Chapter 49, Chapter 49

(a) The court or prosecuting attorney may offer a juvenile, against whom a petition has been filed alleging that the juvenile has committed any of the offenses set forth in subsection (b) of this section, the opportunity to participate in a voluntary restorative justice program, …

(a) The Secretary of the Department of Human Services and the Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety are directed, and the Juvenile Justice Commission of the Supreme Court of Appeals is requested to undertake a collaborative investigation and evaluation…

(a) Subject to the provisions of subsection (c) of this section, a juvenile’s attorney, the prosecuting attorney, or the court may raise the issue of his or her competency to participate in the proceeding any time during proceedings under this article. (b) In any delinquency proc…

As used in §49-4-727 through §49-4-734 of this code: “Competent” and “competency” refer to whether or not a juvenile has sufficient present ability to consult with his or her lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and has a rational as well as factual understan…

(a) When the prosecuting attorney, the juvenile’s attorney, or the guardian ad litem has reasonable basis to believe that: (1) A juvenile age 13 or older is incompetent to proceed in the delinquency action, that party shall file a motion for a determination of competency. The mot…

An evaluation ordered by the court shall be conducted by a qualified forensic evaluator. (1) A qualified forensic evaluator shall have education and training in the following areas: (A) Forensic evaluation procedures for juveniles, including accepted criteria used in evaluating c…

(a) The qualified forensic evaluator shall file with the court a written competency evaluation report within 30 days after the date of entry of the order requiring the juvenile to be evaluated and appointing the qualified forensic evaluator. For good cause shown, the court may ex…

(a) Not more than 15 judicial days after receiving the evaluator’s report, the court shall conduct a hearing to determine the juvenile’s competency to participate in the proceedings. The court may continue the hearing for good cause shown. (b) The competency evaluation report is …

(a) After a hearing pursuant to §49-4-732 of this code, if the court determines by a preponderance of the evidence that the juvenile is competent to proceed despite any presumption that may have applied, the delinquency proceedings shall resume as provided by law. (b) If the cour…

(a) If the court determines that the juvenile has attained competency, the court shall proceed with the delinquent juvenile’s proceeding in accordance with this article. (b) After a hearing pursuant to §49-4-732 of this code, if the court determines by the preponderance of the ev…

If a juvenile is presumed incompetent under §49-4-727(c) of this code, or if the issue of the juvenile’s competency to participate in the proceedings is raised at any time during the proceedings for a juvenile presumed competent under §49-4-727(b) of this code, the procedures out…

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that to the extent practicable, this article should encourage and require a child's parents to meet the obligation of providing that child with adequate food, shelter, clothing, education, and health and child care. (b) This article shall b…

(a) Any pre-existing support order from any other court or administrative agency with authority to issue a support order shall remain in full force and effect until a superseding order is issued. (b) If a child is returned to the physical custody of a parent, that parent is not r…

(a) Support orders may be enforced through any manner provided in chapters thirty-eight and forty-eight of this code. (b) An action for contempt for nonpayment of support may be brought by the Bureau for Children and Families or Bureau for Child Support Enforcement; the child's p…

A person who interferes with the direction of disposition of a child in accordance with an order of the court or judge made in pursuance of this chapter, or with the department, or a probation or other officer of the court in carrying out the directions of the court or judge unde…

A person who personally or by agent entices or forcibly removes a child from a custody in which the child was placed under this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction shall be fined not more than $100, or confined in jail not more than six months, or fined and co…

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter or by order of the court, all records and information concerning a child or juvenile which are maintained by the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Department of Human Services, a child agency or facility, or court or …

The proceedings, records, reports, case histories, and all other papers or documents of or received by the state department in the administration of this chapter shall be filed of record and preserved.

(a) Any findings or orders of the court in a juvenile proceeding shall be known as the juvenile record and shall be maintained by the clerk of the court. (b) Records of a juvenile proceeding conducted under this chapter are not public records and shall not be disclosed to anyone …

(a) One year after the juvenile’s 18th birthday, or one year after personal or juvenile jurisdiction has terminated, whichever is later, the records of a juvenile proceeding conducted under this chapter, including, but not limited to, law-enforcement files and records, may be kep…

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals is responsible for collecting, compiling and disseminating information in the juvenile justice database. Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, the court shall grant the Division of Justice and Community Servic…

(a) The Division of Juvenile Services, the department and the Supreme Court of Appeals shall establish procedures to jointly collect and compile data necessary to calculate juvenile recidivism and the outcome of programs. (b) For each juvenile who enters into a diversion agreemen…

(a) The Missing Children Information Clearinghouse is established under the West Virginia State Police. The State Police: (1) Shall provide for the administration of the clearinghouse; and (2) May promulgate rules in accordance with article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this co…

(a) The State Department of Education shall develop and administer a program for the location of missing children who may be enrolled in the West Virginia school system, including private schools, and for the reporting of children who may be missing or who may be unlawfully remov…

(a) The Department of Human Services and every law-enforcement agency in West Virginia shall provide to the clearinghouse or another investigating law-enforcement agency any information that would assist in locating or identifying a missing child. (b) For purposes of this article…

