BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1737
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Susan Talamantes Eggman, Chair
AB 1737
(McCarty) - As Introduced February 1, 2016
SUBJECT: Child death investigations: review teams.
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 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.
2)States that interagency child death review teams have been
used successfully to ensure that incidents of child abuse or
neglect are recognized and other siblings and nonoffending
family members receive the appropriate services in cases where
a child has expired.
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3)Allows each county to develop a protocol that may 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.
4)Allows, in developing an interagency child death review 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, to 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;
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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
a) through i), above.
5)Provides that records exempt from disclosure to third parties
pursuant to state or federal law shall remain exempt from
disclosure when they are in the possession of a child death
review team.
6)Requires, no less than once each year, 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,
and requires, in its report, that the team withhold the last
name of the child that is subject to a review or the name of
the deceased child's siblings, unless the name has been
publicly disclosed or is required to be disclosed by state
law, federal law, or court order.
7)States that it is the duty of the California State Child Death
Review Council to oversee the statewide coordination and
integration of state and local efforts to address fatal child
abuse or neglect and to create a body of information to
prevent child deaths.
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FISCAL EFFECT: This bill is keyed fiscal.
COMMENTS:
1)Bill Summary. Current law allows, but does not require, each
county to establish an interagency child death review team,
and requires that child review death team to compile a report
containing findings, conclusions, and recommendations,
including aggregate statistical data on the incidences and
causes of child deaths.
This bill would require each county to establish an
interagency child death review team to assist local agencies
in identifying and reviewing suspicious child deaths, and
require that county to develop an autopsy protocol. Because
the bill mandates that each county create a team, the
corresponding report by the child death review team would also
be mandatory.
This bill is author-sponsored.
2)Author's Statement. According to the author, "Child review
death teams in California began as informal gatherings of
concerned parents and professionals [who] 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.
"AB 1737 aims to increase accountability and transparency and
as a community improve protection services for children. The
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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."
3)Background. 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
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review teams with copies to the Governor and the Legislature,
no later than July 1 each year. Copies of the report shall
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.
4)State Mandate. This bill contains language that says that if
the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill
contains costs mandated by the state, then reimbursement to
local agencies for those costs shall be made, as specified.
5)Arguments in Support. Sierra Health Foundation, in support,
argues that "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."
6)Arguments in Opposition. None on file.
7)Double-Referral. This bill was heard by the Public Safety
Committee on March 15, 2016, and passed on consent.
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
American Academy of Pediatrics, California
Legal Advocates for Children & Youth
National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter
Sierra Health Foundation: Center for Health Program Management
The Child Abuse Prevention Center
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by:Debbie Michel / L. GOV. / (916) 319-3958
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