National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Combined Aggregate File (CAF) FFY 2004

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Combined Aggregate File (CAF) dataset consists of State-specific data of all investigated reports of maltreatment to State child protective service agencies. The NCANDS is a federally-sponsored national data collection effort created for the purpose of tracking the volume and nature of child maltreatment reporting each year within the United States. The CAF is the State-level component of the NCANDS that replaced the Summary Data Component (SDC) beginning in the year 2000. The CAF is created by merging three different NCANDS data sources, the Child File, the Agency File, and the SDC, into a single dataset. NCANDS Case-level data are collected through the Child File data submission. States that submit a Child File also submit an Agency File, which collects State-level data for areas not covered in the Child File, such items as preventive services and screened-out referrals. Other States continued to submit NCANDS data using the SDC survey. Child File data are aggregated to the State-level by key variables and then combined with the data from the Agency file and the SDC to create the CAF. The number of children and families receiving preventive services, the number of reports and investigations of child abuse and neglect, the number of children who were the subjects of reports of abuse or neglect, the number of child victims of maltreatment, the number of child fatalities, the size of the State's CPS workforce, and other statistics are provided in the CAF. A variable crosswalk to the 1990-1999 SDC dataset is provided. Please note: Beginning in 2003 and for subsequent years, States submitted their data according to the Federal Fiscal Year (October 1 - September 30) rather than the calendar year.