What West Virginia actually asks of an organization that uses volunteers — screening, reporting, liability, and registration — with every legal claim traced to the source that states it.
Sources verified August 21, 2026Screening rules reach: children & older adultsCharitable registration required
West Virginia has no general volunteer-screening law; checks are required by setting. Licensed child care centers and out-of-school-time centers must put every volunteer 18 or older who gives two or more scheduled hours a week through a WV CARES state and FBI fingerprint check, sex offender registry checks and abuse-registry searches in every state lived in during the past five years before the volunteer works with children (78CSR1 § 8.4; 78CSR21 § 7.4). Family child care facilities check volunteers 18 and older and every adult household member (78CSR18 § 16.1), and child placing agencies and residential child care facilities screen volunteers who work with youth like staff (78CSR2 § 8.4.2; 78CSR3 § 10.3.6). WV CARES, now W. Va. Code § 16B-15-1 et seq. under the Office of Inspector General, also covers regular, unsupervised volunteers with direct access at nursing homes, assisted living and other long-term care providers.
WV CARES Act (W. Va. Code §§ 16B-15-1 to 16B-15-9; 71CSR11) — The West Virginia Clearance for Access: Registry and Employment Screening Act, recodified by S.B. 300 (2024), requires registry prescreening, state and FBI fingerprint checks and Rap Back enrollment for direct access personnel of nursing homes, assisted living, home health, hospice, personal care, adult day care and ICF/IID providers and, by rule, child care and child welfare providers. Volunteers performing irregular or supervised functions are not direct access personnel. A $25 prescreening fee applies (71CSR11 § 3.1).
Family Child Care Facility Background Check (W. Va. Code R. § 78-18-16) — At license application and renewal, family child care facilities must demonstrate WV CARES compliance for all owners, operators, staff, and volunteers age 18+, including adult household members.
Out-of-School-Time Child Care Centers (W. Va. Code R. § 78-21-7) — Out-of-school-time child care centers must run a WV CARES criminal background check on each staff member and each volunteer (18 or older, two or more scheduled hours a week), with narrow exceptions, and no one may work with children before the fitness determination arrives (78CSR21 §§ 3.44, 7.4).
Child Care Centers Licensing (W. Va. Code R. § 78-1-8.4) — Each staff member and volunteer (18 or older, two or more scheduled hours a week) needs a WV CARES fingerprint fitness determination before working with children, plus sex offender and abuse-registry checks in every state lived in for five years.
Child Placing and Residential Child Care (W. Va. Code R. §§ 78-2-8.4.2, 78-3-10.3.6) — Volunteers working directly with youth complete WV CARES and protective-service record checks; residential facilities must screen volunteers the same way as employees.
Mandated Reporting (W. Va. Code § 49-2-803) — Any employee, coach or volunteer 18 or older of an entity that provides organized activities for children must report suspected abuse to DHS immediately and within 24 hours, notify the person in charge, and also report serious physical abuse or sexual abuse or assault to the State Police (§ 49-2-803(a), (c), (d)).
Who it reaches: Volunteers 18 and older who give scheduled direct service two or more hours a week at licensed child care centers and out-of-school-time child care centers (WV CARES fingerprint clearance before any contact with children; 78CSR1 § 8.4, 78CSR21 § 7.4); Volunteers 18 and older, owners, staff and every adult household member at licensed family child care facilities (78CSR18 § 16.1); Volunteers working directly with youth for licensed child placing (foster care) agencies, and volunteers at residential child care and treatment facilities, who must pass the same checks as employees (78CSR2 § 8.4.2; 78CSR3 § 10.3.6); Regular, unsupervised volunteers with direct access at nursing homes, assisted living, home health, hospice, personal care, adult day care, ICF/IID and other WV CARES covered providers; volunteers in irregular or supervised roles are excluded (W. Va. Code § 16B-15-1; 71CSR11); Caregivers and adult household members of registered family child care homes and of informal or relative family child care homes that choose to register (78CSR19 and 78CSR20 § 6.4; § 49-2-113(g)); Staff and volunteers of out-of-school-time programs (children 6+, or affiliated with a congressionally chartered organization) and of county parks-and-recreation or municipal out-of-school-time, summer recreation and day camps that rely on the § 49-2-113(e)(8) child care licensing exemption, which requires state and federal checks on all volunteers and staff; Employees and other persons (on our reading, volunteers) who will have contact with Hope Scholarship students at a provider that accepts Hope Scholarship payments (W. Va. Code § 18-31-11(a)(5)); Optional, not required: school volunteers and field-trip chaperones — we found no state statute requiring checks; county board policy decides; Optional, not required: community youth sports coaches and volunteers — we found no statute requiring checks, but the 24-hour mandated-reporter duty applies; Optional, not required: other nonprofit volunteers — a verified qualified entity may search the State Police Central Abuse Registry for $10 a name (W. Va. Code §§ 15-2C-6, 15-2C-9).
Check types in use: WV CARES registry prescreening ($25): HHS-OIG exclusions list, WV Medicaid exclusions, national and WV nurse aide registries, SAM, the national sex offender website and the WV sex offender registry; State fingerprint-based criminal history check (West Virginia State Police Criminal Identification Bureau); FBI national fingerprint-based criminal history check, with Rap Back enrollment; Child care settings: out-of-state criminal and sex offender registry checks and child and adult abuse-registry searches for every state lived in during the past five years, repeated every five years; Protective services (child abuse and neglect) record check for child care, child placing and residential child care settings; Optional: State Police Central Abuse Registry name search for qualified entities ($10).
Administered by: Office of Inspector General, WV CARES Division (fitness determinations); West Virginia State Police Criminal Identification Bureau (fingerprints, Central Abuse Registry); Department of Human Services (child care and child welfare licensing).
