Child fatality and major injury reviews.

WORKING DRAFT
2006
STATE OF
WYOMING
06LSO-0432

HOUSE BILL
NO.
HB0169

Child fatality and major injury reviews.

Sponsored by:
Representative(s) Iekel, Berger, Harvey, Martin and Osborn and Senator(s) Aullman

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to child protective services; providing that local child protection teams review all cases of preventable child deaths and major injuries;
providing that responsibilities of child protection teams be mandatory;
providing for confidentiality of review proceedings; providing for a child fatality and major injury review board within the department of health; providing for coordination between local child protection teams and the review board; granting rulemaking authority; providing an appropriation;
authorizing an additional position;
and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of
Wyoming
:

Section 1.
W.S. 14
‑
3
‑
212(a), (c)(intro)
,
(i), (e) and by the creation of new subsections (f) and (g) is amended to read:

14
‑
3
‑
212.

Child protection teams; creation; composition; duties; records confidential.

(a)

The state agency and the local child protective agency shall encourage and assist in the creation of child protection teams within the communities in the state. The purposes of the child protection teams shall be to identify or develop community resources to serve abused and neglected children within the community, to advocate for improved services or procedures for such children
, to review cases involving a preventable child fatality or major injury to a child
and to provide information and assistance to the
state agency
department of health
, local child protection agency and multidisciplinary teams, if a multidisciplinary team has been appointed. The department may promulgate reasonable rules and regulations in accordance with the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act to define the roles and procedures of child protection teams.

(c)

The local child protection team
may
shall
:

(i)

Assist and coordinate with the state agency,

the department of health,
the local child protective agency and all available agencies and organizations dealing with children;

(e)

All records and proceedings of the child protection teams
and the child fatality and major injury review board
are subject to W.S. 14
‑
3
‑
214
, shall not be subject to discovery in any criminal or civil proceeding and shall not be admissible in evidence in any civil or criminal proceeding
.

All members of a child protection team and all persons presenting information or records to a child protection team shall execute a sworn statement that all information, records and discussions before a child protection team shall be confidential.

(f)

The department of health shall create a child fatality and major injury review board. The board shall develop and implement procedures to ensure that child deaths and major injuries are reviewed and analyzed in a systematic way. The board shall:

(i)

Adopt standards and protocols for child death and major injury reviews;

(ii)

Maintain a statistical database of child deaths and major injuries to show prevalence, trends and risk factors, without personally identifying information;

(iii)

Promote public awareness and make recommendations to the governor and the legislature to reduce the incidence of preventable child death and major injury
.

(g)

The state agency in consultation with the department of health shall promulgate rules and regulations to define the role and procedures of local child protection teams in reviewing child death and major injuries, and the department of health in consultation with the state agency shall promulgate rules and regulations for the role and procedures of the child fatality and major injury review board in the review process.

Section 2.

There is appropriated two hundred sixty thousand dollars ($2
6
0,000.00)
from the general fund
to
the department of health for the purposes of this act.
The department of health is authorized one (1) additional full-time position for purposes of this act.

Section 3.

This act is effective July 1, 2006.

(END)

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HB0169