This bill amends existing law (RCW 70.05.170) to revise language and procedures for reviewing child deaths. It changes terminology from "mortality" or "death" to "fatality" or "child fatality review," expands the covered age group from "less than eighteen" to "up to 19 years of age," and expressly authorizes local health departments to conduct child fatality reviews and to retain identifiable and geographic information for trend, longitudinal, and quality-improvement analysis. The bill creates procedural rules about data access, confidentiality, and evidentiary protection. Local health departments may request and must be provided specified records for reviews (including medical records, autopsy, medical examiner and coroner reports, school, law enforcement, criminal justice, and social services records), and vital records certifications and informational copies of birth and death records must be provided at no charge. Information and records prepared, owned, used, or retained by local health departments that reveal identification or location are exempt from public disclosure under RCW 42.56.365, and health care information collected for reviews is confidential under chapter 70.02 RCW. Witness statements and documents gathered exclusively for reviews, and summaries or analyses prepared for reviews, are protected from public disclosure, discovery, subpoena, or introduction into evidence in related civil or administrative proceedings, and review team members and technical committee participants may not be examined about the existence or contents of documents assembled for the review. Those protections do not limit discovery of provider records kept in the ordinary course of business, do not prevent subpoena of documents from witnesses because copies were collected for the review, do not prohibit reporting suspected child abuse or neglect under chapter 26.44 RCW, and do not restrict testimony or evidence about facts known independently of the review or publicly available information. The department (unnamed in the provided text) is directed to assist local health departments with collecting review reports, entering them into a database, and providing technical assistance and coordination; the department and local health departments may publish statistical compilations and reports with identifying information redacted. The extracted text lists multiple affected agencies (local health departments, health care providers and facilities, schools, law enforcement, medical examiners and coroners, DSHS, DCYF, health profession licensees, and the criminal justice system). The provided material does not identify which state "department" is referenced in every instance, and funding or resource provisions for the database or technical assistance are not included in the extracted facts.

If enacted, this bill lets local health departments formally run child fatality reviews for deaths of young people up to 19 years old and keep identifiable and location information on each case to look for trends and improve quality. Those reviews and the statements and analyses created for them would be kept confidential and generally could not be released, used in court, or subpoenaed, though original medical records kept by hospitals or providers remain discoverable. Local health departments could request medical records, autopsy and coroner reports, school, law enforcement, and social services records from a long list of agencies (and get birth/death certificates free), and the state department named in the law would help collect reports, enter information into a central database, and provide technical support; the state and local agencies may publish redacted statistical reports for prevention work. The people and organizations most affected are local health departments, which gain new authority and responsibility to run reviews and retain identifiable data and therefore may need staff time, data-handling capacity, and legal safeguards; hospitals, clinics, law enforcement, schools, DSHS, DCYF and others must respond to records requests and could face additional administrative work or costs to produce files. Review team members gain stronger protection from being forced to disclose review materials in civil or administrative cases, while families may see greater privacy for case reviews. The text does not clearly identify which state “department” will provide assistance nor does it specify funding or resources for the database and technical help, so how much new work local agencies will need to absorb or what state support will cover remains uncertain.