About
A Critical Incident Review Team (CIRT) is a designated committee, assigned by the ODHS Director, to conduct an executive review of a critical incident.
A critical incident is identified when ODHS reasonably believes the death was the result of child abuse and the deceased child was in the custody of ODHS at the time of death or the deceased child, the deceased child’s sibling, or any other child living in the household with the deceased child was:
- the subject of a child protective services assessment within 12 months preceding the death; or
- had a pending child welfare or adoption case with ODHS within 12 months preceding the death; or
- was the subject of a report of child abuse made to ODHS within 12 months preceding the death.
Purpose
The purpose of assigning a CIRT is to increase child safety by:
- Rapidly drawing lessons from a critical incident to improve systems administered by ODHS;
- Increasing the ODHS’ accountability to the public;
- Evaluating and learning from cases designated as critical incidents;
- Ensuring timely responses by ODHS with respect to a critical incident and recommendations that result from the critical incident reviews;
- Increasing ODHS’ ability to address and recommend necessary changes to systems.
Learn More
To learn more about CIRT, view the: