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Chapter 1
Introduction
Child Maltreatment 2006

Child abuse and neglect is one of the Nation's most serious concerns. The Children's Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families in the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addresses this important issue in many ways. One example is to collect data on the children who are served by child protective services (CPS) agencies.

This Child Maltreatment 2006 report, now in its 17th edition, presents national data about child abuse and neglect known to CPS agencies in the United States during Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2006. The data were collected and analyzed through the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) supported by the Children's Bureau. This chapter discusses the background of NCANDS and describes the annual data collection process.

Background of NCANDS

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) was amended in 1988 to direct the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a national data collection and analysis program that would make available State child abuse and neglect reporting information.¹ HHS responded by establishing NCANDS as a voluntary national reporting system.

During 1992, HHS produced its first NCANDS report based on data from 1990. The Child Maltreatment report series has evolved from that initial report. During the early years, States provided aggregated data on key indicators of CPS. Starting with the 1993 data year, States voluntarily began to submit case-level data. For a number of years, States provided both data sets, but starting with data year 2000, the case-level data set became the primary source of data for the annual report. The aggregated data file, the Summary Data Component (SDC), is phasing out as States are able to provide case-level data. For FFY 2006, 51 States reported case-level data (Child Files).²

During 1996, CAPTA was amended to require all States that receive funds from the Basic State Grant program to work with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to provide specific data, to the extent practicable, about children who had been maltreated. These data elements were incorporated into NCANDS; the required CAPTA data items are discussed in appendix A. An NCANDS glossary of terms is provided as appendix B.

A State Advisory Group, comprising State CPS program administrators and information systems managers, assists with the identification and resolution of issues related to CPS data. This group suggests strategies for improving the quality of data submitted by the States and reviews proposed modifications to NCANDS. The Children's Bureau convenes the State Advisory Group annually. The most recent list of State Advisory Group members are provided below:

Michael Matthews, Alaska Nicolas Espadas, Arizona Debbie Williams, California Lois Branic, District of Columbia Keith Perlman, Florida Virginia Dick, Georgia Kendall Darling, Kansas Walter G. Fahr, Louisiana Rosalind Walter, Massachusetts

Frank L. Fornataro, Nebraska Jane Whitney, New Hampshire Paul Nance, New York Tom Pomonis, North Dakota Bill Hindman, Oklahoma Maria Duryea, Oregon Evelyza Crespo Rivera, Puerto Rico Kim Wieczorek, South Dakota Cynthia Ellingson, Washington

In addition to an annual meeting of the State Advisory Group, a technical assistance meeting for all States is held each year. This technical assistance meeting serves as a forum for providing guidance to the States for their annual data submissions and discussing data utilization and training needs.

Data collected by NCANDS are a critical source of information for many publications, reports, and activities of the Federal Government and other groups. An annual report on child welfare outcomes includes context and outcome data on safety, based on State submissions to NCANDS.³

NCANDS data have been incorporated into the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR), which ensures conformity with State plan requirements in titles IV–B and IV–E of the Social Security Act. NCANDS data are the basis for two of the CFSR national data indicators:

• The absence of the recurrence of maltreatment; and
• The absence of maltreatment in foster care.

The NCANDS data are used to help assess the performance of several Children's Bureau programs through the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) process. The PART is a systematic method of assessing the performance of program activities across the Federal Government that "uses a questionnaire to help assess the management and performance of programs. It is used to evaluate a program's purpose, design, planning, management, results, and accountability to determine its overall effectiveness."⁴ The following measures are used to assess one or more Children's Bureau programs including the CAPTA Basic State Grant and the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) program.

• Decrease the rate of first-time victims per 1,000 children. This measure is based on analysis of the NCANDS Child File and the prior victim data element. The focus is on the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect (CBCAP).
• Improve States' average response time between maltreatment report and investigation, based on the median of States' reported average response time in hours from screened-in reports to the initiation of the investigation as reported in the NCANDS Agency File. The objective is to improve the efficiency of child protective services and to reduce the risk of maltreatment to potential victims (CAPTA).
• Decrease the percentage of children with substantiated reports of maltreatment who have a repeated substantiated report of maltreatment within 6 months. This measure is based on analysis of the annual NCANDS Child File. The goal is to ensure children's safety by reducing the recurrence of maltreatment (CAPTA).

 

Annual Data Collection Process

States, which submit case-level data, construct a child-specific record for each report of alleged child abuse or neglect that received a disposition as a result of an investigation or an assessment during the reporting period. The reporting period for Child Maltreatment 2006 was October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006.

Upon receipt of data from each State, a technical validation review was conducted to assess the internal consistency of the data and to identify probable causes for missing data. In many instances, the review concluded that corrections were necessary and the State was requested to resubmit its data. Once a State's case-level data were finalized, aggregate counts were computed and shared with the State. In addition, the aggregate-level data provided in the Agency File were subjected to various logic and consistency checks. (See appendix C, Data Submissions and Data Elements, for additional information regarding data submissions.)

The population of the States that submitted the Child File accounts for approximately 74 million children or 99 percent of the Nation's child population younger than 18 years (table C-1).⁵

Trend data in this report are based upon the most recent population estimates and data resubmissions from the States, including resubmissions for prior years. To make trends more comparable across years, the population data for Puerto Rico were added into all years and estimates were used for Puerto Rico data prior to 2005, which was its first reporting year. Data were accepted through August 2007.⁶

Structure of the Report

This report contains the additional chapters listed below. Throughout the report, tables with supporting data are located at the end of each chapter:

• Chapter 2, Reports—referrals and reports of child maltreatment
• Chapter 3, Children—characteristics of alleged victims and nonvictims
• Chapter 4, Fatalities—fatalities that occurred as a result of maltreatment
• Chapter 5, Perpetrators—perpetrators of maltreatment
• Chapter 6, Services—services to prevent maltreatment and to assist victims and nonvictims
• Chapter 7, Additional Research Related to Child Maltreatment—research activities that use NCANDS data

Commentary for State data and contact information for State representatives are presented in appendix D. The commentary section of this report provides valuable insights into policies and conditions that might affect State data. Additional information about specific State policies or practices can be obtained from the State contact listed in the commentary section. A reader feedback form is included to solicit advice for future reports (appendix E).

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Footnotes

¹ 42 U.S.C. 5101 et seq.; 42 U.S.C. 5116 et seq., Public Law 100-294 passed April 25, 1988. back
² In this report, "States" includes the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Maryland was not able to provide 2006 data in time for this report. back
³ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Child Welfare Outcomes 2003: Annual Report (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2006). back
⁴ Office of Management and Budget retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/part.html. back
⁵ U.S. Census Bureau file PRC_EST2006_AGESEX_RES: Estimates of the Resident Population by Single-Year of Age and Sex for Puerto Rico (http://www.census.gov/popest/estimates.php [released 5/17/2007] ), and U.S. Census Bureau file SC_EST2006_Alldata6: State Characteristics Population Estimates with 6 Race Groups (http://www.census.gov/popest/estimates.php [released 5/17/2007]). Here and throughout this report, the term "child population" refers to all people in the U.S. population younger than 18 years. back
⁶ Four States resubmitted FFY 2005 data—Arizona, Arkansas, Nevada, and South Dakota. Trend data reported in Child Maltreatment 2006 reflect those resubmissions. Trends also reflect the addition of two States reporting Child File data for the first time. back

 

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