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Board adopts policy to implement West Virginia Third Grade Success Act; creates early intervention documentation
Summary
To comply with the West Virginia Third Grade Success Act, the Ohio County Board adopted Policy 3030 requiring intervention documentation starting in kindergarten and clarifying exemptions and a good‑cause process; trustees approved the policy unanimously after a brief wording change.
The Ohio County Board of Education voted unanimously May 11 to adopt Policy 3030, the district’s retention policy drafted to comply with the West Virginia Third Grade Success Act.
District staff explained that the policy defines "minimal understanding" by West Virginia General Summative Assessment (GSA) performance — students scoring in the "does not meet standard" range for ELA, math or both may be recommended for retention. The policy includes multiple exemption categories: students who take the alternate DLM assessment under an IEP, students who have received intensive intervention for two or more years, English‑language learners with fewer than three years of instruction in English, students who pass the alternate assessment after summer programming, and a "good‑cause" exemption for special circumstances when the superintendent or designee determines promotion is in a student’s best interest.
Staff also described a district intervention folder to be created beginning in kindergarten for any student who falls into yellow or red on benchmark screeners. That folder will collect early literacy and math screeners (STAR), progress‑monitoring data, SAT/IEP documentation, attendance and screening records, extended‑year participation details, and notification letters to parents — materials staff said will support objective decisions about retention.
Board members asked clarifying questions and requested one wording change about the timing for submitting good‑cause exemption requests; staff agreed to change the phrasing to specify the submission window is relative to the final day of the school year ("within five business days after the final day of school" for standard years and a parallel period following extended‑year programs).
Following the discussion, the board moved and voted to accept the policy as revised.
Next steps: staff will publish the revised policy and implement the intervention folder process and required parent notifications in coming months.
