Abuse & Neglect Reports by Screening Decision
Measure
The number and result of reports received by the Child and Family Services Agency’s Office of Hotline and Investigations.
How This Is Measured
The "status" indicates the decision made regarding opening an investigation during the month
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Non-investigatory Response: Non-Investigatory Response (NIR) is the new term in STAAND for Information & Referral (I&R). For abuse and neglect reports in June 2025 and on, this category includes the following types of calls: courtesy requests from other jurisdictions, calls that are sent to CFSA’s Community Engage and Connect Unit (CECU), Caregiver not available to pick up their child from school, court, or due to being out of jurisdiction, or a non-investigatory report of child sexual assault.
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Event: this is a new category in STAAND, and will thus only be reflected for hotline calls that occurred in June 2025 and after. It includes the following types of calls: notification only, calls that are transferred to the warmline, death notifications, services/resources request, called in error, call disconnected, call inaudible, CFSA contact information request, Fair Hearing information request, follow up on pending report, internal call, other agency information request, record/information request from another jurisdiction, and system test.
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Information & Referral (I&R): Note: this category was utilized under FACES.NET and will not be seen in data post June 2025. Reports that refer the caller for services or activities provided by other public agencies or private service providers. Such services may include a brief assessment of client needs (but not a diagnosis or evaluation) to facilitate an appropriate referral to community resources or to services provided by another jurisdiction. The following types of reports are assigned as I&Rs: children who are missing, absent or abducted (and their return from this status); assaults (non-CPS), complaint (non-CPS), courtesy interviews (for an investigation being conducted by another state where a key party is a resident of DC); curfew violations; general information requests; and protective service alerts.
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Screened in for investigation: the abuse/neglect report resulted in a new investigation being opened on the family.
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Linked to open investigation: the abuse/neglect report was accepted and was linked to an existing open investigation on the family. This was an additional report of abuse/neglect, but it did not result in a new investigation.
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Screened Out: Call does not meet the requirements for investigation:
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Does not concern child abuse or neglect
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Does not contain enough information for a child welfare response to occur
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Response by another agency is deemed more appropriate
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Children in the referral are older than 18 years old
*Options at the bottom allows filtering by the setting where the abuse and/or neglect occurred.
Institutional abuse: allegations of neglect and/or abuse (including some allegations of sexual abuse) reported in the following locations within the District: foster homes; congregate care facilities; residential hospital facilities; emergency care facilities, including runaway shelters and youth shelters; boarding schools and traditional day schools (excepting DC Public Schools); licensed daycare facilities or homes, or the Youth Services Center (Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services juvenile detention center).
Non-institutional abuse: allegations of neglect and/or abuse by the child’s caretaker that are reported to have occurred within the District.
Why This Matters
Tracking trends in the reports of abuse and neglect help the Agency to forecast the needs of the Agency. Examples include staffing needs and service needs. This also helps to better understand monthly trends to ensure that the Agency is prepared for seasonal influxes in reporting.
Hotline Calls by Reporting Source
This dashboard shows the number of hotline calls to the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Hotline, or the Educational Neglect Triage Unit, made by types of reporters. A referral may be for one child or for multiple children.
How This is Measured
While the hotline report captures this at the individual reporting source level, in the visualization below similar types of reporters were grouped together for increased clarity in trends. An example of this is that the medical professional category includes dentist/optometrist, hospital staff, nurse/medical professional, and physician.
Note: Filters at the top right allow for filtering by time period, and referral type or status (described above).
Why This Matters
It is important for the Agency to track who is reporting abuse and neglect, and the outcome of accepted investigations by reporting source. This helps the Agency to determine training needs for Mandated Reporter training in the community, and can help build cross-agency communication and collaboration.