NCA Census Resources

NCA provides the CAC movement with comprehensive snapshots of CAC services, funding, and growth through its Member and Chapter Censuses.  Done every two years, these surveys and corresponding reports provide information about strengths and trends in the field over time.  Please see immediately below for our most recent Chapter Census - the State of State Chapters Report.  Results from the 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2023 CAC Censuses are also available below, along with special reports about CACs' work with the military, to address the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) and to address the mental health care needs of children.  Questions about the NCA Member CAC Census or State Chapter Census can be directed to omscoordinator@nca-online.org.


Members and partners, please be sure to log in to see all the resources.  Only select reports are visible for the public without a login.

BRAND NEW SPECIAL REPORT: A Rising Tide: How Children's Advocacy Centers are meeting a growing youth mental health care need

This report summarizes findings from this 2024 special report, providing an overview of how Children's Advocacy Centers are offering more robust mental health services than ever before and rising to meet evolving mental health care needs.

2024 Mental Health Special Report
Free to NCA Members. Download a copy of the report.

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Ready to Serve: When CACs and Military Agencies Team Up, Kids Are Better Off

Overall, our field is still in the relatively early stages of building partnerships between CACs and military installations. But every CAC can take action to ensure military families have access to the services they deserve. 

In Ready to Serve, we use 2020 CAC Census data to explore how centers across the country are building relationships with their partners in the military, where we’re succeeding, and where we have additional opportunities to ensure every child in our community who needs it can benefit from trauma-informed, child-focused CAC services.



Outlasting the Storm: Teleservices, the Pandemic, and Lasting Opportunities and Challenges

In response to the pandemic, many CACs switched at least some of their services to teleservices, using technology to keep children and families safe while still providing them with the help they need to recover. Four core services were candidates: forensic interviews, victim advocacy, medical services, and mental health care. 

In Outlasting the Storm, released in August 2021 and based on 2020 CAC Census data, we dive into the rapid and lightning-fast shift CACs made toward offering many virtual services to kids and families.

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  • 2020 NCA Member Census: Key Takeaways for CACs
    Contains 4 Component(s) Recorded On: 04/27/2021

    Every two years, NCA conducts a Member Census to determine the current scope of CAC services and remaining needs in the field. We are grateful to the 791 CACs who completed the 2020 NCA Member Census and our partners at the State Chapters and Regional CACs who made this possible. In this webinar, we will share the results of the data, including an overview of key findings and trends compared to previous years. We will also provide a roadmap of how to put these results into action to guide local, state, regional, and national priorities for the coming years.

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Previous CAC Census Results: 2018

Using the 2018 Census results, NCA’s data and subject matter experts dug deep into the results to provide Census-related resources. These resources are intended to help you identify movement-wide trends and areas for improvement, and to improve your practice and sustainability. Aggregated national, regional, and state-by-state reports for 2018 are available exclusively to NCA members. In addition, NCA published two publicly available reports: on the growth in mental health services available through CACs, and on the status of CAC-military partnerships.

Thriving Kids 2019: Mental Health Initiative

Our Thriving Kids 2019 report synthesized data from multiple NCA sources, including CAC Census data, and research partnerships to look at how CACs have expanded mental health services over the past decade. NCA won the Office for Victims of Crime 2020 Award for Professional Innovation in Victim Services because of our work strengthening mental health care within CACs through the Thriving Kids Initiative. We accepted the award in partnership with our CAC and Chapter members, who worked with us to make this system transformation possible.

Status of CAC-Military Partnerships 2019

Children’s Advocacy Centers and the Military: Where We Are, and Where We’re Going Together

While some 900 Children’s Advocacy Centers in the United States coordinate the critical multidisciplinary services that child abuse victims need to heal, many children from military families experience barriers to receiving those services. Yet early successes in partnerships between CACs and military installation leadership can serve as a model to improve coordination and serve military families better.

The Status of CAC-Military Partnerships 2019 report to Congress combined CAC Census data with feedback from military partners to look at the current scope of this work and opportunities to strengthen these connections as we look toward the future. 

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Previous CAC Census Results: 2016

Snapshot 2017

Snapshot 2017 incorporated our 2016 CAC Census results to provide data and primary information on how Children’s Advocacy Centers  are organized and funded, and identify key characteristics and attributes of high-performing CACs. The report was commissioned by the Ben and Lucy Ana Fund of the Walton Family Foundation and prepared by National Children’s Alliance.

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