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Estimating the incidence of substance exposed newborns with child welfare system involvement
Christine Piette Durrance1, Danielle N Atkins2
1La Follette School of Public Affairs, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States of America.
Insights
The rate of newborns with substance exposure reported to child welfare agencies increased by 240% between 2004 and 2017. This highlights a critical rise in prenatal substance use impacting child welfare systems.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Child Welfare Studies
- Neonatal Care
Background:
- Prenatal substance use poses significant health risks to mothers and infants.
- Increased rates of newborns exposed to substances necessitate robust child welfare interventions.
- Federal legislation mandates child welfare agency notification for all exposed infants to ensure safe care plans.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and quantify the involvement of substance-exposed newborns within child welfare systems.
- To analyze trends in child welfare investigations related to prenatal substance exposure.
- To establish a systematic data collection strategy for substance-exposed newborns.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the National Child Abuse & Detection System (NCANDS) from 2004 to 2017.
- Analyzed over 3 million child protective services investigations for infants under one year old.
- Calculated incidence rates and examined demographic variations (race/ethnicity, sex, rurality).
Main Results:
- Approximately 13% of infants reported to child protective services were linked to substance exposure at birth.
- The incidence of substance-exposed newborns in child welfare increased by 240%, from 3.79 to 12.90 per 1000 births.
- Identified significant increases in child welfare involvement for substance-exposed infants over the study period.
Conclusions:
- Findings underscore the escalating impact of the substance use crisis on child welfare services.
- Data-driven insights are crucial for policymakers to allocate resources effectively for affected children and families.
- Improved data collection is vital for understanding and addressing the needs of substance-exposed newborns.
Background:
Prenatal substance use can have negative health consequences for both mother and child and may also increase the likelihood of child welfare involvement. The rate of newborns with substance exposure has increased dramatically. As of 2016, federal law requires notification of all infants to child welfare agencies so that a plan of safe care can be developed and referrals to services can be offered.
Objective:
Child welfare agencies have not historically collected consistent, systematic data identifying substance exposed newborns. We utilized a unique strategy to identify substance exposed newborns with child welfare involvement.
Participants & Setting:
We used data from the National Child Abuse & Detection System (NCANDS) which captures N = 3,189,034 unique child protective services investigations for children under the age of 1 between 2004 and 2017.
Methods:
We calculated the incidence of substance exposed newborns investigated by child welfare agencies and compared with other administrative data on prenatal substance exposure. We also analyzed this rate by infant demographic characteristics (race/ethnicity, sex, rurality).
Results:
Between 2004 and 2017, approximately 13 % of infants reported to child protective services were likely reported because of substance exposure at birth, and the rate of substance exposed newborns with child welfare involvement increased from 3.79 to 12.90 per 1000 births, an increase of 240 %, over this period.
Conclusions:
Understanding the extent of the substance use crisis for child welfare involvement is important for policymakers to support children and families.
