New Citizen Review Panels for North Carolina’s Child Welfare System
I wrote recently about substantial upcoming changes to North Carolina’s child fatality prevention system. As part of those systemic changes in S.L. 2023-124, the General Assembly is establishing new Citizen Review Panels to evaluate the extent to which the state is fulfilling its child protection responsibilities in accordance with federal child welfare laws. This change aligns North Carolina with requirements in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), the core federal legislation that authorizes funding to states for preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. This post will discuss the structure and authority of these new citizen panels, as well as how their work intersects with local teams engaged in multidisciplinary child fatality reviews.
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