Senate Bill 703 Summary

• Establishes a State Office of Child Fatality Prevention within the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, to serve as the lead agency coordinating the statewide child fatality prevention system and eliminating silos and redundancy.

• Appropriates $389,998 for fiscal year 2021-2022 and $551,861 for fiscal year 2022-2023 in recurring funds to establish and operate the State Office, with management staff required by July 1, 2022, and full staffing by January 1, 2023.

• Requires Local Teams to participate in the National Child Death Review Case Reporting System (NCDR-CRS) beginning July 1, 2023, and establishes mandatory review categories including undetermined causes, unintentional injury, violence, motor vehicle incidents, child maltreatment, sudden unexpected infant death, and suicide.

• Restructures the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force to include three committees (Perinatal Health, Unintentional Death Prevention, and Intentional Death Prevention) with elected chairs and clarifies its duties to study child deaths and develop evidence-driven prevention strategies.

• Establishes at least three independent Citizen Review Panels to evaluate the State's child protection responsibilities, including reviewing child fatalities and near fatalities, with panels required to submit annual reports and recommendations to improve child protection services.