Prevalence of child protective services investigations

Researchers examine the prevalence of child encounters with Child Protective Services (CPS) in the United States. Contact with CPS is potentially consequential for child well-being. However, the prevalence of CPS interventions is unclear. Christopher Wildeman and colleagues examined data of CPS cases involving US children up to 18 years of age from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. The data spanned 2014-2018 and covered the 20 most populous US counties. Compared with children from other groups, Black children experienced the highest rates of CPS investigations, ranging from 43.2% in King County, WA, to 72% in Los Angeles County, CA. For more than half of all counties, the authors estimated that the risk of a Black child experiencing a CPS investigation by age 18 years is at least 60%. In Middlesex, MA, Alameda, CA, and King, WA, American Indian and Alaska Native children experienced high rates of CPS cases resulting in termination of parental rights. Among all groups of children, Asian and Pacific Islander children had the lowest rates of contact with CPS. Depending on the county, between 20% and 50% of Hispanic and White children experienced CPS investigations. The findings suggest that experiencing a CPS investigation is common for US children, particularly those from marginalized groups, according to the authors.

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Article #21-06272: “Contact with Child Protective Services is pervasive but unequally distributed by race and ethnicity in large US counties,” by Frank Edwards, Sara Wakefield, Kieran Healy, and Christopher Wildeman.

MEDIA CONTACT: Christopher Wildeman, Duke University, Durham, NC; tel: 609-462-6797; email: <

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