BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1737
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 15, 2016
Consultant: Matt Dean
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, Sr., Chair
AB
1737 (McCarty) - As Introduced February 1, 2016
SUMMARY: Requires counties to establish interagency child death
review teams 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:
1)Allows counties to establish interagency child death review
teams 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, but does
not require counties to establish child death review teams.
(Pen. Code, § 11174.32.)
2)States that interagency child death teams have been used
successfully to ensure that incidents of child abuse or
neglect are recognized and other siblings and non-offending
family members receive the appropriate services in cases where
a child has expired. (Pen. Code, § 11174.32(a).)
3)States that each county may develop a protocol that may be
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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. (Pen. Code, § 11174.32(b).)
4)States that in developing an interagency child death team and
an autopsy protocol, each county, working in consultation with
local members of the California State Coroner's Association
and county child abuse prevention coordinating councils, may
solicit suggestions and final comments from persons,
including, but not limited to, the following:
a) Experts in the field of forensic pathology;
b) Pediatricians with expertise in child abuse;
c) Coroners and medical examiners;
d) Criminologists;
e) District attorneys;
f) Child protective services staff;
g) Law enforcement personnel;
h) Representatives of local agencies which are involved
with child abuse or neglect reporting;
i) County health department staff who deals with children's
health issues; and
j) Local professional associations of persons described in
paragraphs (1) to (9), inclusive. (Pen. Code, §
11174.32(c).)
5)Clarifies that records exempt from disclosure to third parties
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pursuant to state or federal law shall remain exempt from
disclosure when they are in the possession of a child death
review team. (Pen. Code, § 11174.32(d).)
6)Requires each child death review team to make available to the
public findings, conclusions and recommendations of the team,
including aggregate statistical data on the incidences and
causes of child deaths. The team is required to withhold the
child's last name unless certain exceptions apply. (Pen.
Code, § 11174.32(e).)
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: According to the author, "AB 1737 aims to
increase accountability and transparency and as a community
improve protection services for children. The purpose of
producing an annual child death report is to provide vital
information should children be dying of similar reasons in one
county compared to another. With no data of common
occurrences, county officials do not have accurate information
to link these occurrences and therefore prevent future deaths.
This bill requires all counties to produce an annual child
death review report in order to identify how and why children
die, to further facilitate the creation and implementation of
strategies to prevent future deaths."
2)Background: According to the background submitted by the
author, "the child death review teams in California began as
informal gatherings of concerned parents and professionals
that wanted to take proper steps in order to review child
deaths and learn from them in order to save other children's
lives.
"In 1988, California legislation was enacted to establish child
death review teams in order to investigate suspicious child
deaths and facilitate communication among the various entities
that could provide useful information for the annual report.
"Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recorded
over 23,000 infant deaths in the United States for 2014. In
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California, the Department of Social Services (CDSS) reported
that 88 child fatalities resulted from abuse and/or neglect
for 2014, but a complete summary of child death reports had
not been finalized at the time the data was collected. Despite
efforts to produce an annual child death report, there are
only an estimated 22 active child death review teams
throughout the state, leaving many counties without a
reporting mechanism. We believe that one reason for the lack
of participation in every county is due to a lack of existing
law's explicit requirement to report. It is the intent of this
legislation to create uniformity among counties by requiring
all to produce an annual child death report in hopes of
learning from past deaths and prevent future ones."
The primary purpose of child death review teams is to prevent
future child deaths. At the county level, these teams produce
educational materials so that the more common causes of child
death can be prevented. For example, according to the author,
in Sacramento "The Sacramento County Child Death Review Team,
which reviews the deaths of every child that dies in
Sacramento County, has used the report's findings in order to
create public awareness campaigns. The recommendations have
translated to the Shaken Baby Syndrome Prevention Campaign,
the Infant Safe Sleep Campaign, and the Drowning Prevention
Campaign to reduce preventable deaths." However, each
county's experience is different. This is where statewide
child death review can help prevent counties from duplicating
efforts.
The statewide child death review council is responsible for
collecting data and information from the counties and turning
it into reports to the public and Legislature. Part of the
statutory scheme that created child death review teams
included creation of the Child Death Review Council "to
coordinate and integrate state and local efforts to address
fatal child abuse or neglect, and to create a body of
information to prevent child deaths." (Penal Code Section
11174.34(a)(1).) The Child Death Review Council is required
to "[a]nalyze and interpret state and local data on child
death in an annual report to be submitted to local child death
review teams with copies to the Governor and the Legislature,
no later than July 1 each year. Copies of the report shall
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also be distributed to California public officials who deal
with child abuse issues and to those agencies responsible for
child death investigation in each county. The report shall
contain, but not be limited to, information provided by state
agencies and the county child death review teams for the
preceding year." (Penal Code Section 11174.34(d)(1).)
