Carson City March 09, 2021
Children’s Week at the Nevada Legislature is an opportunity to educate Nevadans on the leading causes of child death in Nevada.
Excluding natural and undetermined deaths, in 2017, the four leading causes of child death in Nevada were:
1. Non-motor vehicle accidents such as asphyxia (suffocation) and drowning
2. Homicide
3. Motor vehicle accidents
4. Suicide
The State’s Executive Committee to Review the Death of Children works with the six Regional Child Death Review teams charged with reviewing child fatalities to identify trends, safety concerns, and areas of prevention. The primary goal of the Committee is preventing child maltreatment and child deaths in Nevada and this is achieved by improving the recommendations including law, policy, and practice change, and bringing together community-level organizations and agencies to shed light on the factors that lead to a child’s death.
Recommendations are made to State agencies, legislators, and, if needed, policies are developed or improved to prevent future child fatalities.
“The Executive Committee’s role in Nevada has identified the risk factors when a child dies of abuse or neglect and using that information they help drive policy change and develop important campaigns to increase child safety and educate parents,” said Ross Armstrong, Administrator of the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services.
One dollar from every death certificate issued in Nevada is put into a fund that the Executive Committee oversees. The money is used to support innovative child death prevention programming throughout the State for public awareness, education campaigns, and training to prevent the death of children. Previous campaigns include education on not leaving your child unattended in a vehicle, safe sleep for babies, drowning prevention, and choose your partner carefully.
This year’s priority areas include suicide prevention and safe sleep for babies. The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is set to be released the last week in April.
For more information on the Executive Committee, visit the website at http://dcfs.nv.gov/Programs/CWS/CPS/CDR/