The Need for Improved Collaboration between Schools and Child Death Review Teams

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Child Safety
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Schools are vital partners in public health, playing a key role in student well-being.
• Child Death Review (CDR) processes aim to prevent future fatalities through collaborative strategies.
• The extent of school involvement in CDRs and associated student issues remains largely unquantified.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the level of school participation in Child Death Reviews (CDRs).
• To determine the prevalence of school-related problems among children whose deaths were reviewed.
• To compare school involvement in CDRs for suicide versus non-suicide related deaths.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System for data from 2005-2017.
• Focused on school-aged children (5-20 years) with reviewed deaths.
• Employed frequency, proportion, and chi-squared statistical analyses.

Main Results:

• Educational representatives were infrequent participants in CDRs (24.9%).
• School records were rarely accessed (5.2%), and only 41.2% of cases included school information.
• Children in suicide deaths showed slightly higher rates of school representative attendance (28.4%) and record access (9.2%) compared to non-suicide deaths.

Conclusions:

• School engagement in CDRs is insufficient for both suicide and non-suicide deaths.
• Barriers such as state policies and federal privacy laws may hinder school-system integration.
• Enhanced collaboration between schools and public health is crucial for preventing child mortality.