Island County Launches Child Fatality Review Program to Prevent Deaths

Island County Public Health announced a new child fatality review program designed to examine how and why children die in the county and to recommend prevention strategies for families and policymakers. Public Health leaders said the effort will focus on identifying actionable risk factors rather than re-litigating causes of death.

Community Health Manager Megan Works told the Island County Board of Health that the program will be launched this year and will review deaths of infants through age 18 for Island County residents who died within the county. The review will include accidents, suicides, homicides and deaths classified as undetermined; deaths attributed to natural causes will be excluded. Works said 22 child fatalities in the past 10 years meet the program’s criteria.

Starting in March, a multidisciplinary review committee will be formed and will include the coroner, representatives from local public health, social and human services, health care providers and law enforcement. Prevention Services Supervisor Jen Krenz said a representative from the state Department of Children, Youth and Families will participate in the meetings. An April meeting will set expectations, including confidentiality requirements, and review historical data; the committee will meet in the summer to discuss the first set of cases.

Dr. Howard Leibrand, the county health officer, emphasized the prevention focus of the work. “There is no such thing as death from natural causes in a kid, in my mind,” he said, pointing to past policy shifts - such as seatbelt and helmet laws - that emerged from analyses of what was killing children and how to prevent it.

Island County joins 11 other local health jurisdictions in Washington that operate child fatality review programs. Similar programs around the state have influenced policies on safe sleep practices, drowning prevention and teen driving safety. Local leaders framed the effort as both a clinical review and a public health tool that can guide community-level prevention, resource allocation and policy advocacy.

State-level data provides a pressing context. The Department of Children, Youth and Families reports that child fatalities and near-fatalities have risen since 2021 and attributes much of the increase to fentanyl and other opioids, with more than 50 percent of critical cases in 2025 being opioid-related. Lawmakers have introduced several bills in the state legislature aimed at addressing these trends.

For Island County residents, the new review program could mean targeted prevention campaigns, stronger coordination among health and human services, and recommendations that address root causes such as substance use, mental health access and inequities in housing and safety. The county’s approach will be confidential and data-driven, with community safety as the guiding principle. Residents can expect the committee’s initial findings and prevention recommendations after the summer case reviews, with the potential for local policy and program changes to follow.