宾夕法尼亚州本年度预算中仅为强制性儿童死亡审查计划拨款24.2万美元，与州长沙皮罗年初提议的250万美元相差悬殊 [1]。该计划要求各县组建委员会审查21岁以下人员的死亡情况，以此指导预防工作 [1]。
自2020年以来，该计划仅完成了一半死亡案件的审查 [1]。各县官员表示难以应对这一耗时复杂的州强制性任务 [1]。宾夕法尼亚儿童权利中心创始人凯瑟琳·帕尔批评这笔资金是"一个令人侮辱的数字" [1]。倡导者认为当前资金远不足以改革这一失效的系统 [1]。
2024年东斯特劳德斯堡大学的评估将该计划描述为"县级的无资金授权" [1]。宾夕法尼亚州在1996年托德勒·麦克斯韦尔·费舍尔谋杀案发生后，于2008年创建了儿童死亡审查强制令 [1]。
对于资金短缺问题，州参议院多数党领袖乔·皮特曼表示改进该计划"是有道理的" [1]。州卫生部则表示，即使资金有限，也将"探索额外员工"并"增加能力"来支持县级审查团队 [1]。
Pennsylvania allocated $242,000 to its mandatory child death review program in the current budget, far short of the $2.5 million Governor Josh Shapiro proposed at the beginning of the year [1]. The program requires counties to establish committees that review deaths of individuals under age 21 in order to inform prevention efforts [1].
Since 2020, the program has completed reviews for only half of the death cases assigned to local teams [1]. County officials have described the state-mandated initiative as time-consuming and complex to manage, struggling to keep pace with the workload [1]. Katherine Pal, founder of the Children's Law Center, called the $242,000 allocation "an insulting number" [1].
A 2024 assessment by East Stroudsburg University characterized the program as an "unfunded mandate at the county level" [1]. State Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman said improving the program "makes sense" [1].
The Pennsylvania child death review mandate was established in 2008, following the 1996 murder of Todd Lemacks Maxwell Fischer [1]. The Department of Health stated it would "explore additional staff" and "increase capacity" to support county review teams even with limited funding [1].