This webpage will connect you to the most frequently asked questions and answers (FAQs) on many child welfare topics, including child abuse and neglect, foster care and other out-of-home placements, adoption, and more.
If you do not find an answer to your question, you can submit a question by clicking on the Ask a Question box.
Federal legislation provides a foundation for States by identifying a minimum set of acts or behaviors that define child abuse and neglect.
National Child Abuse Prevention Month is a time to acknowledge the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect and to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families.
Children can be victims of sex and/or labor trafficking. Under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, child sex trafficking is defined as "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining, patronizing, soliciting a child for commercial sex, including prostitution and the production of child pornography." Child labor trafficking refers to "the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, obtaining a child for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery." Child trafficking is a crime under federal, international, and state law.
If you suspect a child is being harmed, or has been harmed, you should report your concerns to the appropriate authorities, such as child protective services (CPS), in the State where the child resides.