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Catawba County accepts consolidated local child fatality review report and endorses new state-mandated review procedures
Summary
County Social Services and Public Health presented the Local Child Fatality Review Team annual report, noted statutory changes consolidating review teams and expanding review categories, and the board unanimously approved the report prior to state submittal.
Social Services CPS Program Manager Jessica Ford and Public Health School Health Nursing Supervisor Marianne Vogel presented the Community Child Protection and Child Fatality Prevention Team’s 2025 annual report and described changes to North Carolina’s review system enacted by the 2023 Appropriations Act.
Presenters said that effective July 1, 2025 the state combined local Community Child Protection Teams and Child Fatality Prevention Teams into a single Local Team, expanded the categories of deaths subject to review, required local use of the National Fatality Review Case Reporting System (NFR-CRS) beginning Jan. 1, 2026, and shifted intensive reviews to local teams. Local membership and statutory responsibilities were reviewed; the presenters described the team’s priorities for 2026, including infant safe-sleep education, prenatal care outreach, substance-use related deaths, and safe gun-storage strategies.
Staff reported Catawba County reviewed 27 child deaths in 2025 (an increase of nine from the prior year), with 59% involving children under age 1 (down from 67% the prior year). CPS received 2,779 reports involving 5,461 children in 2025 (a roughly 2% increase in reports compared with 2024). Staff outlined additional data points and community prevention efforts, including distribution of Pack and Play sleep yards to CPS-involved families and community presentations through local partners.
Commissioner Robert C. Abernethy Jr. moved to approve the Local Fatality Review Team Annual Report for submittal to the State of North Carolina; the motion carried unanimously.
The board’s approval authorizes staff to submit the report to state authorities and continue the local prevention and education priorities described in the presentation.
