(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
(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 removed from schools. (b) The program shall include the […]
(a) The Department of Health and Human Resources 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: (1) “Missing and endangered child” means any missing child for which there […]
(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 agency to which a request has been made pursuant to subsection (a) of […]
(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 Health and Human Resources. (b) A missing child or missing and endangered child report may be made to a law-enforcement agency in person or by telephone, or other indirect method […]
(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
(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 release the dental records of the missing child. The law-enforcement […]
(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 and a missing child description, the clearinghouse shall notify the appropriate law-enforcement agencies. (b) A law-enforcement agency that […]
(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-enforcement agency in completing the investigation. (b) Information provided by a state agency or a public or […]
(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 Centers missing person file. However, if an information entry into the National Crime Information Center file results in an automatic […]
(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 children, as follows: (1) Six members to be appointed by the Governor, with the advice […]
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 Police regarding operation of the clearinghouse and its other responsibilities under this article, and cooperate […]
(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 qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code; and with other organizations that […]
(a) The Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources 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 Intake Unit. (b) The duties of the Missing Foster Child Locator Unit […]
