Child Fatality Review Program

Administration
Georgia’s Child Fatality Review Program (GCFR) was established in 1990 by statute (Section 19-15-1 et seq.). CFR is an independent program currently administered out of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). The program is funded by state general funds. There are four state-level staff who are responsible for providing training and technical assistance to the local review committees. Local teams have no paid staff.

Teams
Georgia has both state and local review teams which are mandated.

State Team:
The state team is called the Georgia Child Fatality Review Panel (GCFRP). The Panel is comprised of 17 members, which meets quarterly to oversee the county child fatality review process, report to the governor annually on the incidence of child deaths and recommend prevention measures based on the data. Panel members are appointed by the Governor or Lt. Governor, or are ex-officio members as state agency leaders.

Local Teams:
Georgia has 159 counties, and each county has its own CFR committee. The local committees have seven mandated agency members that are directed to meet within 30 days of a child’s death, and to submit their findings (i.e. the CFR report form) within 67 days of the death. Local committees are encouraged to invite additional agencies/organizations to the review meeting, as necessary. CFR policy also requires that a prevention advocate be a member of the local committee. The county coroner/medical examiner alerts the district attorney when a death has occurred, who initiates the review. Local committees are also encouraged to meet regularly, even if no deaths have occurred, to develop and review prevention efforts.

Reviews
Local CFR committees review all injury, sleep-related, and unexpected/suspicious deaths to children who are less than 18 years old. Local committees submit their reviews using the National CDR Case Reporting System; the state Panel reviews selected case reports that have been completed by the local committees.

Purpose
The main purpose of Georgia’s CFR program is to prevent deaths. The mission of CFR is to serve Georgia’s children by promoting more accurate identification and reporting of child fatalities, evaluating the prevalence and circumstances of both child abuse cases and child fatality investigations, and monitoring the implementation and impact of the statewide child injury prevention plan in order to prevent and reduce incidents of child abuse and fatalities in the state.  

Websites

www.childdeathreview.org  -  Access previous years reports.

www.cdrdata.org  -  Submit a child death review report.