Creating penalties for county and state boards of education for providing misinformation to parents, custodians, reviewers, or any other individual through any form of communication
HB2819 would add a new section to West Virginia’s compulsory attendance laws imposing financial penalties on county and state boards of education for providing “misinformation” to parents, custodians, reviewers, or other individuals. The bill defines covered misinformation broadly and specifically targets incorrect or misleading guidance related to homeschooling, including Notices of Intent, required documentation, homeschool diploma recognition, participation in public school sports, access to classes or programs, and other information affecting homeschool, Hope Scholarship, and microschool families.
The bill also creates separate penalties for misinformation posted on official websites or social media, and for failures to file HOPE Scholarship paperwork on time when that causes a family to lose scholarship eligibility. In those cases, the bill directs fines to affected families and, for certain public-platform violations, to homeschool advocacy organizations. Overall, the measure is framed as a transparency and compliance bill intended to protect parental rights and ensure accurate information from education authorities.
If enacted, HB2819 would create a new statutory penalty scheme in Chapter 18, Article 8 of the West Virginia Code, exposing county and state boards of education to per-incident fines for misinformation and to direct reimbursement obligations when administrative errors cause HOPE Scholarship losses. It would affect school boards’ communications practices, especially around homeschooling and scholarship administration, and could require more careful review of public-facing guidance, forms, websites, and social media content. The bill would also channel certain fine revenue to named homeschool advocacy groups and to affected families, altering how violations are remedied under state education law.
The bill’s stated purpose and structure suggest strong support for homeschooling and parental-information rights, with an emphasis on holding education officials accountable for inaccurate guidance. Because no committee transcript or vote record is available, there is no documented debate or recorded opposition in the provided materials. Based on the text alone, the bill appears to be driven by concerns from homeschool and Hope Scholarship families about inconsistent or misleading information from school authorities.
The main points of contention likely center on the bill’s broad definition of “misinformation,” the size and automatic nature of the penalties, and whether school boards should face fines for communications errors that may be inadvertent or disputed. Another likely issue is the bill’s direction of some fines to private homeschool advocacy organizations, which could raise concerns about neutrality, enforcement, and incentives. The provisions involving HOPE Scholarship paperwork could also be controversial because they impose direct financial liability on boards for administrative failures and could create disputes over causation and the amount of lost scholarship funds.