This Science and Technology Note explores access to maternal healthcare in West Virginia. It also explores the role certified professional midwives can play in obstetric care and their licensure.

This Science & Technology Note provides data on the rates of chronic absenteeism in West Virginia, explains the effects of chronic absenteeism on students, provides theories for the elevated rate of chronic absenteeism, and focuses on teacher home visits as a potential way to address chronic absenteeism in the state.

This Science and Technology Note discusses current data center legislation in West Virginia. It also focuses on their potential economic impact and the utility services required for their operation and local residents’ concerns about these requirements.

This follow-up Science and Technology note dives deeper into data centers. It highlights the electricity and water required to run a data center and explains the size and reliability requirements of data center facilities.

This Science and Technology Note discusses when DNA samples may be collected in West Virginia, how those samples are used for law enforcement purposes, and how DNA sample collection laws differ in other states.

Many West Virginians are unable to afford or access healthy, nutritious foods despite both federal and state level strategies to help combat these issues. This Science & Technology Note expands on a previous note and explores the state of food insecurity and food deserts in West Virginia, as well as government funding and alternative farming techniques to help alleviate these issues.

This Science and Technology Note expands upon a previous note on forensic DNA use and focuses on law enforcement’s use of consumer-based genetic geology services.

This Science and Technology note explains geoengineering technologies relevant to West Virginia and their potential use. It also discusses common concerns and misconceptions surrounding the process and highlights the actions states have taken to address geoengineering.

This Science and Technology Note discusses the use of GLP-1 agonists for diabetes and weight loss as well as their coverage under state-sponsored insurance plans.

In light of the current outbreak of EHD in the Mid-Ohio Valley, this S&T Note covers EHD causes and symptoms, as well as potential methods to decrease disease spread.

This S&T Notes discusses the effects of kratom, West Virginia’s current kratom legislation, and federal and state actions to regulate kratom use.

This Science & Technology Note provides an overview of the effects of light pollution on people, animals, and plants, gives information on recent increases in light pollution, and highlights legislation that states have implemented in an effort to preserve dark skies.

This Science and Technology note reviews the state of microgrids in West Virginia, explains the benefits of and barriers to microgrid development, and highlights key actions states are taking surrounding microgrid development.

This Science & Technology Note provides statistics on opioid overdoses in West Virginia’s children, information on the lifesaving drug naloxone and its use in West Virginia’s schools, and policies that other states have implemented to provide naloxone to schools.

This Science and Technology Note discusses the landscape of food insecurity and poverty in West Virginia, the state of school lunch programs, and implementation examples from other states.

This Science & Technology Note explains how special education services are funded at the federal, state, and local levels, with emphasis on West Virginia’s special education funding mechanism.

This Science & Technology Note provides information on the health effects of vaping, vaping rates in West Virginia, and gives an overview of the vaping regulations of West Virginia and its neighboring states.

This Science and Technology Note discusses the status of water fluoridation, related mandates in West Virginia, and potential benefits and challenges to the practice.

This Science & Technology Note describes the economic and environmental impacts of oak forests on West Virginia, explains different forest management techniques, and highlights policy options to encourage active forest management by both public and private landowners in order to restore oak forests.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assists individuals in purchasing food, including about 14% of West Virginians. New federal law and the October 2025 federal government shutdown brought various changes to SNAP. This Science and Technology Note explores SNAP’s function, its changes, and how states are navigating SNAP amidst the federal shutdown.