N.Y. Social Services Law § 422-b: Local and regional fatality review teams

§ 422-b. Local and regional fatality review teams. 1. A fatality

review team may be established at a local or regional level, with the

approval of the office of children and family services, for the purpose

of investigating the death of any child whose care and custody or

custody and guardianship has been transferred to an authorized agency,

other than a vulnerable child as defined in article eleven of this

chapter, any child for whom child protective services has an open case,

any child for whom the local department of social services has an open

preventive services case, and in the case of a report made to the

statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment involving the

death of a child. A fatality review team may also investigate any

unexplained or unexpected death of any child under the age of eighteen.

2. A local or regional fatality review team may exercise the same

authority as the office of children and family services with regard to

the preparation of a fatality report as set forth in paragraphs (b) and

(c) of subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary and to the

extent consistent with federal law, such local or regional fatality

review team shall have access to those client-identifiable records

necessary for the preparation of the report, as authorized in accordance

with paragraph (d) of subdivision five of section twenty of this

chapter. A fatality report prepared by a local or regional fatality

review team and approved by the office of children and family services

satisfies the obligation to prepare a fatality report as set forth in

subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter. Such report shall be

subject to the same redisclosure provisions applicable to fatality

reports prepared by the office of children and family services.

3. For the purposes of this section, a local or regional fatality

review team must include, but need not be limited to, representatives

from the child protective service, office of children and family

services, county department of health, or, should the locality not have

a county department of health, the local health commissioner or his or

her designee or the local public health director or his or her designee,

office of the medical examiner, or, should the locality not have a

medical examiner, office of the coroner, office of the district

attorney, office of the county attorney, local and state law

enforcement, emergency medical services and a pediatrician or comparable

medical professional, preferably with expertise in the area of child

abuse and maltreatment or forensic pediatrics. A local or regional

fatality review team may also include representatives from local

departments of social services, mental health agencies, domestic

violence agencies, substance abuse programs, hospitals, local schools,

and family court.

4. A local or regional fatality review team established pursuant to

this section shall have access to all records, except those protected by

statutory privilege, within twenty-one days of receipt of a request.

5. Members of a local or regional fatality review team, persons

attending a meeting of a local or regional fatality review team, and

persons who present information to a local or regional fatality review

team shall have immunity from civil and criminal liability for all

reasonable and good faith actions taken pursuant to this section, and

shall not be questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding

any opinions formed as a result of a meeting of a local or regional

fatality review team. Nothing in this section shall be construed to

prevent a person from testifying as to information obtained

independently of a local or regional fatality review team or which is

public information.

6. All meetings conducted and all reports and records made and

maintained, and books and papers obtained, by a local or regional

fatality review team shall be confidential and not open to the general

public except by court order and except for an annual report or a

fatality report, if the fatality review team chooses to complete such an

annual report or fatality report. The release of any fatality report

prepared by a local or regional fatality review team shall be governed

by the provisions of subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter.

Any such annual report or fatality report shall not contain any

individually identifiable information and shall be provided to the

office of children and family services upon completion. The office of

children and family services shall forward copies of any such report to

all other local or regional fatality review teams established pursuant

to this section, to all citizen review panels established pursuant to

section three hundred seventy-one-b of this chapter, and to the

governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the

assembly.