Kentucky’s 17-member child abuse review panel will meet next week to begin work. A starting point for the panel could be the 55 death or near death cases recorded this past fiscal year.
The Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Panel was created to provide oversight to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and to make recommendations for how the cabinet can improve. Retired Franklin County Judge Roger Crittenden chairs the panel.
“My initial idea was that we would review the last year first just to get an idea of where we’re going. And then once we see what we’re looking at in terms of the data that’s available on each case and how each case came up and how it’s written up then we might be back into the history to see if that’s been a pattern," he said.
Last fiscal year 30 child fatality and near fatality cases were reviewed in some way by the cabinet. Crittenden says it’ll be up to the panel to decide if that’s where its review begins.
Over the past five years there have been 386 death or near death cases.
