Methodology
Child Maltreatment Substantiation Rates

Notes on Source Data

IMPORTANT NOTE: The following methodology may include references to report features not available on the public site version. On the public site, masking is performed to protect the privacy of individuals served by CDSS and comply with CDSS data de-identification guidelines. Values of 1 to 10 and calculations based on values of 1 to 10 are masked ('M' or '*'). In stratified views of the data, additional values (the lowest available) are masked to prevent calculation of values 1 to 10.

These reports compute annual Substantiation Rates based on population projections from the California Department of Finance. Please consult the Population methodology for important details.
Child Population Methodology

The statewide Substantiation Rate for a given year is computed by dividing the unduplicated state count of children with a substantiated child maltreatment allegation by the state child population and then multiplying by 1,000 (for a substantiation rate per 1,000 children in the population). Similarly, each county's substantiation rate for a given year is calculated by dividing the unduplicated county count of children with a substantiated child maltreatment allegation by the county child population and then multiplying by 1,000. Rates are based on children under the age of 18.

The calculation of allegations differs between reports and therefore not all allegation-based reports are directly comparable. See Allegation Report Differences for details.

Children with missing county assignment are not included in county rates since there is no corresponding population-level data for these children. Children with missing county assignment are included in the statewide calculation, however. In addition, children with substantiated allegations may be counted in more than one county during a year, but are only counted once statewide. Given these methods, county values may not sum to the statewide total.

Cells containing a period (".") represent a value of zero. In cells representing quotients, a period may also indicate the indeterminate form 0/0.

Data are also available broken out by age, ethnicity, and gender. See the links below for details:

Age Group

Ethnic Group

Sex at Birth