§ 48-18-111 — Establishment of parent locator service

West Virginia § 48-18-111

• Jurisdiction: West Virginia
• Ch. 48: DOMESTIC RELATIONS
• Art. 18: BUREAU FOR CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT

Text

(a) The Bureau for Child Support enforcement shall establish a parent locator service to locate individuals for the purposes of establishing parentage and of establishing, modifying or enforcing child support obligations utilizing all sources of information and available records and the parent locator service in the federal department of health and human services. For purposes of obtaining information from the parent locator service, any person, agency or entity providing services to the Bureau for Child Support enforcement pursuant to a contract that includes a provision to ensure that the confidentiality of information is maintained shall be deemed to be an agent of the Bureau for Child Support enforcement.

(b) Upon entering into an agreement with the secretary of the federal department of health and human services for the use of that department's parent locator service, the Bureau for Child Support enforcement shall accept and transmit to the secretary of the federal department of health and human services requests from authorized persons for information with regard to the whereabouts of a noncustodial obligor to be furnished by such federal parent locator service. For purposes of this subsection, "authorized persons" means: (1) An attorney or agent of the Bureau for Child Support enforcement; (2) a family or circuit court judge or any agent thereof; or (3) a resident parent, legal guardian, attorney or agent for a child. The Bureau for Child Support enforcement shall charge a reasonable fee sufficient to cover the costs to the state and to the federal department of health and human services incurred by reason of such requests and shall transfer to that department, from time to time, so much of the fees collected as are attributable to the costs incurred by that department.

(c) The information obtained by the Bureau for Child Support enforcement from the federal parent locator service shall be used for, but not limited to, the following purposes:

(1) Establishing parentage and establishing, setting the amount of, modifying or enforcing child support obligations;

(2) Obtaining and transmitting information to any family or circuit court or agent thereof or to an attorney or employee of the United States or of any state responsible for enforcing any federal or state law with respect to the unlawful taking or restraint of a child or making or enforcing a child custody or visitation determination.

(d) The Bureau for Child Support enforcement may request from the federal parent locator service information:

(1) About, or which will facilitate the discovery of information about, the location of any individual: (A) Who is under an obligation to pay child support; (B) against whom such an obligation is sought; or (C) to whom such an obligation is owed, including the individual's social security number, or numbers, most recent address and the name, address and employer identification number of the individual's employer;

(2) Concerning the individual's wages or other income from, and benefits of, employment, including rights to or enrollment in group health care coverage; and

(3) Concerning the type, status, location and amount of any assets of, or debts owed by or to, any such individual.

(e) The family court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine, upon a petition by an authorized person as defined in subsection (b) of this section, whether the release of information from the federal parent locator service to that person could be harmful to the custodial parent or the child.

Legislative History

2001 Reg. Sess., HB2199; 2001 Reg. Sess., SB5007; 2001 Reg. Sess., SB704