CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – In a meeting on Wednesday, the West Virginia Treasurer and Attorney General laid out the regulations for hope scholarship recipients.

This comes after the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled the scholarship constitutional in October 2022.

The scholarship was under review after those opposed to it said it takes away state funding that they believe should go into public schools.

However, Riley Moore, the West Virginia State Treasurer says this will provide “educational freedom” to everyone in the state.

“This is a program that’s going to advantage the disadvantaged. If you’re a family that’s rich in the state of West Virginia, you probably don’t really care about this too much. But if we’re talking about families that are looking for different educational options for their children and families, this is a huge win,” Moore explained.   

Now, with the court’s approval – Moore says they’re playing catch up to make sure those recipients are squared away before January – or next semester.  

During Wednesday’s meeting, they went through what recipients can expect as those children head into the next semester and finish off the school year.  

Those recipients who continued in private school this semester – without the scholarship – will receive coverage for this semester and next semester in full, in January.  

Those recipients who went to public school this semester and are transferring over to private schools now for the second semester will only receive the scholarship for the second semester.  

The recipients who went to public school this year and plan to finish the school year in public school will have to reapply for the scholarship next year.  

The West Virginia Attorney General, Patrick Morrisey, says he’s confident this will make every school across the state more competitive.

“This is going to mean great things for West Virginia. I think it’s going to help those families. It’s also going to inject additional competition and we want to make sure that our public schools are performing at the best possible rate.”  

Right now, no new applications for the school year will be approved, but people can apply in January for the next school year.