New Report on State Secrecy and Child Deaths

On April 29, First Star and Children's Advocacy Institute (CAI) held a briefing on Capitol Hill to announce the release of their new report, State Secrecy and Child Deaths in the U.S. The report surveys all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine if each state has a policy for public disclosure of child deaths, if the state's policy is codified in statute, if there's ease of access to the information, the scope of information, and whether the state has open verses closed abuse/neglect proceedings. The report uses letter grades for each state from A to F based on these factors. Ten states received an F, 28 received a C+ or lower, and 6 states received an A or A-. For more information, visit www.firststar.org.