Different Reporters,Different Futures? Child and Parent Outcomes after Child Protection Reports

Abstract

Concerns about overreporting and malicious reporting to child protective services (CPS) have prompted questions about the value and accuracy of different report sources, with anonymous reporters and education personnel receiving the most scrutiny. Using longitudinal, linked administrative data from Wisconsin on low-income children born in 2000-2002 and followed through 2021, this brief report examines whether the source of a CPS report is differentially associated with: (1) substantiation and subsequent CPS contact; (2) future parental criminal involvement; and (3) alleged child victim outcomes, including mental and behavioral health risk, educational risk, and transition to adulthood. Results from logistic and linear regression models find that, despite differences in report substantiation by source — with reports from law enforcement most likely to be substantiated and anonymous reports least likely – the probabilities of future reports and substantiations, and future parent criminal charges, were highly similar across sources. Differences in children’s educational, mental and behavioral health, and transition-to-adulthood outcomes reflect whether children were never reported, reported by a single source, or reported by multiple sources. Overall, no report source emerged as a substantially stronger predictor of future child or family outcomes than others, cautioning against policies that discount reports from particular sources.