The federal record, state by state

Every figure on these pages comes from AFCARS or NCANDS, the two federal reporting systems states are required to feed. Where a state did not report, the gap is shown and labeled. It is never rendered as a zero.

Each state page carries that state's numbers and that state's reporting from the KARA archive on the same page. You can also browse the full archive or search it.

KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: see each card — units differ

National tallies · FFY 2024

Source: Child Maltreatment 2024, U.S. HHS/ACF Children's Bureau, published January 2025 — loaded 2026-07-24. State-by-state values in the tables below are also from CM 2024, Table 3-3 (Child Victims) and Table 4-1 (Total Fatalities column, summing Child File and Agency File submissions).

4,365,000
referrals
national estimate
59.3 / 1,000 children
4,087,496
referrals
actual sum reported
7,693,000
children
in total referrals (derived)
2,058,720
referrals
screened in (47.1%)
28 per 1,000 children
2,028,776
referrals
screened out (52.9%)
2,990,234
children
investigated or given an alternative response
40.6 per 1,000 children
532,228
child victims
substantiated or indicated
7.2 per 1,000 children
1,773
child fatalities
reported to NCANDS
2.41 per 100,000 children

Unit key · these are not interchangeable

referrals
children
child victims
child fatalities

A referral may concern more than one child; a child may appear in more than one referral; a victim is a child with a substantiated or indicated disposition. Each card above is labeled with the unit it counts.

The 7.69M "children in total referrals" figure is derived by the Children's Bureau: it divides children with dispositions by screened-in referrals to compute an average of 1.8 children per referral, then applies that ratio to total estimated referrals. The method assumes screened-out referrals carry the same children-per-referral ratio as screened-in ones.

Children in foster care on September 30, national estimate

Source: AFCARS state tables, FY2013 to FY2022

Reading this chart

National AFCARS figures are rounded estimates published by the Children's Bureau. They are not sums of the state rows below.

The range between states

These two spreads are the argument. Referral rates run from 19.2 per 1,000 children in Hawaii to 169.1 in Vermont. Victim rates run from 1.2 per 1,000 in New Jersey to 15.4 in Maine. Maine is not thirteen times worse than New Jersey for children. The states are measuring differently — different definitions, different screening thresholds, different evidentiary standards for substantiation.

Referral rate by state, FFY 2024

Rate per 1,000 children · national 59.3 · sorted high to low

State	Rate	Count
Vermont	169.1	19,107
District of Columbia	130.2	16,900
Alaska	120.8	21,142
West Virginia	116.9	40,718
Delaware	110.1	23,536
Maine	109.9	27,144
Indiana	107.2	170,052
Oregon	102.8	84,960
Tennessee	92.6	146,585
Colorado	91.2	110,630
Kentucky	89	91,234
New Mexico	88.2	39,491
Oklahoma	86.5	83,556
Michigan	83.4	176,002
Nebraska	82.6	40,002
Arkansas	81.7	57,371
Rhode Island	79.1	16,189
Ohio	77.1	198,540
New Hampshire	76.8	19,150
Kansas	73.5	50,902
Washington	71.2	117,792
Iowa	70.2	51,264
Connecticut	69.2	50,340
Missouri	68.3	93,647
South Dakota	67.9	14,982
Minnesota	62.4	81,085
Illinois	61.8	166,821
Massachusetts	61.3	83,132
Nevada	58.8	40,479
South Carolina	58.8	67,723
Wisconsin	57.2	70,965
Arizona	56.5	89,719
Florida	54.8	246,648
Utah	52.5	48,996
Virginia	49.2	92,753
Maryland	49	67,147
Mississippi	48.6	32,793
Idaho	48.3	22,620
California	46.8	394,159
North Carolina	46.1	108,815
Georgia	45.1	114,708
Montana	43.3	10,074
Puerto Rico	42.9	20,608
Louisiana	42.3	45,104
Wyoming	41.3	5,286
Texas	30.4	233,112
Alabama	22.1	25,105
Hawaii	19.2	5,629
New Jersey	No datastate did not report
New York	No datastate did not report
North Dakota	No datastate did not report
Pennsylvania	No datastate did not report

The vertical rule on each bar marks the national rate (59.3 per 1,000 children). Counts are shown for reference and count referrals; they are not comparable across states, because they mostly track population. The spread between the highest and lowest state is far wider than any plausible difference in how often children are harmed — it is largely a measure of how differently states define, screen, and substantiate.

