Residential Services to Children in Need of Protection

Greater emphasis on safely preserving families has started to reduce the number of children and youth being admitted into Care (CYIC). A key strategic goal of the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) is to safely lower this number still further, particularly for Indigenous children and youth.

Admissions into Care1,2
Fiscal Year 2024/25
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1 "-" Indicates no counts of admissions.
2 At least one of the asterisks (“*”) indicates a count lower than 10 in the respective cell. The next “*”/s in the same column or row may have been masked for data privacy reasons.
Provincial New CYIC Admissions
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New Out-of-Care Orders (OCO)/Agreements (Extended Family)1,2
Fiscal Year 2024/25
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1 "-" Indicates no counts of orders.
2 At least one of the asterisks (“*”) indicates a count lower than 10 in the respective cell. The next “*”/s in the same column or row may have been masked for data privacy reasons.
Provincial New Out-of-Care Orders/Agreements
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Fatalities

The following tables provide the number of fatalities of Children and Youth in Care, as well as those that have received other ministry services within a year of their death. For the most up-to-date statistics please visit this link: Statistics - Children Involved with the Ministry of Children & Family Development - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca). As of October, 2007, the B.C. Coroner's Service is responsible for the investigation of all child deaths. The Ministry of Children and Family Development verifies child fatality categories of death with the Office of the Chief Coroner of British Columbia. The categorization of a fatality may change as a death is investigated or new information becomes available.

Because many children and youth served by the ministry are medically fragile, almost half of these fatalities are through natural causes.

Fatalities of Children/Youth Receiving Services (Not In Care) by Calendar Year
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i Data for 2024 represents January 2024 to December 2024.
ii "Undetermined – Open” indicates a case is still under investigation by the Coroner. “Undetermined – Closed” indicates the Coroner’s investigation is complete and due to insufficient evidence or an inability to determine, the death cannot reasonably be classified as natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide.
iii This total includes one or more fatalities where there is no Coroner classification of death because the fatality occurred outside the province or country.
iv This total includes a child in care under the Adoption Act who received services within 12 months of death.
Fatalities of Children/Youth in Care Under the CFCSA - by Calendar Year
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i Data for 2024 represents January 2024 to December 2024.
ii "Undetermined – Open” indicates a case is still under investigation by the Coroner. “Undetermined – Closed” indicates the Coroner’s investigation is complete and due to insufficient evidence or an inability to determine, the death cannot reasonably be classified as natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. See classification of death descriptions below.
iii This total includes one or more fatalities where there is no Coroner classification of death because the fatality occurred outside the province or country.

Classification of Death

NATURAL: Death primarily resulting from a disease of the body and not resulting secondarily from injuries or abnormal environmental factors.

ACCIDENT: Death due to unintentional or unexpected injury. It includes death resulting from complications reasonably attributed to the injury.

SUICIDE: Death resulting from self-inflicted injury, with intent to cause death.

HOMICIDE: Death due to injury intentionally inflicted by the action of another person. Homicide is a neutral term that does not imply fault or blame.

UNDETERMINED: Death which, because of insufficient evidence or inability to otherwise determine, cannot reasonably be classified as natural, accidental, suicide or homicide.