Therefore, a report analyzing the data collected by each local
child death review team is currently a public document.
Requiring each local child death review team to also make
public its own data appears to be consistent with the overall
objectives of the teams, i.e., creating a body of information
on the causes of child deaths to help prevent such tragedies.
Increased transparency may also enhance the public's trust in
local child death review.
Finally, as the author stated, "Some child death review teams
create elaborate, comprehensive reports, while other child
death review teams do not report anything at all. Because of
the wide discrepancy of reporting, the statewide council
cannot get a full picture of what is occurring statewide.
While all child death review teams are coming to important
conclusions about local child fatalities, not all of the
review teams are communicating the information to the public,
which contradicts the basic premise for having them. How can
child death review teams reduce future preventable child
deaths if no one knows that child death review teams do?"
This bill, by mandating child death review teams, would
certainly increase the information available to counties and
the public.
3)Argument in Support: According to the Sierra Health
Foundation, "In 2009, Sacramento County Child Death Review
Team found that in Sacramento County African American children
die at twice the rate of other children. Appropriately, this
news was cause for considerable alarm. Perhaps even more
disturbing was the recognition that a significant disparity in
African American child death rates has persisted in the county
for 20 consecutive years. The revelation of this long term
trend and the underwhelming response it previously generated
served as a call to action for Sacramento County's African
American community, and for all Sacramentans who care about
the health and well-being of all children.
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"We are not reacting to a single fatality, as devastating as
that is. This data has allowed us to analyze child mortality
rates and causes over time which revealed that child mortality
in Sacramento is about more than improving child welfare or
reducing violence in communities. In short, interventions
beyond child protective services and law enforcements were
needed. This would not be the case without the data provided
by the Child Death Review Team. Consequently, we have been
able to identify six focus neighborhoods with the highest
level of disproportionality and the four leading causes of
those deaths, which include infant sleep-related deaths,
perinatal conditions, child abuse and neglect homicides and
third-party homicides. Additionally, we have been able to
create strategic and implementation plans with specific steps
to reduce the African American child death rate 10-20% by
2020. And despite the fact that data shows the alarming
disparity impacting African American children and families, we
are consciously focused on developing responses that support
the safety and well-being of all children.
"Requiring each county to have an active child death review
team will create uniformity across the state; with accurate
data this information could be used to create public awareness
campaigns and reduce the number of child deaths much like our
efforts here in Sacramento County."
4)Related Legislation: AB 2083 (Chu) would authorize the
voluntary disclosure of specified information, including
mental health records, criminal history information, and child
abuse reports, by an individual or agency to an interagency
child death review team. AB 2083 is pending hearing in this
committee.
5)Prior Legislation:
a) SB 39 (Migden), Chapter 468, Statutes of 2007, required
that juvenile case files that pertain to any child who died
as the result of child abuse or neglect shall be released
to the public, subject to certain limitations set forth in
the bill. The bill would also add specified attorneys to
the persons allowed access to a juvenile case file.
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b) AB 1668 (Bowen), Chapter 813, Statutes of 2006, provided
that interagency child death review team records that are
exempt from disclosure to third parties pursuant to state
or federal law remain exempt from disclosure when they are
in the possession of a child death review team; provides
confidentiality provisions for child death review teams;
and provided that each child death review team shall
annually make available to the public findings, conclusions
and recommendations of the team, including aggregate
statistical data on the incidences and causes of child
death.
c) SB 525 (Polanco), Chapter 1012, Statutes of 1999, added
more state and private entities to the members of the
California State Child Death Review Council, specified
additional duties for the council and the Department of
Justice in connection with gathering and tracking
information regarding child deaths from abuse or neglect,
and specified additional duties for the State Department of
Health Services in connection with tracking child abuse
information in specified state data systems.
d) AB 4585 (Polanco), Chapter 1580, Statutes of 1988,
authorized counties to establish interagency child death
teams and autopsy protocol.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support:
Sierra Health Foundation
Opposition:
None
Analysis Prepared
by: Matt Dean / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744
AB 1737
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