It depends on the role. West Virginia names occupations rather than requiring universal reporting, so whether a volunteer is a mandated reporter turns on whether the statutory list reaches what they actually do. We have confirmed one relevant detail: Names any employee, coach or volunteer of an entity that provides organized activities for children, and youth camp administrators and counselors. A mandated reporter who is a staff member or volunteer of an institution, school, organized-activities entity, facility or agency must also immediately notify the person in charge, which does not replace the personal duty. Reports go to the Department of Human Services immediately and no later than 24 hours, with an immediate report to the State Police and any law-enforcement agency with jurisdiction as well when the reporter believes the child suffered serious physical abuse or sexual abuse or sexual assault; the section does not apply to anyone under 18, and any other person may report (W. Va. Code § 49-2-803(a), (c), (d)). Confirm West Virginia's current statute before writing your policy — these are amended often.
In every state, territory and the District of Columbia, ANY person is permitted to report suspected abuse even when not required to. A volunteer who is not a mandated reporter can still call, and should.
The safest operating posture, whatever the statute says, is to train every volunteer on what to report and to whom — a policy that only trains "mandated" staff leaves the person most likely to witness something untrained.
Reporting duties are personal. A volunteer who is a mandated reporter cannot discharge the duty by telling a supervisor and stopping there in most states.
Screening and reporting are different obligations. Clearing a background check does not satisfy a reporting duty, and no reporting policy substitutes for screening.
The federal Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 sets a floor: it shields a volunteer of a nonprofit or governmental entity from liability for harm caused by ordinary negligence while acting within the scope of their responsibilities, subject to conditions and exclusions. It is a floor, not a ceiling — a state may extend more protection, and the Act does not shield the ORGANIZATION itself. West Virginia's own charitable immunity provisions sit on top of this and need to be read directly.
The federal shield protects the volunteer, not the nonprofit. Organizational liability is a separate question and is what general liability insurance is for.
It does not reach willful or criminal misconduct, gross negligence, reckless misconduct, or a conscious flagrant indifference to the rights or safety of the person harmed.
Harm involving a motor vehicle, vessel, or aircraft is generally carved out where the state requires an operator license or insurance — which is why volunteer drivers are their own category.
State statutes vary more than most boards expect, including in the standard of care they apply and in whether specific volunteer categories get named protection.
West Virginia requires a charitable organization to register with the Secretary of State before soliciting and to refile every year it keeps soliciting (W. Va. Code § 29-19-5(a)); the Secretary of State treats a registration as valid for one year. The fee is $15 for an organization receiving less than $1 million a year and $50 above that or for a parent filing for affiliates, and late filings cost $25 a month, up to $500 a year (§ 29-19-5(d), (f)). Organizations raising more than $500,000 in contributions attach a CPA audit, and those raising $200,000 to $500,000 a CPA review (§ 29-19-5(a)(6)). Exempt: a charity that uses no professional solicitor or fundraiser and neither intends to nor does raise more than $50,000 from the public in a calendar year (it must register within 30 days after passing $50,000), churches and integral religious organizations exempt from filing Form 990, State Board–approved or accredited schools and their support groups, nonprofit hospitals and licensed nursing homes, member-only appeals, named-individual relief funds and single events for a registered charity (§ 29-19-6). The Secretary of State’s interpretive rule still states a $10,000 figure (153CSR7 § 2.1.4), so confirm which threshold it applies before relying on the exemption.
A West Virginia charity that uses no professional solicitor or fundraiser and raises no more than $50,000 from the public in a calendar year does not register, but must register within 30 days after it passes $50,000 (W. Va. Code § 29-19-6(7)).
Soliciting residents of other states can trigger registration in those states regardless of where you are based — an online donate button reaches all fifty.
Exemptions exist in most registering states (small organizations, religious organizations, membership appeals) but they are specific and usually must be claimed rather than assumed.
Confirm current requirements with your state charity office before relying on this — thresholds and exemptions are amended frequently.
These apply regardless of which state you operate in, and they are the ones most commonly missed by small organizations that assume state registration is the whole picture.
Annual Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N. Three consecutive years of non-filing revokes exempt status automatically — this is the single most common way small nonprofits lose their status.
If you run background checks on volunteers, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to you as a user of consumer reports: a standalone written disclosure, separate written authorization, and the pre-adverse and adverse action sequence before acting on a result.
Public disclosure: your exemption application and recent 990s must be made available on request.
Employment obligations attach to paid staff regardless of exempt status — payroll tax, worker classification, and wage and hour law all apply.
Incorporation, registered agent, and periodic report requirements differ by state and we have not yet completed primary-source research for West Virginia. Rather than summarize someone else's summary, we point you at the office that actually administers it — your Secretary of State (or equivalent) for corporate filings, and your state charity office for charitable registration.
Insurance requirements are set by policy and contract rather than by statute in most states, so there is no single legal answer to publish. What is worth knowing: general liability, directors and officers, and abuse/molestation coverage are distinct, and abuse coverage is frequently excluded by default and priced against your screening and supervision practices. Ask your broker what your policy actually requires of your volunteer screening — it is often stricter than state law.
General information, not legal advice. We are a consumer reporting agency, not a law firm. State law changes — West Virginia's requirements may have been amended since we verified these sources on August 21, 2026. Confirm anything you intend to rely on with your state agency, your licensor, your insurer, or your own counsel. If you spot something we have wrong, tell us at support@screenforgelabs.com — we would rather fix it than leave it.
The screening part, handled
Of everything on this page, volunteer background checks are the one we actually do. $5 per volunteer from an FCRA-regulated consumer reporting agency, all 50 state sex-offender registries plus the national registry, with the disclosure, authorization and adverse-action workflow built in — because running checks makes you a user of consumer reports whether you planned for that or not.
