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State infant and child death review panel presents 2023 findings and prevention recommendations
Summary
The Arkansas Infant and Child Death Review panel presented its 2023 annual report to the committee, reporting 170 non‑natural deaths with 148 reviewed and offering prevention recommendations for agencies and nonprofits to use as a guide.
The Arkansas Infant and Child Death Review (ICDR) panel presented its 2023 annual report to the House committee, outlining the scope of its work and offering recommendations aimed at reducing injury‑related child deaths.
Kevin Click Warren, a presenter for the ICDR, said the statewide review covers unexpected deaths of Arkansas children ages 0–17 as required by Act 18 of 2005. The ICDR is supported by 11 regional volunteer teams covering 75 counties, he said.
"There were 170 total non‑natural deaths," Warren said. "Twenty‑two of those were either under criminal investigation or the team could not obtain sufficient records, so 148 were reviewed in the annual report." He directed committee members to report pages that break out types of deaths and the panel's recommendations.
Of the 148 reviewed cases, ICDR materials list 69 classified as accidents (including motor‑vehicle injuries, drownings, poisonings or overdoses, asphyxia, fires and other injuries), 14 suicides, 18 homicides and 47 undetermined deaths including sudden unexpected infant death; the panel summarized findings and prevention recommendations on pages 10–14 and 33–34 of the report.
Presenters said the report is intended as a resource for agencies, nonprofits and local programs working to prevent injury‑related deaths. Committee members asked how the recommendations could be moved forward; an agency representative said her organization had already used ICDR recommendations to shape a child‑abuse prevention grant request for proposals and offered to share the RFP with committee staff.
The panel emphasized that the report is a tool for planning prevention activities rather than for assigning blame. Presenters invited follow‑up and suggested agencies and local stakeholders use the report to guide grantmaking, program design and data collection.
The committee set no formal policy actions at the meeting; presenters and members agreed to circulate the panel's RFP and to consider the ICDR recommendations when pursuing prevention funding and programming.
