Institutional Variation in Child Maltreatment Reporting

• In Event: Mandatory Reporting, Institutional Variation, and Child Wellbeing: Novel Evidence from the Child Welfare System

Abstract

Involvement with the child welfare system is a common feature of childhood in the United States and varies widely across places and demographic groups, with over 1 in 3 children are the subject of an investigation by Child Protective Services prior to their 18th birthday and nearly six percent ever having spent time in foster care. A central question is whether this variation reflects differences in children’s underlying risk of maltreatment or differences in how institutions respond to similar circumstances. A barrier to addressing this question is that in addition to institutional and individual variation, state and county child welfare agencies vary widely in terms of resources and capacity to respond to allegations. We study this question in the context of public schools in Michigan, using student records linked to more than six million reports to Child Protective Services between 2017 and 2024. Our approach overcomes challenges related to selection by holding constant statutory definitions of child abuse and neglect by examining a single state. Our findings indicate wide variation in reporting rates across schools —from virtually none to over half of students being reported at some point between kindergarten and fifth grade. Adapting value-added methods and leveraging student moves across schools, we find that school-specific factors (as opposed to student risk) account for roughly 40 percent of reporting variation across schools. Higher-reporting schools exhibit distinct institutional characteristics, including lower academic value added. Students attending higher-reporting schools are more likely to have reports that are subsequently screened in for investigation and substantiated by Child Protective Services. After accounting for differences in overall school quality, we find little evidence that exposure to higher-reporting schools affects students’ academic outcomes or attendance. Taken together, our findings underscore the central role of institutional practices in shaping children’s exposure to the child welfare system, a key determinant of wellbeing into adulthood.

Author

• Maria D. Fitzpatrick, Cornell University
  Presenting Author