The Kentucky Attorney General has ruled that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services violated the state's Open Records Act by failing to timely respond to a request for data on child maltreatment fatalities and near-fatalities, according to Open Records Decision 26-ORD-038 issued Feb. 5.

The decision stems from a December 2025 request by Jennifer Mortenson, a child advocate who serves on the cabinet's Trusted Advisors Council, seeking statistics on child fatality and near-fatality investigations from 2024 and 2025. The cabinet received her third request on Dec. 31, 2025, but did not respond until Jan. 12, 2026—six business days later, violating the five-business-day requirement under state law.

However, the attorney general upheld the cabinet's right to deny Mortenson's specific requests for compiled statistical data, ruling that state agencies are not required to create new records or compile information to satisfy open records requests. The cabinet argued the requested statistics do not exist in a single maintained document, stating that producing the data "would require the Cabinet to compile the information from each file into a document and create a record that conforms to the Appellant's requested parameters."

Mortenson is seeking the records to identify potential gaps in Kentucky's child protection system, particularly regarding newborns exposed to substances and cases of abuse and neglect that go unprosecuted. She has also filed a separate lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court against child welfare officials, alleging incomplete compliance with her records requests.

The external Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Panel released its 2024 report in July, reviewing 219 cases including 70 fatalities and 149 near-fatalities. The panel has emphasized that most such deaths are preventable, with prior reviews suggesting 90 percent of reviewed cases could have been prevented.