SB 1003 West Virginia Senate · 2026 Regular Session

Creating regional pediatric mental health hubs

This bill creates three regional pediatric mental health hubs (Northern, Southern, and Central) in West Virginia to improve access to care for children under 12. Each hub must maintain real-time service directories, live wait-time maps for counselors, and provide parents with a behavioral health coach within 48 hours during waitlists. It also establishes secure telehealth kiosks in county health departments for families without high-speed internet. The bill redirects 5% of current "Out-of-State Residential Placement" funds to cover these in-home services, prioritizing community support over removing children from their homes due to unavailable local resources.

Issues: ✓ Healthcare ✓ Technology

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 19, 2026 Last action Feb 24, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Committee Substitute · 5 edits

MODERATE

The bill was amended to remove the explicit 'Home-First' policy mandate, shifting the focus to creating regional pediatric mental health hubs. The text was also updated to reflect the Committee Substitute version rather than the original Introduced Version, and the session header was corrected to match the official legislative session name.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed by removing the specific policy declaration that no child under 12 should be removed from their home solely due to unavailable community resources.

POLICY

Deleted the 'Home-First' Mandate section stating that children under 12 cannot be removed from their homes solely because community resources are unavailable.

REQUIREMENT

Updated the description of Regional Pediatric Resource Hubs to specify that directories and maps must cover services 'in their area' and that telehealth kiosks allow access to 'specialty appointments' rather than specialists in specific cities.

Refined the behavioral coaching requirement to specify it occurs within 48 hours of 'first contact' and applies while a child is on a waitlist or scheduled for a future appointment.

TECHNICAL

Changed the document title from 'Introduced Version' to 'Committee Substitute' and updated the session header to 'WEST virginia legislature'.

Removed the fiscal note section and the introductory text regarding the bill's referral to committees.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 24, 2026

Committee

To Finance

upper

Feb 24, 2026

Committee

Committee substitute reported, but first to Finance

upper

Feb 19, 2026

Committee

To Health and Human Resources

upper

Feb 19, 2026

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

Feb 19, 2026

Committee

To Health and Human Resources then Finance

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors