---
type: "Bill"
title: "Relating to a court's consideration of the expression of a preference by a child in certain child custody matters"
description: "Relating to a court's consideration of the expression of a preference by a child in certain child custody matters"
jurisdiction: "us/states/wv"
legislature: "West Virginia Legislature"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 3039"
citation: "West Virginia HB 3039 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Courts", "Domestic Relations"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Foster"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 40
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2020-01-08"
last_action: "2020-04-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9038ad99-26b1-40a2-8f8b-2673fc57cbad"
source_url: "http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=3039&year=2020&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill"
source_hash: "494ad7e53803bcccaa1f383916cdc7831c5ba766604667a75f36a65ba5f8186e"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-wv"]
---

# West Virginia HB 3039 (2020) — Relating to a court's consideration of the expression of a preference by a child in certain child custody matters

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Enrolled Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb3039%20ENR.htm&yr=2020&sesstype=RS&i=3039)
2. **HB3039 HFAT SHOTT 2-27 adopted.htm** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/legisdocs/chamber/2020/RS/floor_amends/HB3039 HFAT SHOTT 2-27 adopted.htm)
3. **HB3039 S JUD AM _1 adopted.htm** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/legisdocs/chamber/2020/RS/com_amends/HB3039 S JUD AM _1 adopted.htm)
4. **HB3039 S JUD AMT _1 2-5 adopted.htm** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/legisdocs/chamber/2020/RS/com_amends/HB3039 S JUD AMT _1 2-5 adopted.htm)
5. **Introduced Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb3039%20intr.htm&yr=2020&sesstype=RS&i=3039)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **87–11** (pass) · lower
- PASSAGE-SENATE AMENDED HB — **83–16** (pass) · lower
- Passage — **33–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Foster — primary (person)
- Jeffries, D. — cosponsor (person)
- Mandt — cosponsor (person)
- Phillips — cosponsor (person)
- Williams — cosponsor (person)
- Wilson — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-08** Filed for introduction `filing`
- **2020-01-08** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-08** Introduced in House `introduction`
- **2020-01-08** To House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-10** Do pass
- **2020-01-13** On 1st reading, Special Calendar
- **2020-01-13** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2020-01-14** On 2nd reading, Special Calendar
- **2020-01-14** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-01-15** On 3rd reading, Special Calendar
- **2020-01-15** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-01-15** Passed House (Roll No. 3) `passage`
- **2020-01-15** Communicated to Senate
- **2020-01-16** Introduced in Senate `introduction`
- **2020-01-16** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-01-16** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-06** Reported do pass, with amendment and title amendment `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-07** On 1st reading
- **2020-02-07** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-10** On 2nd reading
- **2020-02-10** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-10** Committee amendment adopted (Voice vote)
- **2020-02-11** On 3rd reading
- **2020-02-11** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-11** Passed Senate with amended title (Roll No. 115) `passage`
- **2020-02-11** Senate requests House to concur
- **2020-02-27** House received Senate message
- **2020-02-27** House concurred in Senate amend with amend, passed bill (Roll No. 377)
- **2020-02-27** Communicated to Senate
- **2020-03-07** House Message received
- **2020-03-07** Senate concurred in House amendments and passed bill (Roll No. 632)
- **2020-03-07** Communicated to House
- **2020-03-07** Completed legislative action
- **2020-03-07** To Governor 3/19/20 - Senate Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2020-03-07** To Governor 3/19/20 - House Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2020-03-19** To Governor 3/19/20 `executive-receipt`
- **2020-03-07** Approved by Governor 3/25/20 - Senate Journal
- **2020-03-07** Approved by Governor 3/25/20 - House Journal
- **2020-03-25** Approved by Governor 3/25/20 `executive-signature`
- **2020-04-15** Chapter 102, Acts, Regular Session, 2020

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9038ad99-26b1-40a2-8f8b-2673fc57cbad`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official West Virginia legislature records).