§ 422-b. Local and regional fatality review teams. 1. A fatality
review team may be established at a local or regional level, with the
approval of the office of children and family services, for the purpose
of investigating the death of any child whose care and custody or
custody and guardianship has been transferred to an authorized agency,
other than a vulnerable child as defined in article eleven of this
chapter, any child for whom child protective services has an open case,
any child for whom the local department of social services has an open
preventive services case, and in the case of a report made to the
statewide central register of child abuse and maltreatment involving the
death of a child. A fatality review team may also investigate any
unexplained or unexpected death of any child under the age of eighteen.

2. A local or regional fatality review team may exercise the same
authority as the office of children and family services with regard to
the preparation of a fatality report as set forth in paragraphs (b) and
(c) of subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary and to the
extent consistent with federal law, such local or regional fatality
review team shall have access to those client-identifiable records
necessary for the preparation of the report, as authorized in accordance
with paragraph (d) of subdivision five of section twenty of this
chapter. A fatality report prepared by a local or regional fatality
review team and approved by the office of children and family services
satisfies the obligation to prepare a fatality report as set forth in
subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter. Such report shall be
subject to the same redisclosure provisions applicable to fatality
reports prepared by the office of children and family services.

3. For the purposes of this section, a local or regional fatality
review team must include, but need not be limited to, representatives
from the child protective service, office of children and family
services, county department of health, or, should the locality not have
a county department of health, the local health commissioner or his or
her designee or the local public health director or his or her designee,
office of the medical examiner, or, should the locality not have a
medical examiner, office of the coroner, office of the district
attorney, office of the county attorney, local and state law
enforcement, emergency medical services and a pediatrician or comparable
medical professional, preferably with expertise in the area of child
abuse and maltreatment or forensic pediatrics. A local or regional
fatality review team may also include representatives from local
departments of social services, mental health agencies, domestic
violence agencies, substance abuse programs, hospitals, local schools,
and family court.

4. A local or regional fatality review team established pursuant to
this section shall have access to all records, except those protected by
statutory privilege, within twenty-one days of receipt of a request.

5. Members of a local or regional fatality review team, persons
attending a meeting of a local or regional fatality review team, and
persons who present information to a local or regional fatality review
team shall have immunity from civil and criminal liability for all
reasonable and good faith actions taken pursuant to this section, and
shall not be questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding
any opinions formed as a result of a meeting of a local or regional
fatality review team. Nothing in this section shall be construed to
prevent a person from testifying as to information obtained
independently of a local or regional fatality review team or which is
public information.

6. All meetings conducted and all reports and records made and
maintained, and books and papers obtained, by a local or regional
fatality review team shall be confidential and not open to the general
public except by court order and except for an annual report or a
fatality report, if the fatality review team chooses to complete such an
annual report or fatality report. The release of any fatality report
prepared by a local or regional fatality review team shall be governed
by the provisions of subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter.
Any such annual report or fatality report shall not contain any
individually identifiable information and shall be provided to the
office of children and family services upon completion. The office of
children and family services shall forward copies of any such report to
all other local or regional fatality review teams established pursuant
to this section, to all citizen review panels established pursuant to
section three hundred seventy-one-b of this chapter, and to the
governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the
assembly.