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Hope Scholarship accepting renewal applications

(Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

CHARLESTON — Continuing Participation Confirmations for current Hope Scholarship students wanting to continue their participation in the program during the 2025-2026 school year are now available, the state treasurer of West Virginia said.

Continuing Participation Confirmations, previously referred to as a renewal application, will be accepted through June 15 on the Hope Scholarship online portal. Late confirmations will not be accepted.

If a student fails to submit a confirmation by the June 15 deadline, their application would be considered a new application and the student would be subject to the statutory eligibility requirements for the program, requiring them to return to public school under the 45-day pathway to become eligible for the 2025-2026 school year.

“This is a great opportunity for educational choice in West Virginia,” Treasurer Larry Pack, chairman of the Hope Scholarship Board, said.

“My office has seen rapid growth in Hope Scholarship participation in the last year,” he said. “I want to encourage all participating families to submit their confirmations for their child as soon as possible.”

Students continuing participation in the program will have to demonstrate current proof of West Virginia residency.

A new, simplified residency process through Plaid will be available. Plaid will help expedite the review process and result in a faster decision on the application.

Families who do not wish to utilize Plaid or those where Plaid is unable to confirm the address will be able to upload proof of residency documentation such as utility bills and vehicle registrations with their application for manual review.

After logging on to the Hope Scholarship online portal, families are advised to navigate to the My Applications tab and click the Continued Participation link under their current school year application status.

Approved confirmations will be updated to a status of Conditionally Eligible in the online platform. In early July, the Hope Scholarship Board staff plans to review all Conditionally Eligible students to ensure that the required academic progress reporting for the 2024-2025 school year has been recorded by the student’s county board of education and will update their status to Approved for the 2025-2026 school year.

Academic progress data for the 2024-2025 school year is due to county boards of education by June 8. Parents of Individualized Instructional Plan students, including microschool students, must submit either nationally normed standardized test results or a certified teacher academic progress review to the county board of education.

Hope Scholarship applications for new students for the 2025-2026 school year will be available on March 1. New applications are only being accepted for the remainder of the 2024-2025 school year through Feb. 28.

The Hope Scholarship will open to all school-age children residing in West Virginia beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year.

Program participation grew from 2,333 students during the 2022-2023 school year to 5,443 students during the 2023-2024 school year.

The Hope Scholarship award amount varies each school year depending on the amount of state aid funding per pupil provided to county boards of education for public school students. The award amount for the 2024-2025 year was $4,921.39 and is expected to be $5,267.38 for the 2025-2026 school year.

More information on the program is available at www.hopescholarshipwv.com.

Starting at $2.99/week.

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