GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 494*

Short Title:  Child Death Review Team.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senators Cooper; and Carpenter.
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Referred to:  Children and Human Resources.
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March 16, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT  TO IMPLEMENT A RECOMMENDATION OF THE CHILD FATALITY TASK FORCE TO PHASE IN A STATEWIDE MULTIDISCIPLINARY, MULTIAGENCY CHILD FATALITY REVIEW AND PREVENTION SYSTEM.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  It is the intent of the General Assembly to establish a statewide multidisciplinary, multiagency child fatality review and prevention system, to be phased in by July 1, 1995, to assess all deaths of children from birth to age 18 and to make recommendations for actions to prevent future deaths.
Sec. 2.  The purpose of the child fatality review and prevention system is to examine information about all childhood deaths in North Carolina, for the purpose of understanding the causes of childhood death, identifying opportunities for prevention, fostering accountability among public agencies, and undertaking prevention efforts.
Sec. 3.  The Director of the Division of Maternal and Child Health, Division of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, the Director of the Division of Social Services, and the State Child Fatality Review Team shall prepare a schedule for the phasing in of the system, which shall be established and funded by act of the General Assembly.  The system shall:
(1)	Compile and study statistical information on all childhood deaths and their causes;
(2)	Conduct multidisciplinary reviews of selected childhood deaths;
(3)	Make recommendations for preventive actions, including recommendations for expanded resources for children's programs, when appropriate;
(4)	Put in place, in each county, teams that shall be uniform in membership and duties.  The existing Community Child Protection Teams shall be used as the basis of the county child fatality review and prevention systems.  In each county, the local director of public health shall work with the chair of the Community Child Protection Team to ensure that the Team can do what the child fatality review and prevention system needs done;
(5)	Require the establishment of the position of Child Fatality Prevention Team Coordinator within the Division of Maternal and Child Health, Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources;
(6)	Make the State Child Fatality Review Team one component of the system, by modifying its name to the North Carolina Child Fatality Child Prevention Team, by expanding its membership to include the Team Coordinator and a public member appointed by the Governor, and by expanding its duties to include the periodic assessment of the operations of the system and make recommendations as needed, to work with the Team Coordinator to develop guidelines for selecting child deaths to receive detailed, multidisciplinary death reviews, and to receive the reports of findings and work with the Team Coordinator to implement recommendations; and
(7)	Modifications to existing law necessary to effect the system's purpose, including modifications of the confidentiality law, the access to records law, the oath of office law, and the protection from disclosure law.
Sec. 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.