Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 7A > Article 2 - Powers and Limitations

• Adult: means a person who is at least eighteen years of age. See West Virginia Code 49-1-202
• Caregiver: means any person who is at least eighteen years of age and:

  (A) Is related by blood, marriage or adoption to the minor, but who is not the legal custodian or guardian of the minor. See West Virginia Code 49-1-204

• child: means an individual who meets one of the following conditions:

  (A) Is under thirteen years of age. See West Virginia Code 49-1-202

• Child care: means responsibilities assumed and services performed in relation to a child's physical, emotional, psychological, social, and personal needs and the consideration of the child's rights and entitlements, but does not include secure detention or incarceration under the jurisdiction of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation pursuant to §. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Child care services: means direct care and protection of children during a portion of a 24-hour day outside of the child's own home which provides experiences to children that foster their healthy development and education. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Child placing agency: means a child welfare agency organized for the purpose of placing children in private family homes for foster care or for adoption. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Child welfare agency: means any agency or facility maintained by the state or any county or municipality thereof, or any agency or facility maintained by an individual, firm, corporation, association, or organization, public or private, to receive children for care and maintenance or for placement in residential care facilities, including, without limitation, private homes or any facility that provides care for unmarried mothers and their children. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Community based: means a facility, program, or service located near the child's home or family and involving community participation in planning, operation, and evaluation and which may include, but is not limited to, medical, educational, vocational, social, and psychological guidance, training, special education, counseling, substance abuse, and any other treatment or rehabilitation services. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Community-based juvenile probation sanctions: means any of a continuum of nonresidential accountability measures, programs, and sanctions in response to a technical violation of probation, as part of a system of community-based juvenile probation sanctions and incentives, that may include, but are not limited to:

  (A) Electronic monitoring. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206

• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Court: means the circuit court of the county with jurisdiction of the case or the judge in vacation unless otherwise specifically provided. See West Virginia Code 49-1-207
• Custodian: means a person who has or shares actual physical possession or care and custody of a child, regardless of whether that person has been granted custody of the child by any contract or agreement. See West Virginia Code 49-1-204
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Evidence-based practices: means policies, procedures, programs, and practices demonstrated by research to reliably produce reductions in the likelihood of reoffending. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Facility: means a place or residence, including personnel, structures, grounds, and equipment used for the care of a child or children on a residential or other basis for any number of hours a day in any shelter or structure maintained for that purpose. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Family resource network: means :

  (A) A local community organization charged with service coordination, needs and resource assessment, planning, community mobilization, and evaluation, and which has met the following criteria:

  (i) Has agreed to a single governing entity. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206

• Fictive kin: means an adult of at least 21 years of age, who is not a relative of the child, as defined herein, but who has an established, substantial relationship with the child, including but not limited to, teachers, coaches, ministers, and parents, or family members of the child's friends. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Foster family home: means a private residence which is used for the care on a residential basis of no more than six children who are unrelated, by blood, marriage, or adoption, to any adult member of the household. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Home-based family preservation services: means services dispensed by the Department of Health and Human Resources or by another person, association, or group who has contracted with that division to dispense services when those services are intended to stabilize and maintain the natural or surrogate family in order to prevent the placement of children in substitute care. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Juvenile: means any person under eighteen years of age or is a transitioning adult. See West Virginia Code 49-1-202
• Kinship parent: means a person with whom the department has placed a child to provide a kinship placement. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Kinship placement: means the placement of the child with a relative of the child, as defined herein, or a placement of a child with a fictive kin, as defined herein. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Law-enforcement officer: means a law-enforcement officer of the State Police, a municipality or county sheriff'. See West Virginia Code 49-1-208
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Nonsecure facility: means any public or private residential facility not characterized by construction fixtures designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of individuals held in lawful custody in that facility and which provides its residents access to the surrounding community with supervision. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Offense: includes every act or omission for which a fine, forfeiture, or punishment is imposed by law. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Parent: means an individual defined as a parent by law or on the basis of a biological relationship, marriage to a person with a biological relationship, legal adoption or other recognized grounds. See West Virginia Code 49-1-204
• Placement: means any temporary or permanent placement of a child who is in the custody of the state in any foster home, kinship parent home, group home, or other facility or residence. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Relative of the child: means an adult of at least 21 years of age who is related to the child, by blood or marriage, within at least three degrees. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Residential services: means child care which includes the provision of nighttime shelter and the personal discipline and supervision of a child by guardians, custodians, or other persons or entities on a continuing or temporary basis. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. See West Virginia Code 49-1-208
• Secure facility: means any public or private residential facility which includes construction fixtures designed to physically restrict the movements and activities of juveniles or other individuals held in lawful custody in such facility. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• State family support council: means the council established by the Department of Health and Human Resources pursuant to §. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Supervised group setting: means a setting where youth, 16 to 21 years of age, live with staff onsite or are available 24 hours per day and seven days per week. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Technical violation: means an act that violates the terms or conditions of probation or a court order that does not constitute a new delinquent offense. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Time-limited reunification services: means individual, group, and family counseling, inpatient, residential, or outpatient substance abuse treatment services, mental health services, assistance to address domestic violence, services designed to provide temporary child care, and therapeutic services for families, including crisis nurseries and transportation to or from those services, provided during 15 of the most recent 22 months a child or juvenile has been in foster or in a kinship placement, as determined by the earlier date of the first judicial finding that the child is subjected to abuse or neglect, or the date which is 60 days after the child or juvenile is removed from home. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Truancy diversion specialist: means a school-based probation officer or truancy social worker within a school or schools who, among other responsibilities, identifies truants and the causes of the truant behavior, and assists in developing a plan to reduce the truant behavior prior to court involvement. See West Virginia Code 49-1-206
• Victim advocate: work with prosecutors and assist the victims of a crime.