Montana insists it can't release child death information

Source: Associated Press

Montana insists it can't release child death information

Holbrook Mohr and Amy Beth Hanson, Associated Press
Updated 6:22 pm, Wednesday, September 2, 2015

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana child welfare officials have reiterated their position that state law prohibits disclosure of information about child abuse deaths despite a warning from the federal government that continued secrecy could jeopardize grant money.

Officials at Montana's Department of Public Health and Human Services say a state confidentiality law blocks them from releasing details about children who die at their caregivers' hands, but said they will urge state lawmakers to pass a law bringing the state into compliance in 2017.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told Montana officials last month that the state would lose a child abuse prevention grant if they did not start releasing the information or explain why they do not have to. Federal rules require transparency in cases where a child dies from abuse or neglect.

. . .

An eight-month investigation by The Associated Press into child abuse deaths nationwide found that the state has routinely kept details of such cases secret, even when they involved children killed while the agency had reason to know they were in danger. The AP learned of a Montana case that it focused on by reviewing documents in the criminal court case against Matthew Blaz, the father of 2-month-old victim Mattisyn Blaz, whom prosecutors said had been spiked "like a football." The father was sentenced in November to life in prison without parole.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Montana-insists-it-can-t-release-child-death-6481517.php