CHARLESTON – An amendment to yank children from homeschool environments during active child abuse investigations failed, allowing a bill aimed at reporting requirements for micro schools and learning pods to continue on.

The House Education Committee recommended a committee substitute for House Bill 5180, removing requirements to submit certain evidence on behalf of home schooled children, to the full House of Delegates for its consideration Monday afternoon.

HB 5180, as amended by the committee, adds learning pods and micro schools for academic assessment requirements. The bill requires learning pods and micro schools to maintain copies of a student’s Academic Assessment for three years and allow results to be submitted as composite results for all students versus submitted results for each individual student in grade levels three, five, eight, and 11.

Learning pods are voluntary associations of parents who choose to home school their children together instead of enrolling in public school. Micro schools are schools created by teachers that charge tuition for students to enroll, but don’t fit the definitions of a public school, private school, homeschool, or learning pod. Learning pods and micro schools currently operate under similar requirements for home schools.

The introduced version of the bill eliminated requirements for individuals providing home instruction, including through learning pods and micro schools, to have a minimum of a high school diploma or equivalent. The committee substitute reinstated that requirement.

The original bill also required public schools to allow homeschool, micro school, and learning pod students to attend any class without being subject to the same registration, attendance, and vaccine requirements. But the committee substitute removed the section about being immune from vaccine requirements.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, attempted to amend the bill to include language from another bill, House Bill 4491, also known as Raylee’s Law.

HB 4491 would allow county boards of education to reject a request for homeschooling by a parent if there is a pending child abuse or neglect investigation against a parent, guardian, and or a person serving as a child’s instructor. It would also prohibit homeschooling by a parent, guardian, or instructor who has been convicted of domestic violence, child abuse, or neglect.

The bill is named for Raylee Jolynn Browning, a child in Oak Hill who died in 2018 due to child abuse from her father, Marty Browning. Raylee had been pulled from public school by Marty. He, along with his girlfriend and girlfriend’s sister, were sentenced in 2022 after being convicted for child neglect causing death.

Pushkin said that Raylee’s Law was not meant to paint all homeschool families with the same brush. But it was meant to prevent cases similar to Raylee’s where suspected child abuse is the reason for pulling a child from public school.

“The vast majority of homeschool parents are…even more involved with their children’s life than most parents,” Pushkin said. “At least one parent is staying home and doing what they can to instruct their child….However, there are cases like the case that this law was named after.”

Pushkin’s amendment was defeated in a 5-15 vote, though some committee members were vocally supportive of the amendment. 

“It doesn’t interfere with what a county over here has ability to be able to do and go back and stop the home instruction,” said Del. Dana Ferrell, R-Kanawha. “I think it’s erring on the side of caution, which I think we have to do with the safety and wellbeing of students.”

“I also think sometimes things come along where you have to be driven by your conscience and what you know to be right and wrong,” said Del. Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette. “I know that children are being hurt and I know that it’s not the majority, but I know that children are being hurt and they’re dying. This is not a hypothetical situation. This is a very real situation.”

Others, while supportive of the intent of the amendment, did not believe HB 5180 was the proper bill to use to make Raylee’s Law a reality.

“At some point, maybe we look at putting Raylee’s Law into effect as its own bill, but…this is a reporting bill for homeschool students,” said Del. Wayne Clark, R-Jefferson. “This has nothing to do with declining eligibility of homeschool students. I would like to see Raylee’s Law in the future become law, but I don’t think it’s right to be in this bill.”

“I think it tends to address something that probably does need to be addressed, but I don’t know that I think that this is the right place or the right manner in which to address it,” said Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas.

Raylee’s Law – whose lead sponsor is House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio – has been a part of the House Democratic caucus’ agenda for the last several years. Pushkin said he appreciated the comments from fellow committee members Monday, but he encouraged the Republican majority to consider moving Raylee’s Law before the end of the session next month.

“Raylee’s law has been introduced year after year…However, that law has not made it onto a committee agenda to my knowledge,” Pushkin said. “We could say, ‘oh, it’s something we might look at.’ Well, it’s nothing that we’ve looked at yet. In the meantime, we keep hearing of these horrific incidents that could possibly be prevented if we were actually able to do something meaningful in here and do something to protect these children.”