Report Description
This supplemental safety measure reflects the number and percentage of children who were subjects of a child maltreatment allegation within a 12-month period for whom there were additional maltreatment allegations during the subsequent 6, 12, 18 and 24 month time periods.
Refresh Schedule
This report is refreshed quarterly. For information on publication schedules, please refer to Source Data below.
Time Periods
This report uses rolling year time periods. Available Intervals: Jan-Dec, Apr-Mar, Jul-Jun, & Oct-Sep. The option to display All intervals is also offered. The earliest available time period for this report is Jan 1, 1998 – Dec 31, 2000. The end date of the most recent time period corresponds with the most recent quarterly extract. For Over Time Views you have the option to select the earliest year displayed, which controls the display for tables and graphs.
Report Data
This report uses the Allegation File. For information on these files, please refer to Source Data below.
Notes on Source Data
Refresh Schedule:
| Extract name | Data cutoff | Website refreshed by |
|---|---|---|
| Quarter 1 | April 1 | July 1 |
| Quarter 2 | July 1 | October 1 |
| Quarter 3 | October 1 | January 1 (following year) |
| Quarter 4 | January 1 | April 1 |
For example, the CWS/CMS 2025 Quarter 3 Extract (Q3 25) reported on events up to the data cutoff of October 1, 2025. Reports based on the Q3 25 extract were available on the website by January 1, 2025.
For reporting purposes, we use the CWS/CMS extracts to construct three primary longitudinal analysis files types (allegation, foster care, and case) which track children’s histories in the Child Welfare System. In addition to specifying supervising county and capturing child-level demographics, these files include additional information:
Allegation File
– This file includes one row for each allegation for each child, including allegation type, reporter type, responses such as investigation, as well as allegation disposition (e.g., substantiated, inconclusive, and unfounded).
Foster Care Files
– These files include one row for each placement home for each child, including dates of entries and exits to foster care, placement type, and length of stay.
Case Files
– The primary file includes one row for each case service component for each child. Secondary files serve to locate cases within caseloads, offices, and counties. The files include information about children’s case services, including case openings and closings, and service components.
Population Data Files
– Includes California Department of Finance (DOF) annual child population counts and Poverty Population Estimates derived from the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).
Quarterly Wage File
– Quarterly Wage data from 1993 forward for all children age 16 and older with a record of an out-of-home foster care placement in the Child Welfare Services / Case Management System (CWS/CMS) since January 1, 1998.
Postsecondary Enrollment Data
– Postsecondary Enrollment data for children age 16 and older with a record of an out-of-home foster care placement in the Child Welfare Services / Case Management System (CWS/CMS).
Important Note
Data are unduplicated separately for the state and for each county. As a result, the sum of counties may exceed the statewide total. Please see report methodology for more details.
Methods
The denominator is the count of children with at least one allegation reported during the 12-month base period; the numerator is the count of the children in the denominator who had at least one additional allegation in the 6, 12, 18 or 24 month period following the initial allegation. When there is more than one allegation in the follow-up period, the allegation with the most certain disposition and the most severe form of alleged abuse is reported.
Inclusion in the follow-up period is based on the date the subsequent allegation was received. Additionally, allegation codes: 5001, “At risk, sibling abused” and 5624, “Substantial risk” are excluded.
All allegations for each child received within a 14-day period beginning with the receipt of the first allegation are combined to form a single unit (“referral”). If this referral contains more than one allegation of a different abuse and/or disposition type, the allegation with the most certain disposition type is retained in the following order: substantiated, inconclusive, unfounded, assessment only, and not yet determined. If there is more than one allegation with the same level of disposition, the most severe allegation type is retained according to the allegation type severity hierarchy established by CWS/CMS (see additional details in the “Allegation Type” link provided below). In the following paragraphs the term “allegation” refers to the single allegation identified using this process. This process is used for both the base allegation and for any subsequent allegations that may occur in the 6, 12, 18, or 24 month follow-up periods.
The denominator includes the first allegation for each child in the base period that meets the disposition data and allegation type requirements as described above. Each child is reported no more than once in each 12-month base period and the first reported allegation is not necessarily the allegation with the most certain disposition type and/or most severe allegation in the base period. Therefore, the selected allegations are essentially a sample of the allegations that occurred during the base period. For the subsequent allegations, all allegations received during the selected time period ending 6, 12, 18 or 24 months after the base allegation was received are considered. From those allegations, the allegation with the most certain disposition type and, within that group, the most severe allegation type is selected, as described above. This process is distinct for each base period disposition class.
This differs from other allegation reports and for this reason the reports are not directly comparable. Allegation Report Differences for details.
Notes
Users also have the option to limit the denominator to the first allegation within the base period or the first ever. An inflated proportion of allegations are identified as ‘first ever’ in early base periods, since data include children born before 1998, the first year that data are available. For example, a child with what seems to be a first allegation in 1998 may have had a referral allegation in 1996. For this reason, base periods available for display start with Jan-Dec 2000.
County is assigned in this analysis using the county specific code from the assignment table corresponding with the referral received date during the specified 12 month base period.