(a) Upon written request made to a law-enforcement agency by the custodian of a missing child, the law-enforcement agency shall request from the clearinghouse information concerning the child that may aid the custodian in locating or identifying the child. (b) A law-enforcement a…

(a) The clearinghouse shall distribute missing child and missing and endangered child report forms to law-enforcement agencies in the state and to the Department of Human Services. (b) A missing child or missing and endangered child report may be made to a law-enforcement agency …

(a) A law-enforcement agency, upon receiving a missing child or missing and endangered child report, shall: (1) Start an investigation to determine the present location of the child if it determines that the child is in danger; and (2) Enter the name of the missing child or missi…

(a) At the time a missing child report is made, the law-enforcement agency to which the missing child report is given may, when feasible and appropriate, provide a dental record release form to the parent, custodian, health care surrogate or other legal entity authorized to relea…

(a) The clearinghouse shall, in accordance with national crime information center policies and procedures, cross-check and attempt to match unidentified bodies with descriptions of missing children. When the clearinghouse discovers a possible match between an unidentified body an…

(a) State agencies and public and private schools shall cooperate with a law-enforcement agency that is investigating any missing child or missing and endangered child report and shall furnish any information, including confidential information, that will assist the law-enforceme…

(a) The State Police shall promulgate rules according §29A-3-1 et seq. of this code to provide for the classification of information and records as confidential that: (1) Are otherwise confidential under state or federal law or rules promulgated pursuant to state or federal law; …

The Attorney General shall require each law-enforcement agency to comply with the provisions of the Missing Children Information Act and may seek writs of mandamus or other appropriate remedies to enforce this article.

(a) Upon completion of the missing child or missing and endangered child report the law-enforcement agency shall immediately forward the contents of the report to the missing children information clearinghouse and the National Crime Information Center’s missing person file. Howev…

(a) The Clearinghouse Advisory Council is continued as a body corporate and politic, constituting a public corporation and government instrumentality. The council shall consist of 11 members who are knowledgeable about and interested in issues relating to missing or exploited chi…

The council shall prepare a comprehensive strategic plan and recommendation of programs in furtherance thereof that will support efforts to prevent the abduction, runaway and exploitation, or any thereof, of children to locate missing children, advise the West Virginia State Poli…

(a) In furtherance of its mission, the clearinghouse council is authorized to enter into contracts or joint venture agreements with federal and state agencies; with nonprofit corporations organized pursuant to the corporate laws of this state or other jurisdictions that are quali…

(a) The Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Services shall establish a Missing Foster Child Locator Unit within the department with a minimum staffing of a northern-based caseworker, a southern-based caseworker, and an identified worker located in the Centralized I…

The interstate compact on the placement of children is hereby enacted into law and entered into with all other jurisdictions legally joining therein in form substantially as follows: INTERSTATE COMPACT ON THE PLACEMENT OF CHILDREN ARTICLE I. PURPOSE AND POLICY. It is the purpose …

(a) Financial responsibility for any child placed pursuant to the provisions of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of Article V thereof in the first instance. However, in the event of partial or complete defau…

(a) The Legislature finds that: (1) Finding adoptive families for children, for whom state assistance is desirable pursuant to section one hundred twelve, article four, of this chapter and assuring the protection of the interests of the children affected during the entire assista…

(a) The Department of Human Services is authorized to develop, participate in the development of, negotiate and enter into one or more interstate compacts on behalf of this state with other states to implement one or more of the purposes set forth in sections two hundred one thro…

A compact entered into pursuant to the authority conferred by sections two hundred one through two hundred four of this article shall have the following content: (1) A provision making it available to joinder by all states. (2) A provision or provisions for withdrawal from the co…

(a) A child with special needs resident in this state who is the subject of an adoption assistance agreement with another state shall be entitled to receive a medical assistance identification from this state upon the filing in the Department of Human Services of a certified copy…

The Governor of this state is authorized and directed to execute a compact on behalf of the State of West Virginia with any state or states of the United States legally joining therein, and substantially as follows: INTERSTATE COMPACT FOR JUVENILES ARTICLE I. PURPOSE. (a) The com…

(a) Upon the effective date of the interstate compact for juveniles, there shall be created a state council for interstate juvenile supervision. The state council shall be comprised of a total of nine members, to be selected and designated as follows: (1) Two members designated b…

(a) Upon and after the effective date of the interstate compact for juveniles, the Governor is hereby authorized and empowered to designate an officer who shall be the compact administrator and who, acting jointly with like offices of the other party states, shall be responsible …

Within ten days of the date that the thirty-fifth state adopts legislation approving this compact, the appointed or designated juvenile compact administrator under section three hundred three, article seven of this chapter shall advise the Governor, the Chief Justice of the Supre…

(a) In certain circumstances where a parent, or legal custodian of a child is temporarily unable to care for the child due to a crisis or other circumstances, a less intrusive the Legislature finds that alternative to guardianship or the Department of Human Services taking custod…

For purposes of this article: (1) “Child” means an individual under eighteen years of age; (2) “Qualified nonprofit organization” means a charitable or religious institution that is exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as …