The number and rate per 1,000 population of children investigated (receiving assessments) for abuse and neglect during the state fiscal year (state fiscal year 2021 covers the period from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022).

The number and rate per 1,000 population of children with a substantiated finding during the state fiscal year. For this indicator, a report is considered substantiated if it has a finding of abuse, neglect, abuse and neglect, dependency, or services needed. It does not include instances where the finding was services provided, child protective services no longer needed (see Changes and Trends over Ten Years in the Child Welfare Caseload in North Carolina, October 2013, Page 3).

The data for this indicator were produced using a special data tabulation by the Jordan Institute for Families Management Assistance for Child Welfare, Work First, and Food & Nutrition Services in North Carolina, in which the numbers represent the exclusive number of children rather than the number of reports (children may have multiple reports during a given state fiscal year). Data from NC FAST are not included for this indicator, as the transition from the current Child Welfare reporting system to NC FAST is not yet complete.

Substantiated abuse is defined as a situation in which a child’s parent, guardian, custodian or caretaker inflicts or allows to be inflicted, creates or allows to be created a substantial risk of serious physical injury by other than accidental means; or uses or allows to be used upon the child cruel or grossly inappropriate procedures or cruel or grossly inappropriate devices to modify behavior; or commits, permits, or encourages the commission of any sexual offense by, with or upon the child in violation of the law; promotes the prostitution of the child; or creates or allows to be created serious emotional damage to the child; or encourages, directs or approves of delinquent acts involving moral turpitude committed by the child.

Substantiated neglect is defined as a situation in which a child does not receive proper care, supervision or discipline from the child’s parent, guardian, custodian or caretaker; or who has been abandoned; or who is not provided necessary medical care; or who is not provided necessary remedial care; or who lives in an environment injurious to the child’s welfare; or who has been placed for care or adoption in violation of the law. In determining whether a child is neglected, it is relevant if that the child lives in a home where another child has died as a result of abuse or neglect or lives in a home where another child has been subjected to sexual abuse or severe physical abuse by an adult who regularly lives in the home.