Frequently Asked Questions

The Health Department regularly convenes community representatives from medical and behavioral health, social services, child welfare, education, law enforcement and other agencies who work with children. Together, the team reviews the unnatural deaths of children in the county, including sudden unexplained infant death, accidental deaths such as motor vehicle accidents, drowning, poisoning, burns, overdose, and intentional fatalities such as suicide and homicide.

Through the review, partner agencies identify risk factors as well as gaps in systems or services that may have contributed to deaths. Aggregated data and recurring themes are used to inform prevention recommendations. These recommendations are shared with local community leaders and those working in injury prevention. This information also is added to a national database that guides prevention efforts. As a result of the process, partner agencies also build relationships, improve their own prevention practices, identify gaps in services, and strengthen collaboration.

Child Fatality Review teams operate in most states and counties across the country. In Washington, state codes (RCW 70.05.170 and RCW 70.05.210) permit local health jurisdictions to do this work. These rules also allow partner agencies to share and discuss data for this purpose. The law mandates strict privacy and confidentiality measures to protect information about those who died and their loved ones. Information about individual fatalities is not shared publicly as part of the fatality review work.