2021 West Virginia Code
Chapter 49. Child Welfare
Article 2. State Responsibilities for Children
§49-2-1003. Rehabilitative Facilities for Status Offenders; Requirements; Educational Instruction
(a) The Department of Health and Human Resources shall establish and maintain one or more rehabilitative facilities to be used exclusively for the lawful custody of status offenders. Each facility will be a nonsecure facility having as its purpose the rehabilitation of status offenders. The facility will have a bed capacity for not more than twenty juveniles and shall minimize the institutional atmosphere and prepare the juvenile for reintegration into the community.
(b) Rehabilitative programs and services shall be provided by or through each facility and may include, but not be limited to, medical, educational, vocational, social and psychological guidance, training, counseling, substance abuse treatment and other rehabilitative services. The Department of Health and Human Resources shall provide to each status offender committed to the facility a program of treatment and services consistent with the individualized program of rehabilitation developed for the juvenile. In the case of any other juvenile residing at the facility, the department shall provide those programs and services as may be proper in the circumstances including, but not limited to, any programs or services directed to be provided by the court.
(c) The board of education of the county in which the facility is located shall provide instruction for juveniles residing at the facility. Residents who can be permitted to do so shall attend local schools and instruction shall otherwise take place at the facility.
(d) Facilities established pursuant to this section shall be structured as community-based facilities.
(e) The Department of Health and Human Resources may enter into cooperative arrangements and agreements with private agencies or with agencies of the state and its political subdivisions to fulfill its duties under this section: Provided, That after January 1, 2016, the department shall not enter into an agreement with the Division of Juvenile Services to house juvenile status offenders.
