House Bill 3209
Published MARCH 14, 2025

Last week, our association had a very successful first Day on the Hill event in Charleston. We are looking forward to continuing this event annually and increasing our advocacy efforts around the state. 

We have heard many concerns throughout the last week of counseling positions being cut or positions being combined, which would make schools have to share school counselors rather than having at least one full-time school counselor at each school. We want to help in any way we can with this situation, but we also want to share some information about ways you can advocate for your positions. 

There is a current bill in the West Virginia legislature that would help with the elimination and/or consolidation of school counseling positions - HB 3209 - this bill would require at least one (1) school counselor for every 250-300 students in elementary and 400-450 in high schools. You can now add public comments on any bill, so we highly recommend adding your thoughts to this one. You can do that by going to the website below and clicking "Add Public Comment." We recommend sharing this with your county and state colleagues as well because the more we share and get this bill out there, the more we have a chance at it passing!  https://www.wvlegislature.gov/bill_status/Bills_history.cfm?input=3209&year=2025&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill

We also recommend emailing the sponsors of this bill - Delegates Statler, Brooks, Criss, Ellington, Heckert, Cooper, Campbell, Stephens, Vance, Dittman, and Hanshaw (Mr. Speaker) - to encourage them to push this bill through the committees and onto the House and Senate floors. They have deadlines when bills that are not taken out of committee cannot be pursued during the session anymore, and we would like to give this bill a chance to be voted on in the House and Senate during this session. 

Additionally, another way to advocate for your positions is to use your data! Show the board and the community how much you do at your schools! So much good work is going on in all the public schools in WV and especially through our state's school counseling programs.  Everyone with a K12 account has free access to Canva. Use this to your advantage. Throw together some graphics and share what you do and how it helps your school every day! You can also speak publicly at any board of education meeting during the public delegation portion of the meeting. Additionally, if you received a RIF or transfer letter, you have a right to a hearing, and this information is stated in your letter that you received from the board. You can contact your union for help with representation at this meeting. 

If you would like more information or if you have a way that our association can help you advocate for your position in your county, please let us know by contacting Lauren Hensley, our Government Relations chair, at Lnshaw@k12.wv.us.