• federal or state agency." Explicitly, the law mandates that records disclosing the identity of a person making a complaint of child abuse or neglect are subject to the highest confidentiality. W. VA. CODE § 49-5-101 (2024). The only permissible disclosure of the reporter's identity is made "to the Foster Care Ombudsman or his or her designee acting in the course of their official duties related to a near fatality or fatality of a child within the foster care system." Id.
• “Hearsay includes any statement made outside the present proceeding which is offered as evidence of the truth of the matter asserted.” BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 722 (6th ed. 1990). “Hearsay evidence is generally admissible in grievance proceedings. The issue is one of weight rather than admissibility. This reflects a legislative recognition that the parties in grievance proceedings, particularly grievants and their representatives, are generally not lawyers and are not familiar with the technical rules of evidence or with formal legal proceedings.” Gunnells v. Logan County Bd. of Educ., Docket No. 97-23-055 (Dec. 9, 1997). The Grievance Board has applied the following factors in assessing hearsay testimony: 1) the availability of persons with first-hand knowledge to testify at the hearings; 2) whether the declarants' out of court statements were in writing, signed, or in affidavit form; 3) the agency's explanation for failing to obtain signed or sworn statements; 4) whether the declarants were disinterested witnesses to the events, and whether the statements were routinely made; 5) the consistency of the declarants' accounts with other information, other witnesses, other statements, and the statement itself; 6) whether collaboration for these statements can be found in agency records; 7) the absence of contradictory evidence; and 8) the credibility of the declarants when they made their statements. Id.; Sinsel v. Harrison County Bd. of Educ., Docket No. 96-17-219 (Dec. 31,