Historically, data concerning children reported for abuse or neglect in the US have been compiled by child protective service agencies and analysed independently from other sources of information. Yet these data suffer from the notable limitations of being both narrow in scope (i.e. containing a limited set of variables) and narrow in coverage (i.e. capturing data for only those children who are reported). In order to extend an understanding of children reported for maltreatment, the California Department of Social Services, in partnership with the University of California at Berkeley, is pursuing a ‘public health’ oriented approach to the surveillance of child maltreatment through linkages between child protective service records and population‐based sources of data. As an example of the information that can be generated through linked records, this article reports results from child‐level matches completed between the state's child protective service records and vital birth records. The cumulative percentage of children reported for abuse or neglect before the age of five is examined based on maternal and child characteristics at birth. This is followed by a discussion of record linkages as a means of furthering a public health approach to child maltreatment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Maltreatment that begins during infancy is likely to be chronic in duration and developmentally consequential if the appropriate intervention is not delivered. Repeated reports of maltreatment may signal unmet service needs. This study prospectively followed infants who remained at home following an initial report of maltreatment to determine the rate of re-reporting within 5 years. Birth records for all children born in California in 2006 were linked to statewide child protection records through 2012; 5.2% (n = 29,135) of children were reported for abuse or neglect prior to age 1. Following an initial report, 81.9% of infants remained in the home, the majority (60.7%) of whom were re-reported within 5 years. The highest rate of re-reporting was observed among infants whose initial allegation was substantiated and who had a case opened for family maintenance services (69.1%). Infants whose initial allegation was not investigated had re-reporting rates that were equal to or higher than other infants remaining in the home without services. Findings highlight that most families with infants reported for maltreatment are not formally served through the child protection system. High rates of re-reporting underscore the challenge of delivering services that remedy conditions necessitating child protection follow-up and call attention to the importance of accessing data from community service providers.

Although kinship guardianship is an increasingly important foster care exit pathway for children in the United States, research on the factors leading to kinship guardianship breakdown is lacking. This study examines the factors associated with guardianship breakdown for children who exited foster care to kinship guardianship in California between 2003 and 2010 (N = 18,831). Specifying time-dependent Cox relative risk models, children's age trajectories are directly accounted for in the analysis. This allows differentiation between duration dependence (i.e., time spent in guardianship) and children's development (expressed as age). Overall, 17.3% of children reentered care by 2017. Early adolescents, age 13-15 years (HR = 1.63, p < .001), and late adolescents, age 16-17 years (HR = 1.93, p < .001), had an increased hazard of reentry compared with children under the age of six. Children with a history of mental health concerns had more than twice the hazard of reentering than children without such a history (HR = 2.18, p < .001). Our findings indicate that transition to adolescence was associated with increased risk of reentry into care, highlighting the need for guardianship support services leading up to, and during, this child developmental stage.

Objectives. To document the cumulative childhood risk of different levels of involvement with the child protection system (CPS), including terminations of parental rights (TPRs). Methods. We linked vital records for California’s 1999 birth cohort (n = 519 248) to CPS records from 1999 to 2017. We used sociodemographic information captured at birth to estimate differences in the cumulative percentage of children investigated, substantiated, placed in foster care, and with a TPR. Results. Overall, 26.3% of children were investigated for maltreatment, 10.5% were substantiated, 4.3% were placed in foster care, and 1.1% experienced a TPR. Roughly 1 in 2 Black and Native American children were investigated during childhood. Children receiving public insurance experienced CPS involvement at more than twice the rate of children with private insurance. Conclusions. Findings provide a lower-bound estimate of CPS involvement and extend previous research by documenting demographic differences, including in TPRs. Public Health Implications. Conservatively, CPS investigates more than a quarter of children born in California for abuse or neglect. These data reinforce policy questions about the current scope and reach of our modern CPS. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print April 15, 2021: e1–e7. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306214 )