CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The West Virginia House of Delegates approved House Bill 5537 late on the final night of the 2026 regular legislative session after the measure was amended to include provisions known as “Raylee’s Law.”
House Bill 5537 was originally introduced to repeal obsolete and outdated sections of the state’s education code. During the legislative process in the Senate, language known as Raylee’s Law was added to the bill as an amendment.
The Raylee’s Law provisions would pause a parent’s request to withdraw a child from public school for homeschooling if the parent is involved in an active child abuse or neglect investigation initiated by a teacher. Under the proposal, Child Protective Services would be required to complete the investigation within 10 days.
The measure is named for 8-year-old Raylee Browning, who died in 2018 after suffering severe abuse and neglect. Her teachers had alerted Child Protective Services to possible abuse before her abusers withdrew her from public school and began homeschooling her.
Throughout the day, the House considered Senate messages, with House Bill 5537 placed at the foot of those messages.
With limited time remaining before the Legislature’s midnight adjournment sine die, Del. Elliott Pritt, R-Fayette, made a motion at 10:33 p.m. to immediately consider the bill.
That motion failed on a 49-47 vote. Lawmakers who voted against the motion opposed taking up the bill immediately, which raised concerns that it might not receive a final vote before the midnight deadline.
Supporters of the legislation then pursued several procedural motions aimed at accelerating debate and consideration of Senate messages in hopes of creating time to bring the amended bill to the floor.
The House ultimately took up the measure in the final minutes of the session. At 11:57 p.m., House Bill 5537 — including the Raylee’s Law provisions — passed the full House on a 94-1 vote.
