Maine
Maine has the highest child maltreatment victim rate in the country: 15.4 per 1,000 children. New Jersey's rate is 1.2 per 1,000 — a nearly thirteen-fold spread that reflects how differently states define, screen, and substantiate cases, not how differently children are harmed.
The funnel, FFY 2024
Maine vs. national
What happened to reports of child maltreatment in Maine in federal fiscal year 2024, at each decision point. Rates are what make states comparable; raw counts mostly measure population.
| Stage | Maine | Rate | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referrals to CPSCounts: referrals | 27,144 | 109.9per 1,000 children | 59.3 |
| Screened in (became reports)Counts: referrals | 8,82732.5% of referrals | — | 47.1% |
| Screened outCounts: referrals | 18,31767.5% of referrals | — | 52.9% |
| Children investigated or given an alternative responseCounts: children | 16,046 | 64.9per 1,000 children | 40.6 |
| Child victims (substantiated or indicated)Counts: children | 3,800 | 15.4per 1,000 children | 7.2 |
| Child fatalitiesCounts: children | 7 | 2.83per 100,000 children | 2.41 |
Referrals, reports, children, and victims are four different denominators and are not interchangeable. 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. National figures are the Children's Bureau's own estimates, not sums of the state rows.
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS), Tables 2-3, 3-1, 3-3, 4-1
What Maine does not report
For the measures on this page, Maine reported a figure in every year covered. That is not the same as the figures being complete or comparable — see the methodology for what the federal record does not measure at all.
Maltreatment and fatalities over time (NCANDS)
Child fatalities reported to NCANDS, Maine, FFY2020 to FFY2024
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)
KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: child fatalities
Child maltreatment victims, Maine, FFY2020 to FFY2024
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)
KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: child victims (substantiated or indicated)
Foster care (AFCARS)
| Measure | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adopted with public agency involvement | 214 | 295 | 328 | 399 | 456 | 395 | 294 | 247 | 339 | 324 |
| Entered foster care | 962 | 916 | 902 | 916 | 820 | 1,080 | 1,246 | 1,115 | 909 | 1,130 |
| Exited foster care | 666 | 788 | 890 | 921 | 1,067 | 883 | 901 | 892 | 979 | 863 |
| In foster care on September 30 | 1,787 | 1,864 | 1,873 | 1,837 | 1,584 | 1,768 | 2,096 | 2,291 | 2,202 | 2,429 |
| Children served in foster care | 2,453 | 2,652 | 2,763 | 2,758 | 2,651 | 2,651 | 2,997 | 3,183 | 3,181 | 3,291 |
| Termination of parental rights | 501 | 510 | 567 | 556 | 502 | 428 | 412 | 509 | 597 | 107 |
| Waiting for adoption | 564 | 590 | 666 | 647 | 576 | 482 | 510 | 610 | 756 | 665 |
Source: AFCARS state tables, FY2013 to FY2022
AFCARS 2020 rule, FFY2023 to FFY2025 (preliminary)
Collected under the AFCARS 2020 final rule, first effective FFY 2023. Counts include ages 0 to 23. Figures are preliminary estimates from submissions received by February 27, 2026, and states may still revise them. This series is not comparable with the FY 2013 to FY 2022 series, which was collected under the 1993 rule and counted a narrower population; this site does not join the two. Wyoming first submitted under the new rule for FFY 2024 and Washington for FFY 2025; earlier years for those states are shown as not reported.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entered foster care | 1,064 | 968 | 721 |
| In foster care on September 30 | 2,455 | 2,434 | 2,133 |
| Exited foster care | 898 | 970 | 1,010 |
Counts: children (ages 0 to 23)
Source: AFCARS Dashboard, preliminary FFY2025 estimates (No. 33)
Maine in the archive
What the numbers above cost, in KARA's own reporting.
- Mandated Reporting and Why We Don't
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJune 23, 2026
Mandated Reporters genuinely fear for their safety and reputation and regularly fail to report (or, "see") horrific child abuse to avoid potential damage to themselves.
- Adoption & Foster Care In America – (their stories, your state)
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJune 19, 2026
Foster Care; Every state is struggling to make life safe for traumatized state ward children. Here are their stories from October & November 2017; KS: Nowhere Else to Go: Why Kids Are Sleeping in Child Welfare Offices (Commentary) Governing...
- Best & Worst States For America's Children
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJune 19, 2026
Where does your state rank in protecting children & what can you do to make improvements. These statistics tell the stories of our best and worst states around the nation
- America’s Child Abuse Emergency: 546,000 Victims, 2,000 Deaths, and a System That Chooses This
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJune 6, 2026
Child abuse in the United States is not rare or random — it is the predictable outcome of policy choices. In 2023, about 546,000 children were confirmed victims of abuse or neglect and an estimated 2,000 were killed, roughly five children e...
- CASA Volunteers Are Coming Back: Why Minnesota Children Need Them
KARA reportingMike TikkanenFebruary 23, 2026
Over 48 years, CASA/GAL (Guardian ad Litem) programs have grown into a national network of more than 900 organizations with 80,000–100,000 guardian ad litem volunteers serving close to a quarter‑million abused and neglected children each ye...
- Powerful Stories From The Atlantic Journal
KARA reportingMike TikkanenMay 25, 2025
tell our child abuse and child protection stories (over and over) and work to improve the programs, people, and institutions that impact at risk children.
- Child Abuse Sad Stories (4 days in November)
KARA reportingMike TikkanenNovember 24, 2024
37% of children overall and 44% of Black children are reported to child protection services in America by the time they turn 18. (American Journal of Public Health 1.17) 7.8 million children a year are reported to child protection services.
- Fetal Alcohol Births (and a very big policy change)
KARA reportingMike TikkanenJuly 24, 2024
Minnesota has ended criminalizing fetal alcohol birth mothers with the hopes of better results by recommending treatment instead of mandatory programs and prosecution for failure.