BILL NUMBER: SB 1668	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Bowen

                        FEBRUARY 24, 2006

   An act to amend Section 11174.32 of the Penal Code, relating to
child death investigations.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1668, as introduced, Bowen  Child death: review teams.
   Existing law permits counties to establish interagency child death
review teams to assist local agencies in identifying and reviewing
suspicious child deaths and facilitating communication between
persons who perform autopsies and the various persons and agencies
involved in child abuse or neglect cases.
   Existing law also allows interagency child death teams to develop
protocol for performing autopsies on children to assist coroners, as
specified and identifies the persons who may be consulted in
developing the protocol.
   This bill would provide that an oral or written communication or a
document shared within or produced by a child death review team
related to a child death review, provided by a third party to the
child death review team, or between a third party and a child review
death team is confidential and not subject to disclosure or
discoverable by a third party. This bill also would provide an
exception to these rules of nondisclosure for recommendations of a
child review death team at the discretion of a majority of the
members of the team.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 11174.32 of the Penal Code is amended to read:

   11174.32.  (a) Each county may establish an interagency child
death 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. Interagency child death 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.
   (b) Each county may 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.
   (c) 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:

   (1) Experts in the field of forensic pathology.
   (2) Pediatricians with expertise in child abuse.
   (3) Coroners and medical examiners.
   (4) Criminologists.
   (5) District attorneys.
   (6) Child protective services staff.
   (7) Law enforcement personnel.
   (8) Representatives of local agencies which are involved with
child abuse or neglect reporting.
   (9) County health department staff who deals with children's
health issues.
   (10) Local professional associations of persons described in
paragraphs (1) to (9), inclusive.  
   (d) An oral or written communication or a document shared within
or produced by a child death review team related to a child death
review is confidential and not subject to disclosure or discoverable
by a third party. An oral or written communication or a document
provided by a third party to a child death review team, or between a
third party and a child death review team, is confidential and not
subject to disclosure or discoverable by a third party.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, recommendations of a child death
review team upon the completion of a review may be disclosed at the
discretion of a majority of the members of the child death review
team.