CHARLESTON – Schools from kindergarten to college have already started classes or are about to all across the Mountain State.

Nothing new there, except that in many instances those very schools -- or entities associated with them -- are the rightful owners of unclaimed property. That means State Treasurer John Perdue’s office is urging all schools to search the state’s unclaimed property database at www.wvtreasury.com.

A brief sampling of schools for which the Treasurer’s Office is holding unclaimed property includes Sissonville High School; the Shepherd University Foundation and Peterstown Middle School.

In the schools’ cases, much of the unclaimed property concerns financial assets such as past Parent Teacher Organization funds; past athletic booster funds; forgotten money belonging to the school from unspent supply store accounts; and lost commissions from food and drink vendors.

Logging onto the website will bring the reader to the unclaimed property search box. The school’s name should be typed into the “first name” of the information box and entered, where a subsequent box will include space for “company name.” The school’s name should be re-typed there.

To file a claim, visitors to the site may print out a paper claim, fill it out and mail it in or file electronically. Filing electronically necessitates scanning of documents.    

Unclaimed property is any asset from which an individual or organization has become unintentionally separated. Examples are lost utility deposits, forgotten bank accounts and abandoned safe deposit box contents. Unclaimed property has nothing to do with land nor real estate.