News Story - Idaho State Journal

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ Idaho will remain the only state in the nation with no system for reviewing child deaths after the chairwoman on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee blocked legislation.

Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, asked the Senate to return the bill to her committee, where it's now dead. It passed the House on March 17 on a 63-5 vote, and it had previously cleared Lodge's committee on a voice vote after a public hearing.

Lodge said Idaho doesn't need to review child deaths because other states are already doing that.

"We can use the information that they've gathered," she told The Spokesman-Review for an article published Thursday. "If they're already doing it, what could be different in a child death in Utah or Montana that we wouldn't have here? Why reinvent the wheel all the time?"

She said she was also concerned about possible ramifications.

"The concerns mostly were, what could this lead to?" she said. "Could this lead to maybe more usurping of freedoms? Could parents be charged?"

She said that when her children were growing up they rode horses without wearing helmets, and that she didn't want parents faulted for allowing normal childhood activities.

The bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Russ Mathews, R-Idaho Falls, and Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, a pediatric nurse practitioner who works with abused children.

"It means that people don't have to stand up and be counted for taking a stand on how we treat child deaths in our state," said Henbest. "So rather than openly debate and vote against it, pull it back to committee really quietly.

"We talk a lot about family values and children's lives in this place," she said. "I have trouble understanding how that can't be universally valued."

The annual cost of the program to the state would have been about $43,000.

The child mortality review legislation would have set up a review team of doctors, law enforcement workers and others that would have had full confidentiality, immunity from subpoenas, and be allowed to get all records concerning unexpected child deaths in the state.

Part of the reason for forming the team was that it could have spotted trends that might have led to actions to prevent future deaths.

Past governors have set up similar teams by executive order, but the state has had no regular review of child deaths since 2003.

Past review panels have helped lead to education programs for Idaho parents to prevent sudden infant death syndrome, new seat belt laws, programs for safe firearms storage in homes with children, a canal safety and fencing program, and education for parents on car safety restraints.

Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, vice chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said she was undecided on the bill.

"Any time a child dies we need to know why and what happened," she said. "I don't know that we need to spend a large amount of money to research that. I think that our agencies are tracking it, we're just not getting the coordination."

A day care licensing bill also died in Lodge's committee.

"For me, it's exceedingly frustrating that when we're dealing with the lives and safety of children, we can't make progress," said Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, a committee member.

This document was originally published online on Saturday, March 29, 2008

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