State requirements / West Virginia
West Virginia parenting class requirement
Required, and finished before mediation
West Virginia family courts order parents in a divorce involving minor children into parent education, and it must be completed before mediation or, where there is none, before the final hearing. The Supreme Court of Appeals approves the course, and the fee is capped at $25 paid to the circuit clerk.
The requirement at a glance
| Who must attend | The family court must order the parties to a divorce involving a minor child into parent education, unless it decides attendance is not appropriate or necessary given the parties' conduct or circumstances. It may also order parties in paternity, separate maintenance, or modification cases. The court rule puts it broadly: in proceedings involving minor children the parents shall be required to complete parent education. |
| Hours required | Not set for the basic course; the advanced course is 8 |
| Deadline | Not a day count but a sequence. Both parents must finish before any mediation or other non-judicial dispute resolution aimed at agreeing a parenting plan, and where there is no mediation, before the final hearing. |
| Authority | W. Va. Code 48-9-104; W. Va. Fam. Ct. R. 37 |
| Fees and waivers | The fee is capped by statute at $25, paid to the circuit clerk in the county of your case, not to the provider. Where a party is determined indigent and unable to pay, the court must waive it. Fees flow into a state parent education fund which reimburses the provider for materials and delivery, so the revenue model here is state reimbursement rather than consumer payment. The advanced, court-ordered course carries a higher fee. |
| Our price | $25 per case. Held at this state's statutory maximum. Scholarship seats are funded by donors, so no parent is turned away for money. |
| Our registry status | On our active build and filing list. We will announce the day this state accepts us, and not a day before. |
What the law actually says
“The family court may require that each person attending a parent education class pay a fee, not to exceed $25, to the clerk of the circuit court to defray the cost of materials and of hiring teachers.”
W. Va. Code 48-9-104(c)Quoted from the official text. Read it yourself at the source below.The part nobody explains
Filing your certificate
Both parents file a certificate of completion with the circuit clerk. Parents file it, not the provider.
If the deadline passes
If one or both parents have not completed parent education on time, the court may halt proceedings, and must then set the next hearing for a date certain and require completion before it. For good cause the court may go ahead anyway.
Who approves providers in West Virginia
The family court designates the provider with the approval of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and all parent education courses are subject to that approval. Five content topics are mandated, including the negative effects of domestic abuse and resources for dealing with it. Delivery is already online first, and the approved course is a third-party online program, which is the best precedent for outside approval in the country. It is also a single-designation regime with an entrenched incumbent, so this is an ask rather than an application.
What you get from us
- The full course, start to finish, on a phone or a laptop, with your progress saved. Lifetime access, no thirty-day expiry and no extension fees.
- Your certificate the moment you finish, by email, free. A mailed paper copy is optional.
- Free instant verification for your court. A clerk or judge confirms the certificate at our verification page with no account and no phone call.
- Our acceptance guarantee: if your specific court declines this certificate, you get a full refund, no processing fee and no deadline to claim it.
Check us on the law
Every fact on this page traces to an official source. Read them yourself.