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West Virginia Volunteer Background Check Requirements

West Virginia has no general volunteer-screening law; checks are required by setting.

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Irregular or Supervised: the West Virginia guide to screening volunteers: who WV CARES clears and who it leaves out, child care’s no-provisional rule, the camp exemption that requires checks, the Central Abuse Registry and a reporting duty that names volunteers

West Virginia checks volunteers by setting, never across the board. Where it does require checks, most run through one state program, WV CARES, which tells a provider only whether a person is eligible — and which leaves out volunteers “performing irregular or supervised functions.” Child care centers screen every adult volunteer scheduled two or more hours a week before they work with children, some camps must check everyone to stay unlicensed, and every adult volunteer in organized activities for children must report suspected abuse within 24 hours. Each of those rules gets its own chapter here, from § 16B-15-1 to § 49-2-803.

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Bottom Line for West Virginia Nonprofits

  • ✓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)
  • +4 more required roles below

State Laws That Apply to Volunteer Background Checks

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 Must Be Screened in West Virginia

!Legally Required to Be Screened

  • •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 — no West Virginia statute we found requires a check

  • ◦school volunteers and field-trip chaperones — we found no state statute requiring checks; county board policy decides
  • ◦community youth sports coaches and volunteers — we found no statute requiring checks, but the 24-hour mandated-reporter duty applies
  • ◦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)

Types of Background Checks Required in West Virginia

✓
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)

How to Get Background Checks in West Virginia

State Agency
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)
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Volunteer Screening in West Virginia: What You Need to Know

West Virginia routes most mandatory checks through one state fitness-determination program, WV CARES: an employer never sees the rap sheet, only an eligible or ineligible notice from the Office of Inspector General, and a cleared person can move between providers of the same type without new prints while Rap Back monitoring continues. The program moved from Chapter 16 to W. Va. Code § 16B-15 in 2024, and since June 7, 2026 clearances must be renewed 90 to 60 days before they expire. Child care is stricter than long-term care: misdemeanor drug, person and morality offenses and serious traffic offenses also disqualify, and no provisional work is allowed before clearance. We found no West Virginia ban-the-box or state FCRA law, and its child victim rate of 14.7 per 1,000 is about twice the national 7.2 (ACF Child Maltreatment 2024).

Compliance Tips for West Virginia Nonprofits

  1. 1

    Run the WV CARES registry prescreening first ($25); fingerprints are submitted only after a clean prescreen (W. Va. Code § 16B-15-3(d); 71CSR11 § 3.1).

  2. 2

    In licensed child care, no staff member or volunteer may work with children until the WV CARES fitness determination arrives; the 60-day provisional rule does not apply to persons responsible for the care of children (78CSR1 § 8.4.f; 71CSR11 § 6.4).

  3. 3

    Family child care facilities and homes must screen every adult household member, and a new household member must be checked within 180 days of moving in (78CSR18 § 16.1; 78CSR19 § 6.4.d).

  4. 4

    For child care volunteers, search sex offender registries and child and adult abuse registries in every state lived in during the past five years, and repeat the abuse-registry search every five years (78CSR1 §§ 8.4.c.6–8.4.c.7, 8.4.d).

  5. 5

    Track clearance expiration: since June 7, 2026 a WV CARES applicant must resubmit 90 to 60 days before the clearance expires (W. Va. Code § 16B-15-3(g)).

  6. 6

    Keep the WV CARES fitness determination and any variance in each volunteer’s file, and require volunteers to report any arrest, charge or conviction to the director within 24 hours (78CSR1 §§ 8.4.c, 8.5.e.1).

  7. 7

    Make sure adult volunteers who work with children know they are mandated reporters: report to DHS immediately and within 24 hours, and also notify the person in charge (W. Va. Code § 49-2-803(a)).

Frequently Asked Questions

Does West Virginia require background checks for my nonprofit’s volunteers?

Only for volunteers in specific roles or settings; no West Virginia rule covers every nonprofit. 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).

How long does a West Virginia volunteer background check take?

Timing varies by check type. VolunteerBadge's national criminal and sex offender registry searches return most results in minutes; a record that needs human FCRA review can take up to about 72 hours. For current fingerprint-check timing, contact: 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).

FCRA Notice: VolunteerBadge is a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. When you use our platform to screen volunteers, you are subject to FCRA requirements including authorization, disclosure, and adverse action procedures. West Virginia may have additional state-law requirements. This page provides general information only — consult legal counsel for your specific situation. Read our FCRA adverse action guide →

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