S-4783.1 _______________________________________________
SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 6245
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State of Washington 54th Legislature 1996 Regular Session
By Senate Committee on Health & Long‑Term Care (originally sponsored by Senators Thibaudeau, Prentice, Goings, Wood, Sheldon, Winsley, Quigley, Wojahn, Smith, Fraser, Moyer, Franklin, McAuliffe, Deccio and Rasmussen)
Read first time 01/29/96.
AN ACT Relating to child death investigations; and adding a new section to chapter 74.13 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. A new section is added to chapter 74.13 RCW to read as follows:
(1) Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply in this section.
(a) "Community child death review team" means a multidisciplinary, multiagency team, including without limitation professionals in the area of public health, medicine, law enforcement, mental health, social services, chemical dependency treatment, child welfare, and social work and representation from the foster parent community and the general public, who perform a comprehensive evaluation of circumstances leading up to the unexpected death of a minor in the care of the department.
(b) "Consistent process of review" means the use of protocols that ensure the comprehensive evaluation of circumstances leading up to the unexpected death of a minor.
(c) "Department" means the department of social and health services.
(d) "Unexpected or unexplained death of a minor" means a death not resulting from a diagnosed terminal illness or other debilitating or deteriorating illness or condition where death is anticipated.
(2) The department, in consultation with the department of health and with coroners and medical examiners, shall review deaths of minors under this section by using a two-step process.
(a) The regional administrator for the department in the region where the death occurred, in consultation with the local coroner or medical examiner, shall perform fact-finding regarding the unexpected death of a minor, and shall present the results of the fact-finding to the community child death review team, which shall convene to review the death.
(b) The community child death review team shall meet to consider and review the child's death. Members of the team shall be reimbursed for travel expenses as provided in RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060.
(3) The department shall adopt rules regarding child death review under this section, including, but not limited to time frames for completion of child death review, the manner of deaths subject to review, and the membership of community child death review teams, for purposes of reviewing unexpected or unexplained deaths of children in the care of or receiving the services of the department.
(4) The department of health and the department shall provide an annual, joint report to the appropriate committees of the legislature on child deaths in Washington state. This report shall include, but not be limited to, information on deaths attributed to child maltreatment and deaths of children in the care of or receiving those services described in this chapter from the department.
(5) This section does not apply to cases involving stillborn infants in hospitals, nor to predischarge deaths of infants delivered in neonatal intensive care units in hospitals.
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