§ 143B-150.27.  Powers and duties.

The State Office has the following powers and duties:

(1) To coordinate the work of the statewide Child Fatality Prevention System.

(2) To implement and manage a centralized data and information system capable of gathering, analyzing, and reporting aggregate information from child death review teams with appropriate protocols for sharing information and protecting confidentiality.

(3) To create and implement tools, guidelines, resources, and training and provide technical assistance for Local Teams to enable the teams to do the following:

a. Conduct effective reviews tailored to the type of death being reviewed.

b. Make effective recommendations about child fatality prevention.

c. Gather, analyze, and appropriately report on case data and findings while protecting confidentiality.

d. Facilitate the implementation of prevention strategies in their communities.

(4) To work with medical examiner child fatality staff and the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics to provide Local Teams initial information about child deaths in their respective counties.

(5) To perform research, consult with stakeholders and experts, and collaborate with other organizations and individuals for the purpose of understanding the direct and contributing causes of child deaths as well as evidence-driven strategies, programs, and policies to prevent child deaths, abuse, and neglect in order to inform the work of the Child Fatality Prevention System or as requested by the Child Fatality Task Force.

(6) To educate State and local leaders, including the General Assembly, executive department heads, as well as stakeholders, advocates, and the public, about the Child Fatality Prevention System and issues and prevention strategies addressed by the system.

(7) To collaborate with State and local agencies, nonprofit organizations, academia, advocacy organizations, and others to facilitate the implementation of evidence-driven initiatives to prevent child abuse, neglect, and death, such as education and awareness initiatives.

(8) To create and implement processes for evaluating the ability of the Child Fatality Prevention System to achieve outcomes sought to be accomplished by the system and to report to the Child Fatality Task Force on these evaluations and on statewide functioning of the Child Fatality Prevention System.

(9) To consider opportunities to seek and administer grant and other non-State funding sources to support State or local Child Fatality Prevention System efforts.

(10) To develop guidance to inform local decisions about the formation and implementation of single versus multicounty Local Teams. The guidance must include a model agreement to be used between or among counties that agree to be part of a multicounty Local Team. (2023-134, s. 9H.15(a).)