Tadpoles no. Lunchboxes yes.
The board overseeing West Virginia’s Hope Scholarship for students outside the public school system had to make decisions today about whether to reimburse families for those purchases that could be used for educational reasons.
Families who opt to use the Hope Scholarship for non-public school expenses receive an amount that changes each year. Most recently, it’s been about $4,900. Families may use the money for supplies like textbooks, flashcards, whiteboards or even computers.
This can be especially challenging for homeschooling families, who have highly individualized needs.
On a regular basis, the Hope Scholarship board considers general categories of purchase requests and gives a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Earlier this summer, for example, the board drew attention after denying requests for witchcraft herbs and a cauldron.
During a meeting on Thursday, board members had to rescind an earlier vote to allow the purchases of tadpoles for students to use for individualized science curriculums.
In West Virginia, it’s illegal to collect and possess tadpoles, snake eggs, lizard eggs, skink eggs, turtle eggs, or other amphibian eggs.
West Virginia regulations prohibit taking and possessing 26 salamander species, 13 frog and toad species, six lizard species, 23 snake species and 12 turtle species.
“Unfortunately, at the last board meeting, with good intentions, the board voted to grant an exception to the live animal prohibition for tadpoles,” said Amy Willard, assistant treasurer for the Hope Scholarship.
“But subsequent to the meeting, we learned that it is apparently against West Virginia Division of Natural Resources regulations for individuals to possess tadpoles here in West Virginia.”
Willard said tadpoles were removed right away from a list of approved expenses. “But legally, we believe that the board needs to take action to rescind their previous motion to grant the exception for tadpoles,” so the board did.
Next, board members considered whether lunchboxes would be an allowable expense.
“We have historically denied the purchase of lunch boxes since food and kitchen equipment are on the non qualifying expense list, but after receiving multiple inquiries about this, we now recommend that lunch boxes be allowed for purchase as a basic school supply,” Willard said.
The number of families opting for the Hope Scholarship continues to grow.
Passed by the Legislature in 2021, the Hope Scholarship Act initially made the program available only to West Virginia children who were either entering kindergarten or enrolled in public school for a qualifying period of time.
However, the Act expands eligibility for the program beginning in the 2026-2027 school year to all school-age children residing in West Virginia.
Today, state Treasurer Larry Pack told the Hope board, “We have a record number of students coming into the program and continue to see the numbers increase as the program opens.
More than 13,000 students are set to receive the scholarship for this coming school year, he said. “That’s an increase from more than 10,000 the previous year, so very excited about that,” Pack said.