If you suspect child abuse or neglect, call the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Child Abuse Reporting Hotline at 1-800-752-6200.?

Kentucky’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel has a full complement of members for the first time in several years, analysts told members of the Legislative Oversight & Investigations Committee Thursday.

For about four years the panel slot reserved for a practicing social worker was vacant, with the exception of a six-day stint in January 2023, committee analyst Jacob Blevins told lawmakers.?

Youngest Kentuckians increasingly fall victim to accidental overdoses

That position was filled June 6.?

After the former social work clinician retired in 2020, there was a period of about two years during which the Kentucky Board of Social Work did not forward recommendations for new members to the attorney general, Blevins said.?

In recent years state government has suffered from a shortage of social workers, a trend that started to reverse in 2023. Marc Kelly, the executive director of the Kentucky Board of Social Work, said this was “an issue with appointing people” to the panel.?

“Finding Licensed Clinical Social Workers for the panel has been challenging,” Kelly said. “However applications for Licensed Clinical Social Workers have recently increased so we are hopeful that this will not be a problem going forward.”

In January 2023, “An appointee was selected by the attorney general,” Blevins said, “but immediately resigned due to professional obligations.”?

The panel, established in 2012 to review child deaths and near-deaths from abuse or neglect, has five ex officio non voting members and 17 voting members.?

The social work clinician, Allison Motley-Crouch of Salt Lick, is a voting member. Motley-Crouch will serve a two-year term ending June 30, 2026.?

The panel’s next report comes out in February 2025. The 2024 report showed an increase in children dying from drug overdoses, especially children 4 years old and younger. The panel also found “a significant increase” in firearm injuries in children, the Lantern previously reported.?