National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Child File (FY2020)

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Child File dataset consists of child-specific data of all investigated reports of maltreatment to State child protective service agencies. The NCANDS is a federally-sponsored annual national data collection effort created for the purpose of tracking the volume and nature of child maltreatment reporting. The Child File is the case-level component of the NCANDS. There is also an NCANDS State-level component, known as the Agency File, but those data are not part of this collection. States participate on a voluntary basis and submit their data after going through a process in which the state’s administrative system is mapped to the NCANDS data structure. Submitted data consist of all investigations or assessments of alleged child maltreatment that received a disposition in the reporting year. Records are provided at the level of each child on a report, also known as the report-child pair. Data elements include the demographics of children and their perpetrators, types of maltreatment, investigation or assessment dispositions, risk factors, and services provided as a result of the investigation or assessment.