Indigenous child welfare

Canada has a decentralized child welfare system that consists of 13 Canadian provincial and territorial child welfare systems. In addition, there exists Métis, First Nations and urban Indigenous child and family service agencies that are to varying degrees affected by federal policies and funding models.

Most commonly, Indigenous child welfare agencies have signed agreements with either the federal or both the federal and provincial governments that authorizes them to provide the full range of child protection services and receive federal funding to do so.

For more information about First Nations child welfare, see Denouncing the Continued Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in Canadian Child Welfare.

For information on the First Nations human rights complaint case against the federal government for under-funding child welfare services on-reserve: I am a witness.

Statistics

The estimates presented here are from the 2019 national study that collected investigation data from a large number of First Nations and urban Indigenous agencies. All results must be interpreted with caution.

Interpretations must take into account the context and structure of First Nations child welfare. Denouncing The Continued Overrepresentation Of First Nations Children In Canadian Child Welfare: Findings From The First Nations/Canadian Incidence Study Of Reported Child Abuse And Neglect-2019 (Fallon et al., 2021) for a contextualized summary of the findings. The data presented here are weighted estimates; for information regarding the FNCIS weighting procedure see the executive summary and appendices.

Child Maltreatment Investigations, First Nations (status and non-status) and Non-Indigenous Children
	First Nations Children	Non-Indigenous Children
Number of child maltreatment investigations	45,918	241,137
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1,000 children	151	42.11

Type of Child Maltreatment Investigations in 2019 for First Nations (status and non-status) and Non-Indigenous Children
	First Nations		Non-Indigenous
	Number of children	Rate per 1,000	Number of children	Rate per 1,000
Maltreatment incident Investigation	32,328	106.31	168,570	29.44
Risk Investigation	13,590	44.69	72,567	12.67

Level of Substantiation in Child Maltreatment Investigations in 2019 for First Nations (status and non-status) and Non-Indigenous Children
	First Nations		Non-Indigenous
	Number of children	Rate per 1,000	Number of children	Rate per 1,000
Substantiated	19,143	62.95	76,899	13.43
Suspected	2,190	7.20	9,995	1.75
Unfounded	10,950	36.01	81,676	14.26

Primary Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in 2019 for First Nations (status and non-status) and Non-Indigenous Children
	First Nations		Non-Indigenous
Category of Maltreatment	Number of children	Rate per 1,000	Number of children	Rate per 1,000
Physical Abuse	1,570	5.16	14,459	2.53
Sexual Abuse	587	1.93	2,108	0.37
Neglect	8,400	27.62	18,600	3.25
Emotional Maltreatment	1,780	5.85	10,941	1.91
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence	6,806	22.38	30,791	5.38

Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in 2019 for First Nations and Non-Indigenous Children
	First Nations		Non-Indigenous
	Number of children	Rate per 1,000	Number of children	Rate per 1,000
Informal Placement (Kinship Out of Care and Customary Care)	2,365	7.78	4,798	0.84
Kinship in Care	1,589	5.23	545	0.10
Foster Care (Non-kinship)	1,775	5.84	2,677	0.47
Group Home/Residential or Secure Treatment	207	0.68	757	0.13
Other Placement (e.g., places of safety)	205	0.67	153	0.03
Subtotal: Placement Made	6,141	20.20	8,930	1.56
No Placement Made	39,776	130.81	232,207	40.55
Total Investigations	45,917	151.00	241,137	42.11

Reference List

* Source: Fallon, B., Lefebvre, R., Trocmé, N., Richard, K., Hélie, S., Montgomery, M., Bennett, M., Joh-Carnella, N., Saint-Girons, M., Filippelli, J., MacLaurin, B., Black, T., Esposito, T., King, B., Collin-Vézina, D., Dallaire, R., Gray, R., Levi, J., Orr, M., Petti, T., Thomas Prokop, S., & Soop, S. (2021) Denouncing the Continued Overrepresentation of First Nations Children in Canadian Child Welfare: Findings from the First Nations/Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2019. Ontario: Assembly of First Nations.

Publications

Title	Year of Publication
Information Sheet Balancing Immediate Protection and Long-Term Well-Being	2025
Information Sheet Supreme Court of Canada’s Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families: What Indigenous Peoples and Governments Need to Know	2025
Information Sheet Legislation, Regulation and Soft Law	2025
Journal article Indigenous Child Wellness:: A Scoping Review of Best Practices with Initial Advising from Indigenous Community Members on Contextual Considerations and Next Steps	2024
Information Sheet What are Child Welfare Prevention Services?	2024
Information Sheet What is Child Neglect?	2024
Information Sheet What is Child Physical Abuse?	2024
Information Sheet What is Out-of-Home Care?	2024
Information Sheet Loving Our Children: Finding What Works for First Nations Families	2024
Journal article Assessing a measure of organizational environment among Indigenous child welfare agencies	2024

Legislation

Aboriginal child welfare services are provided in accordance with provincial/territorial legislation, as allowed by Section 88 of the Indian Act (1985). Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities. As a result, each province and territory has different legislation pertaining to child protection interventions. For more information click here.

Child welfare services on-reserve are funded through Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and subject to the regulations within the First Nations Child and Family Services section of the National Social Program Manual (last updated 2012).

Links

National
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC)
Aboriginal Peoples in Canada – Statistics Canada
Assembly of First Nations (AFN)
First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada
First Peoples Child and Family Review
Indigenous Child Welfare Research Network
National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO; website still available until 2017)

Provincial
The Association of Native Child and Family Services Agencies of Ontario
The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN)
First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission
Indigenous Perspectives Society (BC)
Manitoba Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission
Native Council of Nova Scotia
New Brunswick Aboriginal Peoples Council
Saskatchewan First Nations Family and Community Institute

International
Australia: Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Care (SNAICC)
New Zealand: Mana Ririki
USA: Health of American Indian or Alaska Native Population - Center for Disease Control
USA: National Indian Child Welfare Association