Placement Rates

The Placement Rates report provides the rate of children entering out-of-home placements per 1000. Rates for years 2016-2023 are calculated using population data from the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Easy Access to Juvenile Populations tool. For more information about this data source, please visit OJP's website at: https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezapop/.  OJJDP stopped publishing population data after 2020, therefore, rates for year 2024 are calculated using population data from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER).  For more information about this data, please visit SEER's website at: https://seer.cancer.gov/popdata/singleages.html 

Data Portal Functionality:

The Data Portal allows users to select additional variables to gain further insight into the selected report. In addition, each variable can be further filtered to provide a subset of data within the variable. Data is provided as a table or, when available, as a graph.

Variable Definitions:

1. Age: Age is calculated based on the child's age at the time of the removal. The age categories for this report are:
   • Under 1
   • 1 to 5
   • 6 to 12
   • 13 to 17
2. Race/Ethnicity: The race categories are analyzed in combination with ethnicity. If a person's ethnicity is Hispanic, they fall under the category of "Hispanic" regardless of their race. If their ethnicity is "Non- Hispanic", they fall under their corresponding race. The category of "Another Race" includes American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Asian, and Two or More Races. The race/ethnicity categories are:
   • Black or African American
   • Hispanic
   • White
   • Missing or Undetermined
   • Another Race
3. Gender: The identified gender of a person. Gender categories are:
   • Male
   • Female
4. Year: Year represents data for the calendar year.
5. County: The State of New Jersey is administratively divided into twenty-one counties. The county for this report is based on the county of the local field office responsible for the case. The twenty-one (21) counties in New Jersey are: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties. The category of "Other" is added to the list and includes children in cases where a county of assignment could not be determined at the time of the data extract.

Related Reports:

The followings reports are related to Placement Rates, which may be of additional interest to our users:

Children in Placement - Point in Time
Children Entering Out of Home Placement
Children Exiting Out of Home Placement

Citations:

Users may publish data obtained from this site, but we request an appropriate citation for use of this work. Below, please find an appropriate citation template, according to the American Psychological Association's (APA) guidelines.

New Jersey Child Welfare Data Hub. ([Date of Publication]). Placement Rates. Retrieved on [date] from [URL].

Abbreviation Definitions:

APA: American Psychological Association
CP&P: Child Protection and Permanency, a division within the New Jersey Department of Children and Families (DCF)
CPS: Child Protective Services reports
CWS: Child Welfare Services referrals
DCF: New Jersey Department of Children and Families
IAIU: Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit