Child Death Review (CDR) is a process used to prevent injury and death by:

• Identifying circumstances leading to children’s deaths.
• Collecting and reporting accurate and uniform information.
• Improving interagency coordination around children’s health and safety.
  

Local Child Death Review teams review deaths of children, under the age of 18, who have unexpectedly lost their lives. Teams identify preventable circumstances in these deaths and consider strategies to improve health and safety for all children. Experts from many backgrounds – local public health, health care, social services, and law enforcement- serve on local teams.

State law (RCW 70.05.170) authorizes Local Health Jurisdictions to conduct child death reviews so that “preventable causes of child mortality” can be identified and addressed. Local Health Jurisdictions are not required to conduct child death reviews.

The Department of Health and local team coordinators developed Child Death Review Guidelines (2.2MB PDF). The guidelines are a reference to help develop and maintain teams, and work with state and local partners to develop policies and practices to improve health and safety.

The National Maternal and Child Health Center for Child Death Review has also developed A Program Manual for Child Death Review (2.8MB PDF) to assist state and local staff.

For more information about Child Death Review, please see:

Child Death Review Program Overview (97KB PDF)
Child Death Review Data Fact Sheet (502KB PDF)

Unless otherwise noted, all materials and forms on this page are in PDF format.

Links to external resources are provided as a public service and do not imply endorsement by the Washington State Department of Health.