Child victim rate by state, FFY 2024

Rate per 1,000 children · national 7.2 · sorted high to low

State	Rate	Count
Maine	15.4	3,800
Massachusetts	14.9	20,196
Mississippi	14.9	10,029
West Virginia	14.7	5,110
Kentucky	14.1	14,505
New Mexico	14	6,293
Oklahoma	13.7	13,192
Oregon	13.6	11,251
Indiana	13.4	21,314
Alaska	13	2,266
Iowa	12.9	9,395
Illinois	11.7	31,611
New York	11.5	45,746
Rhode Island	11.1	2,274
Puerto Rico	11	5,277
North Carolina	10.8	25,478
South Carolina	10.8	12,442
Michigan	10.7	22,634
Montana	10.7	2,492
Alabama	9.9	11,205
Arkansas	9.5	6,657
Utah	9.4	8,742
Nevada	8.4	5,778
District of Columbia	7.8	1,012
Connecticut	7.7	5,576
Louisiana	7.7	8,254
South Dakota	7.6	1,679
Ohio	7.5	19,381
Colorado	6.7	8,185
Texas	6.5	50,040
Arizona	6.2	9,776
Tennessee	5.9	9,364
Wyoming	5.6	714
Nebraska	5.5	2,645
Vermont	5.4	607
California	5.3	44,943
New Hampshire	5.3	1,328
Georgia	5	12,803
Maryland	4.6	6,272
Florida	4.1	18,455
Idaho	3.8	1,775
Delaware	3.7	788
North Dakota	3.7	677
Minnesota	3.6	4,645
Missouri	3.3	4,545
Kansas	2.9	2,008
Wisconsin	2.7	3,407
Hawaii	2.6	769
Virginia	2.4	4,484
Washington	2.1	3,427
Pennsylvania	1.7	4,516
New Jersey	1.2	2,466

The vertical rule on each bar marks the national rate (7.2 per 1,000 children). Counts are shown for reference and count children; they are not comparable across states, because they mostly track population. The spread between the highest and lowest state is far wider than any plausible difference in how often children are harmed — it is largely a measure of how differently states define, screen, and substantiate.

Child fatalities reported to NCANDS by state, FFY2020 to FFY2024

Jurisdiction	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Alabama	47	36	38	43	36
Alaska	2	6	8	5	13
Arizona	18	21	38	43	36
Arkansas	30	36	39	33	27
California	150	159	176	150	144
Colorado	24	31	40	32	28
Connecticut	9	14	15	11	16
Delaware	5	7	6	7	8
District of Columbia	4	2	3	5	7
Florida	101	84	86	75	72
Georgia	85	92	114	103	104
Hawaii	0	2	5	2	4
Idaho	10	3	8	8	8
Illinois	102	89	110	83	66
Indiana	56	57	62	65	56
Iowa	9	12	18	14	12
Kansas	10	10	8	12	16
Kentucky	9	11	12	5	16
Louisiana	18	23	29	47	31
Maine	1	8	10	7	7
Maryland	50	84	68	83	46
Massachusetts	14	15	9	11	6
Michigan	43	35	61	43	54
Minnesota	21	22	25	32	30
Mississippi	38	49	72	76	66
Missouri	44	75	57	61	90
Montana	5	2	1	2	2
Nebraska	2	1	3	0	3
Nevada	14	27	15	21	19
New Hampshire	2	3	2	2	4
New Jersey	17	10	19	14	14
New Mexico	13	10	19	16	17
New York	105	126	105	123	108
North Carolina	99	121	106	107	46
North Dakota	5	4	6	2	2
Ohio	94	98	115	140	134
Oklahoma	42	15	29	17	26
Oregon	17	18	19	19	16
Pennsylvania	67	65	80	50	71
Puerto Rico	5	7	4	5	6
Rhode Island	2	2	2	1	4
South Carolina	36	41	38	43	32
South Dakota	12	9	13	7	3
Tennessee	34	32	34	31	47
Texas	255	206	176	187	107
Utah	6	4	15	17	7
Vermont	0	1	0	3	2
Virginia	39	51	51	55	40
Washington	14	19	31	31	24
West Virginia	12	9	8	8	13
Wisconsin	32	22	21	22	27
Wyoming	3	2	3	0	0

Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)

Massachusetts: two reporting streams, one column

Massachusetts stopped reporting child fatalities via the NCANDS Child File after FFY2021. In Child Maltreatment 2024 the state resumed reporting through the Agency File — a separate submission channel — showing 9 fatalities in FFY2022, 11 in FFY2023, and 6 in FFY2024. Those cells in the table read as the CM 2024 Total, not as NR. The pre-2022 and 2022-onward figures come from different reporting streams and are not strictly comparable.

Caveat on the FFY 2024 national fatality decline

Child Maltreatment 2024 reports 1,773 fatalities nationally, down from 1,979 in FFY 2023 — a roughly 10 percent decline. Marie Cohen's analysis at Child Welfare Monitor shows five states — Texas, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois, and Virginia — account for a 210-fatality decrease, more than 100 percent of the national decline. All five attribute their state-level drops to counting or classification changes, not to fewer children dying. Texas fell from 187 to 107 in the federal report while the state DFPS report shows a smaller decline. Read the national decline as a reporting story, not a safety story.