The categories of fatalities are:
• Accidental (as identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and includes causes such as motor vehicle accidents, drowning, fire, etc.)
• Homicide (as identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner)
• Natural (as identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and includes fatalities caused by medical conditions)
• Other (includes those fatalities identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner as due to undetermined causes or suicide)
• Co-Sleeping (as identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner)
• Sudden Unexplained Infant Death (SUID) (as identified by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner)
OCFS caseworkers as of December of each year, plus the number of open/needed positions. A negative value indicates that they are staffed beyond their minimum need. Source: Maine DHHS OCFS Annual Caseload and Workload Reports, 2019-2022
METHODOLOGY
The Sun Journal analyzed data from Maine Department of Health and Human Services reports on child welfare, including 18 years of annual child protective services reports, annual reports on Office of Child and Family Services staffing that dates back to 2018 and reports of child fatalities from 2007 to 2021.
An analysis of the annual Child Protective Services reports looked at the number of referrals received by OCFS from 2003 to 2020 and calculated the percentage that were not assigned for assessment, assigned for assessment by an OCFS caseworker and that were assigned to a contract agency via DHHS’s Alternative Response Program, which was phased out at the end of 2021.
Data on the rate of substance use as a factor for a child’s removal comes directly from the 2021 CPS report.
The Sun Journal also aggregated data on caseworker staffing and open positions from 2018 to 2021 using annual caseload and workload reports, which DHHS has been statutorily required to publish since 2019.
Data on child deaths comes directly from the DHHS website, where it reports the number of child deaths, the age and gender of the child and the cause of death from 2007 to 2021. DHHS began tracking that data in 2007.
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