Ontario

For more information, visit the information sheet on Ontario's child welfare system.

Overview

Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario have the exclusive mandate under the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA) to protect children who have been or are at risk of being abused and/or neglected by their caregivers, to provide for their care and supervision where necessary and to place children for adoption (CFYSA, 2017). A total of 38 Children’s Aid Societies and 13 Indigenous Child and Family Wellbeing Agencies (ICFWBA) are specifically designated by the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services to investigate child abuse and neglect and take the necessary steps to care for children and youth in need of protection. Three Children’s Aid Societies specifically serve religious communities. Children’s Aid Societies are independent legal entities (corporations run by Boards of Directors) or Indian Bands (that operate under the Indian Act) and are accountable to the communities they serve. In addition to the CYFSA, the Ontario Child Welfare Eligibility Spectrum and Child Protection Standards guide child protection workers at each phase of service delivery.

Statistics

Child Maltreatment Investigations in Ontario, 2008¹, 2013² and 2018³
	2008	2013	2018
Child population (0-15)	2,382,035	2,349,600	2,361,870
Number of child maltreatment investigations	128,748	125,281	148,536
Incidence of child maltreatment investigations per 1,000 children	54.05	53.32	62.89

Type of Child Maltreatment Investigation in Ontario, 2018³
	Number	Rate per 1,000 children
Maltreatment Investigation	94,476	40.00
Risk Investigation	54,060	22.89

Categories of Substantiated Child Maltreatment Investigations in Ontario, 2018³
Category of Maltreatment	Number	Rate per 1,000 children
Physical Abuse	7,081	3.00
Sexual Abuse	1,019	0.43
Neglect	8,082	3.42
Emotional Maltreatment	4,689	1.99
Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence	17,051	7.22

Placement in Child Maltreatment Investigations in Ontario, 2008¹, 2013² and 2018³
	2008 #	2008 Rate	2013 #	2013 Rate	2018 #	2018 Rate
No Placement	121,436	50.98	121,020	51.51	144,351	61.12
Informal Kinship Care	3,616	1.52	1,874	0.80	2,488	1.05
Formal Placement	3,696	1.55	2,387	1.02	1,697	0.71

Children and youth in out-of-home care in 2022⁴
Children in out-of-home care		Child (0-17) population	Rate per 1000
7, 489		2, 750, 014	2.72

Child welfare services fall under the jurisdiction of provincial and territorial authorities, making it difficult to compile statistics at the national level.

The most notable variations between provinces include, mandate variation by jurisdiction with respect to the age to which children are eligible for service, differences in the length of time a child can receive out-of-home care and the definition of out-of-home care.

References

¹Fallon, B., Trocmé, N., MacLaurin, B., Sinha, V., Black, T., Felstiner, Schumaker, K., Van Wert, M., Herbert, A., Petrowski, N., Daciuk, J., Lee, B., DuRoss, C., & Johnston, A. (2010). Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2008 (OIS‑2008). Toronto, ON: Child Welfare Research Portal. https://cwrp.ca/publications/ontario-incidence-study-reported-child-abuse-and-neglect-2008-ois-2008

² Fallon, B., Van Wert, M., Trocmé, N., MacLaurin, B., Sinha, V., Lefebvre, R., Allan, K., Black, T., Lee, B., Rha, W., Smith, C., & Goel, S. (2015). Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2013 (OIS‑2013) Toronto, ON: Child Welfare Research Portal. https://cwrp.ca/publications/ontario-incidence-study-reported-child-abuse-and-neglect-2013-ois-2013.

³Fallon, B., Filippelli, J. Lefebvre, R., Joh-Carnella, N., Trocmé, N., Black, T., .... Stoddart, J.(2020). Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect-2018 (OIS‑2018). Toronto, ON: Child Welfare Research Portal. https://cwrp.ca/publications/ontario-incidence-study-reported-child-abuse-and-neglect-2018-ois-2018.

⁴ Pollock, N., Ouédraogo, A., Trocmé, N., Hovdestad, W., Miskie, A., Crompton, L., Campeau, A., Tanaka, M., Zhang, C., Laprise, C., Tonmyr, L. (2024). Rates of out-of-home care among children in Canada: an analysis of national administrative child welfare data. Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada (44)4. https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.44.4.02

Publications

Title	Authors	Year
The use of mapping in child welfare investigations: A strength-based hybrid intervention	Lwin, Kristen Versanov, Avi Cheung, Connie Goodman, Deborah Andrews, Nancy	2014
Caseworker attitudes on kinship care in Ontario	Brisebois, Kimberly	2013
Child physical and sexual abuse in a community sample of young adults: Results from the Ontario Child Health Study	MacMillan, Harriet L. Tanaka, Masako Duku, Eric Vaillancourt, Tracy Boyle, Michael H.	2013
Multilevel correlates of behavioral resilience among children in child welfare	Bell, Tessa Romano, Elisa Flynn, Robert J.	2013
2011/2012 Report to Legislature: Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth	Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth (Ontario)	2012
A New Approach to Accountability and System Management	The Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare	2012
A Profile of Customized and Traditional Investigations in Ontario in 2008	Van Wert, Melissa Lefebvre, Rachael Fallon, Barbara Trocmé, Nico	2012
A Profile of Unfounded Maltreatment Investigations in Ontario in 2008	Lefebvre, Rachael Van Wert, Melissa Fallon, Barbara Trocmé, Nico	2012
A Profile of Unfounded Risk Investigations in Ontario in 2008	Van Wert, Melissa Lefebvre, Rachael Fallon, Barbara Trocmé, Nico	2012
Characteristics of Children and Families who Receive Ongoing Child Welfare Services	Lefebvre, Rachael Van Wert, Melissa Fallon, Barbara Trocmé, Nico	2012

Legislation

Links