News + Press
News + Press
News + Press
GOP Leadership Kills Raylee’s Law for Fourth Straight Year in Final Hour of Legislative Session
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 16, 2026
Charleston, WV — The West Virginia Democratic Party today responded to Governor Patrick Morrisey’s press conference on the just-completed legislative session by highlighting the shocking failure of the legislature to pass Raylee’s Law — a commonsense child protection measure that was sabotaged by House Republican leadership in the final hour of the session.
For the fourth year in a row, Raylee’s Law failed to pass the Legislature after Republican leadership in the West Virginia House of Delegates slow-walked debate and ran out the clock to prevent the bill from passing.
Raylee’s Law would simply put a 10 day hold on parents from switching to homeschooling if they are under a pending child abuse or neglect investigation reported by the school.
The bill is named for Raylee Browning, the 8-year-old who died in 2018 after suffering abuse following her withdrawal from public school.
Delegate Shawn Fluharty, who has sponsored Raylee’s Law for the last four consecutive years, condemned the decision by Republican leadership to kill the bill. “House leadership’s decision to sabotage Raylee’s Law and make protecting child abusers their number one priority on the final day of session is the most disgusting action I’ve ever seen in the legislature. Every West Virginian should be furious, and they deserve to know the type of people running their government.”
West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin said the closing moments of the legislative session revealed exactly what West Virginians find so troubling about politics. “The last hour of Day 60 in the WV House of Delegates was absolutely disgusting and epitomized everything people hate about politics. Watching Republican delegates slow roll their own legislation in an effort to kill Raylee’s law—and protect child abusers procedurally was frustrating to say the least, but it was incredibly indicative of who they are at their core.
Their priorities are horribly haywire.
In the process of protecting child abusers, they killed legislation to give much-needed tax relief to metallurgical coal producers who are seeing too many mines close and jobs lost. Instead, Republicans protected child abusers.
They could have taken up a bill to give homeowners relief by increasing the homestead tax exemption. Instead, they protected child abusers.
They could have increased funding for students with special needs and aided our counties, which have had to make difficult decisions to keep public schools open — or, in far too many cases, close them. Instead, they protected child abusers.
These people know no shame. Voters need to take a close look at how their legislators acted in the 11th hour.”
Delegate Kayla Young also criticized the Legislature’s failure to address rising costs facing West Virginians. “The Governor can try to spin this session as a success all he wants, but the fact is, it will be remembered as the session that made it easier for child abusers and harder for working families. We did nothing to lower rising utility costs. In fact, at the eleventh hour, we passed a bill that will guarantee your utility rates go up. This legislative session was just more of the same pandering to industry at the expense of West Virginians.”
Democratic leaders said the collapse of Raylee’s Law after four years of bipartisan advocacy demonstrates that Republican leadership prioritized political maneuvering over protecting vulnerable children.
“Raylee’s Law was simple, reasonable legislation designed to give authorities ten days to investigate abuse allegations before a child could be withdrawn from school,” Pushkin said. “Instead of protecting children, Republican leadership chose to protect child abusers.”
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