CHARLESTON, W.Va – The West Virginia Hope Scholarship Board of Directors is moving forward with a plan to comply with legislation passed earlier this year that requires Hope funding to be paid out on a quarterly basis.
The legislature approved that measure during the most recent session, and now, families receiving scholarship money are required to have their documentation filed by the first day of each month that funds are dispersed.
“We were trying to come up with a way to facilitate this and make it clear to parents what certain deadlines are in order for them to be able to receive funding at each quarterly funding distribution set forth in statute,” Hope Scholarship assistant treasurer Amy Willard said during the board’s special meeting on Thursday.
The board voter in favor of the proposal requiring families to be in compliance by the first day of August, October, January, and April, with payments to be released on the 15th of each of those months. Families that miss those deadlines will not be able to receive funds until the following quarter.
“If we have families who don’t turn in their notice of intent by August 1, which would be the deadline for the August funding distribution, they would not be eligible to receive funding until October,” Willard said.
Hope staff anticipates a need to establish dates for additional payouts in case the volume of applicants during the school year is large enough to warrant it. Willard expects that the gap from October to January may be problematic.
“We may process an additional funding distribution between October and January based on the number of applications newly in compliance and awaiting funding,” she said.
Additionally, the proposal permits staff to approve additional distribution between the April and August dates. That is intended to make sure any families applying late can receive funding.
“There’s always stragglers who don’t have their stuff turned in at the end of the year, so we anticipate there will be a need to do some additional funding distributions, at least one, after that April statutory funding date so we can capture anyone who is really late,” Willard said.
State treasurer Larry Pack said earlier this week that over 26,000 students have applied for full funding through the Hope program this year.