Section 422-B. Local and regional fatality review teams

1. A fatality
  review team may be established at a local or regional  level,  with  the
  approval  of the office of children and family services, for the purpose
  of investigating the death of  any  child  whose  care  and  custody  or
  custody  and  guardianship has been transferred to an authorized agency,
  any child for whom child protective services has an open case, any child
  for whom the local department of social services has an open  preventive
  services  case, and in the case of a report made to the central register
  involving the death  of  a  child.  A  fatality  review  team  may  also
  investigate  any  unexplained or unexpected death of any child under the
  age of eighteen.
    2. A local or regional fatality review  team  may  exercise  the  same
  authority  as  the office of children and family services with regard to
  the preparation of a fatality report as set forth in paragraphs (b)  and
  (c)   of   subdivision   five   of   section  twenty  of  this  chapter.
  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary  and  to  the
  extent  consistent  with  federal  law,  such local or regional fatality
  review team shall  have  access  to  those  client-identifiable  records
  necessary for the preparation of the report, as authorized in accordance
  with  paragraph  (d)  of  subdivision  five  of  section  twenty of this
  chapter. A fatality report prepared by  a  local  or  regional  fatality
  review  team  and approved by the office of children and family services
  satisfies the obligation to prepare a fatality report as  set  forth  in
  subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter. Such report shall be
  subject  to  the  same  redisclosure  provisions  applicable to fatality
  reports prepared by the office of children and family services.
    3. For the purposes of this section,  a  local  or  regional  fatality
  review  team  must  include, but need not be limited to, representatives
  from the  child  protective  service,  office  of  children  and  family
  services,  county department of health, or, should the locality not have
  a county department of health, the local health commissioner or  his  or
  her designee or the local public health director or his or her designee,
  office  of  the  medical  examiner,  or,  should the locality not have a
  medical  examiner,  office  of  the  coroner,  office  of  the  district
  attorney,   office   of   the  county  attorney,  local  and  state  law
  enforcement, emergency medical services and a pediatrician or comparable
  medical professional, preferably with expertise in  the  area  of  child
  abuse  and  maltreatment  or  forensic  pediatrics.  A local or regional
  fatality  review  team  may  also  include  representatives  from  local
  departments   of  social  services,  mental  health  agencies,  domestic
  violence agencies, substance abuse programs, hospitals,  local  schools,
  and family court.
    4.  A  local  or regional fatality review team established pursuant to
  this section shall have access to all records, except those protected by
  statutory privilege, within twenty-one days of receipt of a request.
    5. Members of a  local  or  regional  fatality  review  team,  persons
  attending  a  meeting  of  a local or regional fatality review team, and
  persons who present information to a local or regional  fatality  review
  team  shall  have  immunity  from  civil  and criminal liability for all
  reasonable and good faith actions taken pursuant to  this  section,  and
  shall  not  be  questioned in any civil or criminal proceeding regarding
  any opinions formed as a result of a meeting  of  a  local  or  regional
  fatality  review  team.  Nothing  in  this section shall be construed to
  prevent  a  person  from   testifying   as   to   information   obtained
  independently  of  a  local or regional fatality review team or which is
  public information.
    6. All meetings  conducted  and  all  reports  and  records  made  and
  maintained,  and  books  and  papers  obtained,  by  a local or regional

  fatality review team shall be confidential and not open to  the  general
  public  except  by  court  order  and  except  for an annual report or a
  fatality report, if the fatality review team chooses to complete such an
  annual  report  or  fatality  report. The release of any fatality report
  prepared by a local or regional fatality review team shall  be  governed
  by the provisions of subdivision five of section twenty of this chapter.
  Any  such  annual  report  or  fatality  report  shall  not  contain any
  individually identifiable information  and  shall  be  provided  to  the
  office  of  children  and family services upon completion. The office of
  children and family services shall forward copies of any such report  to
  all  other  local or regional fatality review teams established pursuant
  to this section, to all citizen review panels  established  pursuant  to
  section  three  hundred  seventy-one-b  of  this  chapter,  and  to  the
  governor, the temporary president of the senate and the speaker  of  the
  assembly.