Data are unduplicated separately for the state and for each county. As a result, the sum of counties may exceed the statewide total.
Age in this analysis is based on the first referral received date during the specified base period (age at the time of the base referral).
Cells containing a period (“.”) represent a value of zero. In cells representing quotients, a period may also indicate the indeterminate form 0/0.
The following methodology may include references to report features not available on the public site version. On the public site, masking is performed to protect the privacy of individuals served by CDSS and comply with CDSS data de-identification guidelines. Values of 1 to 10 and calculations based on values of 1 to 10 are masked (‘M’ or ‘*’). In stratified views of the data, additional values (the lowest available) are masked to prevent calculation of values 1 to 10.
Secure Site Features
This report may also be run with filters in place to restrict the data to various subgroups of other variables (e.g., Black subgroup of the Ethnicity variable, <1 year old subgroup of the Age variable, etc.). Please see Report Dimensions and Filters for details.
Report Dimensions and Filters
Child age is organized by the following intervals and derived from a child’s date of birth as captured in the CWS/CMS variable birth_dt:
- < 1 yr*
- 1-2 yrs
- 3-5 yrs
- 6-10 yrs
- 11-15 yrs
- 16-17 yrs
- 18-20 yrs OR 18-21 yrs**
The calculation of age is based on a date appropriate for the particular report. For example, the ‘Entries to Foster Care’ report calculates the age of children and youth on the day they enter foster care. ‘Exits from Foster Care’, on the other hand, calculates age at exit.
When Age Group is not selected as a row or column dimension, users may filter reports to include children of specific ages (e.g., only 3 year olds) or to create a different age category than those shown above (e.g., a group of 2-6 year olds). This is done by checking those age boxes for which report data are to be included.
* In some reports, this category is separated into infants with ages of less than one month (‘<1 mo’) and others less than one year old (i.e., ‘1-11 mo’).
** The available age range varies by report.
- The Child and Family Services Review, round 3 (CFSR3) reports, for example, are restricted to children and youth less than 18 years old. The age groupings and available age filters reflect these ranges.
- In some reports, ‘18-21 yrs’ is separated into ‘18 + 60 days’, ‘18 + > 60 days’, and ‘19-21 yrs’:
- 18 + 60 days: Youth who are in the first 60 days of their 18th year
- 18 + > 60 days: Other 18-year-old youth (i.e., older than 18 plus 60 days)
- 19 to 21 year olds.
These categories are intended to support analysis of the effects of the implementation of Assembly Bill 12 (AB12). AB12 allows youth to voluntarily remain in or reenter foster care. Youth exiting as part of the ‘18 + 60 days’ group are more likely to have experienced a conventional exit; those in the ‘18 + > 60 days’ and ‘19-21 yrs’ group are more likely to have made use of the AB12 changes.
- In Transition-Age Youth Research & Evaluation Hub (TAY-Hub) reports, the age range is limited to youth in care age 18-20 or 18-21 years. In these cases, rather than presenting grouped ages, the ages 18, 19, 20, and 21 (if applicable), are presented as separate rows or columns. This approach is intended to allow a focus on older youth and to provide a detailed stratification by age.
Child ethnicity is collapsed into six groups based on 31 codes from the CWS/CMS variables p_ethnctyc and hisp_cd. Ethnic groups and codes are listed below:
- Black
- Black (823)
- Ethiopian (826)
- White
- White (839)
- White-Armenian (840)
- White-Central American (841)
- White-European (842)
- White-Middle Eastern (843)
- White-Romanian (844)
- Latino
- Those children coded as Hispanic using the Hispanic Origin indicator (hisp_cd = ‘Y’), regardless of primary ethnicity (p_ethnctyc) selection
- Hispanic (830)
- Mexican (3164)
- South American (3165)
- Caribbean (3162)
- Central American (3163)
- Asian/PI
- Asian Indian (822)
- Cambodian (824)
- Chinese (825)
- Filipino (827)
- Guamanian (828)
- Hawaiian (829)
- Japanese (831)
- Korean (832)
- Laotian (833)
- Other Asian/Pacific Islander (834)*
- Other Asian (5922)
- Other Pacific Islander (5923)
- Hmong (835)
- Polynesian (836)
- Samoan (837)
- Vietnamese (838)
- Native American
- Alaskan Native (820)
- American Indian (821)
*Code is inactive.
Note: In late 2017, CDSS provided instruction to counties to ask clients which of the federally recognized races (those marked with an asterisk in CWS/CMS) they identify with. Once a federally recognized race is selected, a secondary “Hispanic” ethnicity can be selected in Other Ethnicity. If the client does not identify with any federally recognized race, then workers were asked to select “Declines to State” as the primary race. However, the Hispanic Origin indicator should always be marked as “Yes” for children with Latino backgrounds in order to avoid accidental categorization into Missing.
When ethnicity is not selected as a dimension on the website, the default filter includes Missing values and all ethnicities. Users can also filter *DYNAMIC* reports to include only children of specific ethnic groups (e.g., only Native American and White children) by checking those ethnicities for which report data are to be included.
