West Virginia's Hope Scholarship in Plain English: What It Is, Who Runs It and What It Pays

West Virginia has an education savings account program called the Hope Scholarship. If your child qualifies and you sign the program's agreement, the state puts money into an account for that child, and you spend it through an online portal on approved education costs: private school tuition, curriculum, tutoring, therapies, testing, technology and more. That is the whole idea in two sentences.

The details matter, because the Hope Scholarship has its own rules about who qualifies, how much money arrives and when, what you can buy and what you promise in return. This guide walks through the basics so the rest of our Hope articles make sense.

Where it came from

The Legislature created the program in 2021 with House Bill 2013, the Hope Scholarship Act. The law lives in Chapter 18, Article 31 of the West Virginia Code, starting at §18-31-1. The statute required the program to be operating no later than July 1, 2022. It has been amended since, most notably by House Bill 4945 in 2024 and by House Bill 5686 in 2026, which added a new section on quarterly payments.

Who runs it

The program is governed by the Hope Scholarship Board, and the West Virginia State Treasurer's Office does much of the day-to-day administration. The parent handbook names Student First Technologies LLC as the program manager the Board hired to run the online portal. You will see the name Theo in emails and in the shopping tool, TheoPay, because that is the platform behind the portal.

The Board's website is hopescholarshipwv.gov. Questions go to the Hope Engagement Center or to Board staff, and both contacts are listed there. The West Virginia Department of Education and your county board of education also have roles: the Board checks eligibility with the Department, and the county keeps track of your notice of intent and your child's yearly academic results.

The program in six lines

• Amount for 2026-27: $5,435.62 for a full award, according to the Board's FAQ and the parent handbook.
• Who qualifies: a West Virginia resident who is enrolled, eligible to be enrolled or required to be enrolled in a public kindergarten or K-12 program at the time of application, has not graduated and is under 21.
• How it pays: four quarterly deposits by August 15, October 15, January 15 and April 15, starting with the 2026-27 school year.
• Where the money goes: directly to approved schools, providers and vendors through the portal. It is not sent to parents.
• The catch: your child cannot also be enrolled full-time in a West Virginia public school.
• The strings: instruction in five core subjects, an annual academic progress check, spending only on qualifying expenses and a yearly continued participation confirmation.

How the amount is set

Under §18-31-6, the award equals 100 percent of the prior year's statewide average net state aid per pupil. In plain terms, it tracks what the state school aid formula spent per student the year before, which is why the number changes every year and why it has cents on the end. The handbook notes that up to five percent can be kept by the Board to run the program. Families who start partway through a year receive a prorated award, which we explain in a separate article.

What the money can buy

The statute lists qualifying expenses in §18-31-7, and the Board has added more by policy. The big categories are tuition and fees at participating private schools and microschools, tutoring by someone who is not an immediate family member, curriculum, nationally standardized tests and AP exams, online courses, educational therapies, technology needed for an educational program, dual credit college courses, and part-time classes or activities from a public school. A parent cannot pay themselves out of the account, and refunds go back into the account rather than to the family.

What you agree to

To get an award, a parent signs an agreement with the Board. Under §18-31-5, you promise to teach at least reading, language, mathematics, science and social studies, to spend the funds only on qualifying expenses, to follow program rules, to give your child chances for enrichment such as athletics, art, music or literature, and to tell the Board right away if your child goes back to public school or finishes high school.

You also file a Hope Scholarship notice of intent with your county board of education after the application reaches Eligible status. That notice is separate from the notice of intent used by traditional homeschoolers, and the account will not be funded without it on file.

A family weighing it

The Ashworths live outside Elkins and have homeschooled their two children for four years under the regular notice of intent. Until this year, neither child qualified for Hope, because the program required recent public school enrollment. When eligibility opened to all K-12 students for 2026-27, they read the parent handbook, decided they were comfortable with the yearly progress check, and applied in the spring window so each child would receive the full award. Their first purchases were a math curriculum they already liked and a weekly science co-op class taught by a provider who signed up with the program.

(A composite example — names and details are illustrative, drawn from situations homeschool families commonly describe.)

What changed recently

Two changes matter most for 2026-27. First, universal eligibility took effect July 1, 2026, because program participation stayed under a five percent threshold written into the law. Second, House Bill 5686 moved the program from two deposits a year to four. Our Hope Scholarship guide keeps the current basics in one place.

Before you do anything else

• Read the current Hope Scholarship Parent Handbook, updated June 25, 2026.
• Skim the program FAQ, especially the sections on notices of intent and academic reporting.
• Get your child's WVEIS identification number from your county board of education if you do not already have it.
• Check whether the curriculum, tutors and classes you already use are participating providers, and browse our vendor directory for options.
• Mark the June 15 deadline for full funding on your education calendar for next year.

Bottom line

The Hope Scholarship is real money with real rules, run by a state board through an online portal. For 2026-27 nearly every West Virginia K-12 student can apply. Whether it fits your family depends on whether you are comfortable with the agreement, the yearly progress check and buying through the portal.

My Learning Source is an independent marketplace and is not affiliated with the West Virginia Hope Scholarship Board, the West Virginia State Treasurer's Office, the West Virginia Department of Education, Student First Technologies or any county board of education. Award amounts, windows and rules change from year to year — confirm details with the Hope Scholarship Board before you act. Family examples are composites, not real individuals.