Can a state reinvent itself? If so, West Virginia is trying.

Once home to coal mining jobs handed down from generation to generation, now state residents and media outlets are ready for change. “West Virginia residents must insist on a welcoming and creative environment where new ideas are encouraged, new concepts can grow,” wrote a Daily Mail editorial in June 2016.

State business analysts write, “Economic development strategies should focus on ways to improve health and education outcomes in the state to make West Virginia’s workforce more attractive to potential businesses.”

As families and policymakers look for ways to continue West Virginia’s long-awaited fiscal rebound, lawmakers should include more education opportunities for the state’s most vulnerable students as part of the state’s new identity.

But first, the economy: Last August, President Donald Trump touted West Virginia’s economic growth as a boon to state families and emblematic of national trends. Improved state GDP figures and a better unemployment rate seemed to support the claim that West Virginia was finally on the mend after a prolonged recovery from the financial downturn.

Yet analysts suggest West Virginia benefitted from national and global trends that helped traditional state industries, namely strong energy prices in the second half of 2016 and into 2017. West Virginia University’s College of Business and Economics’ annual outlook, a bellwether for the state, says the energy sector remains “an important driver of economic activity in the state.”

New businesses and industries have yet to take root.

Meanwhile, West Virginia continues to struggle with what one observer calls “steeper demographic” challenges. Put simply, West Virginia has aging residents and people are leaving.

U.S. Census data find West Virginia has one of the oldest average populations. State analysts predict that in the coming years, nearly one in four state residents will be 65 or older. West Virginia also ranks near the bottom with Wyoming and Illinois in terms of negative population changes from 2016-17.

Education trends are consistent with these figures. Cardinal Institute research found the state’s public school enrollment has dropped by nearly one-third since the 1969-70 school year. Nationally, public school enrollment grew by 11 percent during this period.

Likewise, since 2000, West Virginia has seen its enrollment of students with special needs decrease by 12 percent.

With an idea that would change the quality of life for 44,000 families of children with special needs, state lawmakers introduced a proposal this year to bring the nation’s most innovative learning option to West Virginia, education savings accounts.

As law in six states around the country, the state deposits a portion of a child’s funds from the state education formula into a private account that parents use to buy educational products and services for their children.

Education savings accounts allow families to customize a child’s learning experience. Families can use the accounts to pay tuition at online schools, hire personal tutors, and find educational therapies for children with special needs. Parents can save money from year to year to prepare for high school and even college expenses.

Lawmakers in Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Nevada have enacted such accounts. And in Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi, children with special needs are the only students eligible for the accounts so far—similar to West Virginia’s proposal.

Education savings accounts will give families the opportunity to change the course of their child’s life today. One Arizona family using an account explained it this way: “My son was being completely left behind with no attention whatsoever” in his previous school, says Kimber Cartwright.

Today: “We’ve been able to choose what schools he goes to, what therapies, and even add extra curriculum to the private school that he’s in,” Kimber says.

West Virginia policymakers can take a step to improve the lives of some of the state’s most vulnerable children by making education savings accounts available to children with special needs. The move could be an important example of how West Virginia is ready to bounce back in the 21^st century.