marketing campaign. The HEPC intentionally did not put dates on the advertising material so that it could be used in future years.
The HEPC is concerned about 2025 FASFA. The US Department of Education has already pushed the FASFA application availability from October to December. The Commission is fearful of another delay.
The Legislature’s efforts in May were extremely helpful for students.
The Commission also heard about WVBE Policy 2423 – Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. The policy hadn’t been updated in nine years and the Board of Education felt it was time for an update. The Policy sets the standards for county policies relating to student health, prevention of disease, and educating students and school personnel on communicable diseases.
The School Discipline Report was provided to the Commission. Professional Training will be provided to principals in October regarding discipline, expectations of behaviors, and multi-tier support available. Over 80 percent of students in WV schools are behaving in a manner that does not require discipline. Of the children getting in trouble, several are receiving in-school suspension. Out-of-school suspension is only assigned if a student is a repeat offender or if the behavior is severe. The top three suspension reasons are possession of a controlled substance, threatening harm to others, and possession of a deadly weapon.
Commission members requested additional data and for comparisons to be made between previous years and now.
Finally, the Commission received the student transfer report.
