SSB Data

From January 1, 2001 toDecember 31, 2017,931 newborns have been surrendered in California. This is compared with 164 infants abandoned since 2001, identified according to CDSS Methodology . Available data indicates a generally decreasing trend of abandonments since enactment of the SSB Law, from 25 cases in 2002 to five or fewer cases per year since 2010, representing a decrease of at least 80% (calendar year 2006 appears to be an exception to the trend of decreasing abandonments). The CDSS continues to identify abandonment cases from various sources and will continue to report updates to this trend.

Chart Updated April 2018

* Safely Surrendered total includes Safely Surrendered Reclaims

**This data has been reconciled with child death numbers available from CDPH and the FCANS system and reflects an update on numbers reported in the prior Safely Surrendered Baby Report to the Legislature .

*** Prior to 2014, CDSS reported 152 abandoned surviving cases. This count was determined inaccurate due to a problematic scope of identification that led to inclusion of cases unrelated to monitoring the effectiveness of the SSB Law. In July 2014, CDSS reconciled data from statewide media sources, from the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect and from prior data extracted from the Child Welfare Services Case Management System database, to positively identify 56 Abandoned Surviving cases.

Similarly, 9 Abandoned Surviving and 20 Abandoned Deceased cases were newly identified through a reconciliation project in December 2014. Combining this information with the duplicate records of 2 Abandoned Surviving and 1 Abandoned Deceased cases that were also recognized, a total of 7 Abandoned Surviving and 19 Abandoned Deceased children were added to this annual totals table.