While most of our attention here is focused on assisting maltreated children and their families or adults suffering from the residual of their childhood trauma, I have been working at the other (tragic) end of the spectrum of child deaths due to abuse and neglect (in bureaucratic language "critical incidents.") For three years I have been a volunteer member of the CAPTA mandated Citizens Review Panel under the Department of Social Services' (DSS) Office of Child Abuse Prevention. It has taken me three years to figure out the following.......
Current law divides responsibility for child deaths from abuse among the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Public Health (DPH) and the Department of Social Services (DSS). There are actually two legally created reporting streams for reporting child deaths which are not collated. Local CPS reports cases known to them to DSS and county child death review teams (CDRT) if functioning, report to the DPH. Health and welfare are primarily county responsibilities. Counties may, but are not required to, have Child Death Review Teams. In 2008 the DOJ defunded all support for the supervision and management of this system. This results in totally inadequate knowledge and no impact on prevention.
As an example, comparing total child deaths per year in two separate official DSS reports we find 117 and 124 deaths in 2009, 128 and 132 deaths in 2010, 97 and 135 deaths in 2013, and 104 and 153 deaths in 2015 —and none of this is collated with the data from DPH. In fact a yearly report and analysis is required by law and the last one was on 2016 data. The fact is no one in the state of California can tell you with any reliability how many children have died from abuse or neglect in any given year!
I have been working with colleagues to develop a law revision to remediate all these problems. Our bill AB 2660 is designed to rectify all these problems so we can really respond to these tragedies with an eye toward prevention. It has passed the state Assembly and is now on the Senate floor.. I have attached (1) a copy of the bill, (2) a copy of legislative staff analysis, and (3) a copy of my support letter. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO SEND IN A LETTER OF SUPPORT (now to be addressed to Senate Leader Pro Tempore Toni Atkins) AND CC ME. This will have have a tremendously beneficial effect on the tragic end of the child maltreatment spectrum.
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