Section 26-16-90 Legislative findings. The Legislature finds and declares that: Every child is entitled to live in safety and in health and to survive into adulthood; there are concerns about the adequacy of efforts in this state to identify deaths; and recognizing that no single agency or person is responsible, that multidisciplinary, multiagency child death […]
Section 26-16-91 Definitions. The following words and phrases have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise: (1) AUTOPSY. An external and internal examination, medical history, and record review. (2) CHILD. A person who has not yet reached his or her eighteenth birthday. (3) CHILD DEATHS TO BE REVIEWED. Those deaths which are unexpected […]
Section 26-16-92 State policy. It is the policy of this state that responding to unexpected/unexplained child deaths is a state and a community responsibility and must include an accurate and complete determination of the cause of death. (Act 97-893, p. 252, §3.)
Section 26-16-93 State Child Death Review Team – Created. (a) There is hereby created the State Child Death Review Team, referred to in this article as the state team. (b) The state team shall be situated within the Alabama Department of Public Health for administrative and budgetary purposes. (c) The state team shall be a […]
Section 26-16-94 State Child Death Review Team – Purpose; duties. The purpose of the state team is to decrease the risk and incidence of unexpected/unexplained child injury and death by undertaking all of the following duties: (1) Identifying factors which make a child at risk for injury or death. (2) Collecting and sharing information among […]
Section 26-16-95 Liability of team members. State and local team members shall be immune from any and all civil and criminal liability in connection with their good faith participation on the state or local team and all activities associated therewith, provided however, this immunity shall not be available in the event any state or local […]
Section 26-16-96 Local child death review teams. (a) There are hereby created local child death review teams. (b) Each county of the state shall be included in a local multidisciplinary, multiagency child death review team’s jurisdiction. The district attorney shall initiate the establishment of local teams by convening a meeting of potential team members within […]
Section 26-16-97 Meetings; disclosure of information; violation; penalties. (a) Meetings of the state team and of local teams shall be closed to the public and not subject to the State Sunshine Law when the state team or local team is discussing a specific child death. (b) Information identifying a deceased child, a family member, guardian […]
Section 26-16-98 Confidentiality of information and records. (a) All information and records acquired by the state team or by a local team, in the exercise of its purpose and duties pursuant to this article, are confidential, exempt from disclosure under Section 41-13-1, and may only be disclosed as necessary to carry out the team’s duties […]
Section 26-16-99 Duties of coroner/medical examiner. The duties of the coroner/medical examiner shall include the following: (1) Except in locations where a county medical examiner has jurisdiction, the coroner or a person acting in a professional capacity shall report the death of a child by telecommunications to the medical examiner or his or her representative […]
