The Pennsylvania Department of Health received $242,000 in this year’s budget to help county teams review the deaths of children, a state mandate many have struggled to keep up with. The allocation is a fraction of the $2.5 million that Gov. Josh Shapiro proposed earlier this year for the Child Death Review program, and some advocates say it won’t be enough to make major changes to the failing system.
The program requires counties to maintain a board of local officials to analyze the circumstances surrounding every death of a person under 21 to inform prevention efforts. However, just half of all cases have been reviewed by local teams since 2020, and county officials say they are overwhelmed by the time-consuming, complicated state mandate. The Shapiro administration said it was disappointed by the funding.
It sought to revamp counties’ efforts with new state-level staff, grant opportunities, and a public education campaign. Much of that plan appears unachievable, given the limited funding available. Still, the Department of Health said in a statement after the budget became law that even the more modest funding will “provide much needed resources to support this important, yet underfunded, public health initiative.” The agency will use the money to “explore additional staff members” and “increase our capacity” to help county review teams improve data collection and analysis, and develop prevention recommendations that local officials can act on.
Advocates pursuing improvements to the Child Death Review program are disappointed that Shapiro’s full pitch didn’t make it into the final budget. Cathleen Palm, founder of the Center for Children’s Justice, said the $242,000 is “an insulting number” and that state policymakers need to step back and figure out their real plan to prevent child deaths. She has been skeptical for months that lawmakers would prioritize Shapiro’s proposed funding for the program.
“The reality is that we’re continuing to ask local teams to do things that the state itself has not created its own infrastructure” to implement, Palm said. “This is about the humanity of children and how we learn and live, and work to protect them and keep them alive.” County Child Death Review teams consist of local healthcare professionals, law enforcement, child protective service providers, and a coroner or medical examiner.
Summary from source