State of New Jersey | Department of Children and Families

The Comprehensive Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CCAPTA), effective July 31, 1997, allows DYFS to release information regarding a child death or near death that was the result of abuse or neglect. The law can be found at N.J.S.A. 9:6-8.10a and the regulations can be found at N.J.A.C. 10:133G-4.

For information on the Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Board, click here.

Child Fatalities Due to Abuse or Neglect, 1998-2008

	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Family Involved with DYFS	10	10	9	10	8	5	8	8	4	5	4
Family Had Past Experience with DYFS	8	8	6	6	5	10	5	6	5	6	4
Child Never Known to DYFS	6	6	8	11	11	16	12	12	14	12	20
Total	24	24	23	27	24	31	25	26	23	23	28

View printable version and comparable bar graph (pdf)

Individual Public CCAPTA Reports

Under federal and state statutes, the state is required to release specific information regarding a child fatality or near-fatality resulting from child abuse or neglect. This information includes:

details about the child victim at the time of the fatality, including full name, gender, age, and home county
the nature of the incident and cause of death
information on alleged perpetrator and relationship to the child victim, as available
the entire family history (if applicable) of a child victim, prior to and at the time of the fatality, including the date and disposition of each prior referral received about the family, investigation findings, case closure dates, and any services provided to the family (i.e. domestic violence services, substance abuse counseling, parenting classes, etc.)
the last date of contact DYFS had with the child victim’s family prior to the fatality (if applicable).

Below are individual CCAPTA reports for each child fatality, which will be posted annually, beginning with the creation of the department in July 2006.

Please be advised that these web postings do not proactively disclose the full names of the victims to respect surviving relatives and family members. Specific identifying information (full names of the victims) will be released upon request by contacting the DCF Communications Office at 609-633-8507.

2008 CCAPTA Reports (pdf)

2007 CCAPTA Reports (pdf)

2006 CCAPTA Reports, July-December (pdf)