CHAPTER 1 REPORTS
Every day, child protective services (CPS) agencies receive referrals alleging that children have been abused or neglected. The sources of these referrals include educators, law enforcement personnel, social workers, parents, and concerned neighbors. Many referrals are "screened in" and investigated, indicating that the referral was deemed appropriate for investigation or assessment.
Once a referral has been screened in, the agency determines whether the child has been maltreated or has not been maltreated but is at risk of maltreatment. The CPS agency must then decide whether to take further action to protect the child.
This chapter first presents statistics on the screening of referrals. Data are then provided on the sources of reports, the time CPS agencies took to respond to such allegations, the "dispositions," or findings, of the reports that were investigated or assessed, and the workload of the CPS workforce.
1.1 SCREENING OF REFERRALS
In 1999, CPS agencies screened in an estimated 1,796,000 family-based referrals in 51 States 1. The referrals are termed "family-based" because each referral may have included more than one child in the family.
CPS agencies also screened out an estimated 1,178,000 family-based referrals. The total estimated number of screened-in and screened-out family-based referrals received by CPS agencies in 1999 was 2,974,000. Thus, CPS agencies screened in and investigated approximately 60.4 percent of the nearly 3 million referrals they received and screened out approximately 39.6 percent of the referrals. (See table 1-2.)
The rate of all family-based referrals per 1,000 children in the population was 42.0. The rates of family-based referrals per 1,000 children in the population were 25.6 and 16.8, respectively, for screened-in and screened-out referrals.
1.2 REPORT SOURCES
In 1999, more than half (54.7 percent) of the screened-in referrals (also referred to as reports) were submitted by professionals2. (See figure 1-1.) "Professional" implies that the source came into contact with the alleged victim as part of his or her job, and that the source may be legally required to report suspected maltreatment. Professional sources included educators, legal and law enforcement personnel, social services personnel, medical personnel, mental health personnel, child day care providers, and substitute care providers. The three most common sources of reports were education personnel (15.0%), legal or law enforcement personnel (13.6%), and social services personnel (13.2%).
Nonprofessional report sources submitted the remaining 45.3 percent of screened-in reports. These sources included parents, other relatives, friends and neighbors, alleged victims, alleged perpetrators, and "anonymous" and other sources. Anonymous or unknown reporters accounted for the largest portion of reports in the nonprofessional category, 12.2 percent.
This distribution of reporters has remained stable for several years.
1.3 REPORT-TO-INVESTIGATION RESPONSE TIME
Most States have established time standards for initiating the investigation of reports. In some States, high-priority reports require an immediate response from CPS (at least within 24 hours). Other reports are classified as needing a response within a few days or weeks.
Based on data from 14 States, average response time to reports was 63.8 hours. (See table 1-4.) Data from more States were not available because the actual amount of elapsed time was not recorded. In many States, workers recorded only whether they had met the required time standard, for example, "within 2 days," and not the actual elapsed time.
1.4 INVESTIGATED REPORTS
CPS agencies assign a "disposition" to a report after investigating the circumstances of the report and determining the likelihood that maltreatment occurred. Nationally, these agencies made dispositions for an estimated 1,906,000 reports (including both family-based and child-based).3
The following major types of dispositions are reported:
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"SUBSTANTIATED" is an investigation disposition that concludes that the allegation of maltreatment or risk of maltreatment was supported or founded by State law or State policy. This is the highest level of finding by a State Agency.
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"INDICATED" or "REASON TO SUSPECT" is an investigation disposition that concludes that maltreatment cannot be substantiated under State law or policy, but there is reason to suspect that the child may have been maltreated or was at risk of maltreatment. This is applicable only to States that distinguish between substantiated and indicated dispositions.
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"NOT SUBSTANTIATED" is an investigation disposition that determines that there is not sufficient evidence under State law or policy to conclude that the child has been maltreated or is at risk of being maltreated.
In 1999, 29.2 percent of investigations resulted in a disposition of either substantiated or indicated maltreatment (figure 1-2), meaning that at least one child involved in any such investigation was determined to be a child victim. More than half (54.7%) of investigations led to a finding that the alleged child maltreatment was not substantiated.
1.5 CPS WORKFORCE
Forty-one States reported that approximately 27,000 workers were responsible for screening, intake, investigation, and assessment of reports. (See table 1-6.) In most States, some workers screen referrals, and others conduct investigations. Thirty-one States differentiated between workers who conduct screening and intake and those who conduct investigations and assessments. In these States, 83.1 percent of the workers were responsible for investigations and the average number of investigations per worker was 72. Data for the remaining States were not available in part because in some jurisdictions, the same workers conduct all CPS functions, and in some rural areas, these workers may provide other child welfare services, also.
Footnotes
1 Data were
converted to family-based referrals in those States that provided
child-based referrals. (See table 1-1.)
2 Only sources of screened-in
referrals are collected and analyzed; information about the sources
of screened-out referrals is not available.
3 This number includes estimates
of total investigations for Colorado (28,907), District of Columbia
(2,585), and Tennessee (36,379), based on their populations and the
number of reported investigations in 48 States. See table 1-5 for
reported investigation dispositions by type in 48 States.
