Public child welfare agencies typically offer four main sets of services — child protection, family-centered support, foster care and adoption. Child protection teams are focused on assessing and investigating potential cases of child abuse and neglect and intervening when appropriate.
In 2020, the number of confirmed victims of child maltreatment declined to 614,931. The vast majority of these children — 76% — have experienced neglect. Other forms of maltreatment include physical abuse (16% of all confirmed cases), sexual abuse (9%) and emotional abuse (6%) and medical neglect (2%).