Children's Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services2017-03-212017-03-212017Children's Bureau, Department of Health and Human Services (2017). National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Child File, FFY 2015. Washington, DC: Author.http://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/dataset-details.cfm?ID=204http://hdl.handle.net/11212/3272The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Child File dataset consists of child-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 Child File is the case-level component of the NCANDS. There is also an NCANDS State-level component, known as the Agency File, but those data are not part of this collection. Child File data are collected annually through the voluntary participation of States. Participating States submit their data after going through a process in which the State's administrative system is mapped to the NCANDS data structure. Submitted data consist of all investigations or assessments of alleged child maltreatment that received a disposition in the reporting year. Records are provided at the level of each child on a report, also known as the report-child pair. Data elements include the demographics of children and their perpetrators, types of maltreatment, investigation or assessment dispositions, risk factors, and services provided as a result of the investigation or assessment.en-USstatisticsdatasetchild abuseneglectchild maltreatment reportingDataset