Child death investigations: review teams.

(1) Existing law authorizes each county to establish an interagency child death review team to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing suspicious child deaths and facilitating communication among persons who perform autopsies and the various persons and agencies involved in child abuse or neglect cases. Existing law also authorizes each county to develop a protocol to be used as a guideline by persons performing autopsies on children to assist coroners and other persons who perform autopsies in the identification of child abuse or neglect, in the determination of whether child abuse or neglect contributed to death or whether child abuse or neglect had occurred prior to but was not the actual cause of death, and in the proper written reporting procedures for child abuse or neglect, including the designation of the cause and mode of death. This bill would instead require the autopsy-related protocol described above to be developed by the State Department of Public Health, and would authorize the department to consult with the Counties of Los Angeles and Sacramento in developing the protocol. The bill would require the protocol to include data collection, confidentiality, and reporting provisions. The bill would require that data collection process to include specified information about a deceased child including, among other things, race, age, and cause of death. The bill would require the department to provide access to the protocol free of charge to any county that requests a copy. (2) Existing law requires each child death review team to, no less than once each year, make available to the public findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the team, including aggregate statistical data on the incidences and causes of child deaths. This bill would instead require each child death review team to, no less than once every 3 years, make available to the public findings, conclusions, and recommendations of the team, including, but not limited to, aggregate statistical data on the incidences and causes of child deaths and recommendations to prevent future deaths.