Census-based Ethnicity’ option (available on some reports) labels will read ‘Hispanic’ rather than ‘Latino’ for consistency with Census Bureau usage.
Ethnic groups for population data and rates reports are based on the California Department of Finance annual population projections.
- Black
- White
- Latino
- Asian/PI
- Native American
- Multi-Race
In the rates reports and disparity indices, the denominators–child population based on California Department of Finance data–may include children/youth in the multi-race category. However, the numerators–children with allegations, children with investigations, etc., based on CWS/CMS–always have null values for multi-race, since we do not construct a multi-race category from CWS/CMS data. Conversely, ethnicity may be missing in CWS/CMS and, in those cases, rates numerators are categorized as missing. Department of Finance population data does not include a missing category and, therefore, that row is always null for the denominators of the rates reports. Given these differences between the data sources and the resulting null values, no rates are calculated for the multi-race or missing rows.
See Population methodology for important details.
Note: For Transition Age Youth (TAY) reports, the category Missing is suppressed, therefore the total for this dimension will differ from the total for other dimensions in the same report.
Child sex at birth is based on the CWS/CMS variable gender_cd and categorized as Female (1), Male (2) or Intersex (3).
Children for whom Sex at Birth is not coded are reported as Missing.
When Sex at Birth is not selected as a dimension, the default filter includes Missing values and Female, Male and Intersex. Users can also filter reports to include only children of a specific gender (e.g., only Male children) by checking the sex at birth for which report data are to be included.
Note: For Transition Age Youth (TAY) reports, the categories Intersex and Missing are suppressed, therefore the total for this dimension will differ from the total for other dimensions in the same report.
Children receiving multiple allegations are categorized according to the severity hierarchy established by CWS/CMS. For example, when allegations of Physical Abuse, General Neglect and Emotional Abuse are entered for a specific child in a single report, only one allegation will be counted and it will fall under Physical Abuse since this type of abuse is the highest in the hierarchy. The severity hierarchy is listed below. CWS/CMS codes are drawn from the variable alg_tpc:
-
- Sexual Abuse (2181)
- Physical Abuse (2179)
- Severe Neglect (2180)
- General Neglect (2178)
- Exploitation (2177)
- Emotional Abuse (2176)
- Caretaker Absence/Incapacity (2169)
- At-Risk, Sibling Abused (5001)
- Substantial Risk (5624) *Category not currently active in CWS/CMS
- Missing
Reporters are organized into the groups listed below. The CWS/CMS codes for each group are drawn from the variable col_relc:
- Family/Friend
- Aunt (572)
- Brother (573)
- Cousin (577)
- Friend (580)
- Godparent (581)
- Grandparent (583)
- Great Aunt (584)
- Great Grandparent (585)
- Great Uncle (586)
- Relative (596)
- Sister (598)
- Uncle (601)
- Indian Custodian (6243)
- Aunt (Maternal) (7282)
- Aunt (Paternal) (7283)
- Brother (Half) (7284)
- Cousin (Maternal) (7285)
- Cousin (Paternal) (7286)
- Grandparent (Maternal) (7287)
- Grandparent (Paternal) (7288)
- Great Grandparent (Maternal) (7289)
- Great Grandparent (Paternal) (7290)
- Great Aunt (Maternal) (7291)
- Great Aunt (Paternal) (7292)
- Great Uncle (Maternal) (7293)
- Great Uncle (Paternal) (7294)
- Relative (Maternal) (7295)
- Relative (Paternal) (7296)
- Sister (Half) (7297)
- Uncle (Maternal) (7298)
- Uncle (Paternal) (7299)
- Neighbor
- Neighbor (591)
- Law Enforcement/Legal
- Attorney (571)
- Law Enforcement (589)
- Parole Officer (594)
- Probation Officer (595)
- CASA/GAL
- Child Advocate/Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) (574)
- Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) (587)
- Counselor/Therapist (576)
- CWS Staff (578)
- Day Care/Fost Care
- Day Care Staff (579)
- Foster Care Staff (599)
- Medical
- Medical Professional (590)
- Dental Professional (5924)
- Education
- School Personnel (597)
- Teacher (600)
- Other Professional (593)
- Other (in CWS/CMS: all other codes)
- Missing
When reporter type is not selected as a dimension, the default filter includes Missing values and all categories. Users can also filter reports to include only certain reporters (e.g., only Medical and Education) by checking those categories for which report data are to be included.
Users can subset referral reports by selecting the disposition type filter and choosing those dispositions to be included. Disposition types and codes are drawn from the CWS/CMS variable ,algdsp_t as listed below
- Substantiated (45)
- Inconclusive (47)
- Unfounded (46)
Effective Q2 2011, the category ‘Assessment Only’ (children for whom a referral was received, but no disposition entered) is divided into two groups, using the CWS/CMS variable, Disposition Code (REFR_CLT.DISPTN_CD): - Assessment Only/Evaluated Out (DISPTN_CD=’A’)
- Not Yet Determined (the remainder, where DISPTN_CD is not equal to ’A’)
We would expect the number of Not Yet Determined for a given interval to decrease over time, as determinations are made and entered into CWS/CMS.