Office of Program Integrity & Accountability

Governor Mikie Sherrill • Lt. Governor Dr. Dale G. Caldwell

Office of Program Integrity & Accountability

OPIA Data

The data provided below encompasses a variety of critical metrics related to incident management and oversight.  

  • DHS Incident Volume tracks the frequency and nature of incidents reported to the Department of Human Services.  
  • Stephen Komninos' Law provides a framework for protecting individuals with developmental disabilities from abuse, neglect, and exploitation, with data reflecting its impact and enforcement.
  • The Critical Incident Management Unit (CIMU) and Office of Investigations (OI) Substantiation Rates provide the number of allegations and incidents within the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) Community, as well as whether the investigation findings meet the criteria for substantiation.
  • Tara's Law Reporting outlines specific reporting requirements (NJAC 10:44D-3.4) regarding Community Care Providers. 

Collectively, these datasets offer a comprehensive view of the safeguards and operational procedures in place to protect and support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  

Explore the Website

Collapse All Expand All
Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Total Number of Incidents 18,985 20,898 20,624 26,160 21,757 22,300 23,501
Routing Entity
Division/Facility (DDD/DMHAS) 13,067 17,024 16,716 20,330 15,018 15,245 17,039
The Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) and the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) are responsible for following up and closing community and facility incidents such as operational events, hospital visits, accidental injuries, medical events, walkaways, rights violations, criminal activity.
CIMU 5,305 3,463 3,459 5,361 6,276 6,547 6,099
The Critical Incident Management Unit (CIMU) performs an administrative review of provider follow-up and investigation reports and closes incidents such as abuse or neglect with minor injury, exploitation under $100, moderate injuries of unknown origin, assaults with moderate and major injuries and other injuries resulting in moderate level of injury and professional misconduct allegations, unapproved restraint, etc.
OI 613 411 449 469 463 508 363
The Office of Investigation (OI) investigates abuse and neglect with moderate or major injury, abuse with an object, sexual abuse, injuries resulting in major injury, exploitation over $100. Any incident that does not normally route to OI can be referred by CIMU to OI for direct investigation.

Chart last updated 4/1/2026

Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Total Number of Incidents 14,905 15,585 15,381 21,004 17,209 17,735 18,693
Routing Entity
Division/Facility (DDD) 9,717 12,283 12,154 16,138 11,605 11,891 13,431
The Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) is responsible for following up and closing community and facility incidents such as operational events, hospital visits, accidental injuries, medical events, walkaways, rights violations, and criminal activity.
CIMU 4,737 3,024 2,924 4,543 5,305 5,516 5,010
The Critical Incident Management Unit (CIMU) performs an administrative review of provider follow-up and investigation reports and closes incidents such as abuse or neglect with minor injury, exploitation under $100, moderate injuries of unknown origin, assaults with moderate and major injuries and other injuries resulting in moderate level of injury and professional misconduct allegations, unapproved restraint, etc.
OI 451 278 303 323 299 328 252
The Office of Investigation (OI) investigates abuse and neglect with moderate or major injury, abuse with an object, sexual abuse, injuries resulting in major injury, exploitation over $100. Any incident that does not normally route to OI can be referred by CIMU to OI for direct investigation.

Chart last updated 4/1/2026

Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Total Number of Incidents 2,610 3,645 3,868 3,654 3,179 3,178 3,549
Routing Entity
Division/Facility (DMHAS) 2,250 3,411 3,552 3,353 2,717 2,678 2,939
The Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) is responsible for following up and closing community and facility incidents such as operational events, hospital visits, accidental injuries, medical events, walkaways, rights violations, criminal activity.
CIMU 332 217 304 295 438 491 593
The Critical Incident Management Unit (CIMU) performs an administrative review of provider follow-up and investigation reports and closes incidents such as abuse or neglect with minor injury, exploitation under $100, moderate injuries of unknown origin, assaults with moderate and major injuries and other injuries resulting in moderate level of injury and professional misconduct allegations, unapproved restraint, etc.
OI 28 17 12 6 24 9 17
The Office of Investigation (OI) investigates abuse and neglect with moderate or major injury, abuse with an object, sexual abuse, injuries resulting in major injury, exploitation over $100. Any incident that does not normally route to OI can be referred by CIMU to OI for direct investigation.

Chart last updated 4/1/2026

Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Total Number of Incidents 1,470 1,668 1,375 1,502 1,369 1,387 1,259
Routing Entity
Facility DDD-GRC 80 86 45 32 43 50 34
Facility DDD-HDC 465 436 457 361 313 304 292
Facility DDD-NLDC 202 187 103 114 138 132 143
Facility DDD-VDC-E 155 324 173 166 109 98 114
Facility DDD-WDBN 198 297 232 166 93 92 86
  Facility Total 1100 1330 1010 839 696 676 669
 
CIMU DDD-GRC 3 3 5 9 23 23 19
CIMU DDD-HDC 91 89 85 167 136 134 128
CIMU DDD-NLDC 79 66 78 207 222 210 199
CIMU DDD-VDC-E 17 17 17 51 78 81 68
CIMU DDD-WDBN 46 47 46 89 74 92 82
  CIMU Total 236 222 231 523 533 540 496
The Critical Incident Management Unit (CIMU) performs an administrative review of facility follow-up reports and closes incidents such as assaults, personal exploitation, explained injuries.
OI DDD-GRC 9 4 3 5 2 1 1
OI DDD-HDC 41 39 40 35 28 38 34
OI DDD-NLDC 35 30 37 42 49 59 32
OI DDD-VDC-E 13 21 16 31 32 53 15
OI DDD-WDBN 36 22 38 27 29 20 12
  OI Total 134 116 134 140 140 171 94
The Office of Investigation (OI) investigates all incidents of abuse, neglect, exploitation, incidents resulting in major injury, sexual assault and unapproved restraints involving injury.

Chart last updated 4/1/2026

Data Description 2023 2024 2025
Unannounced Site Visits - Requires DHS to annually conduct not less than two site visits of every community-based residential program to evaluate risk of abuse, neglect, or exploitation.
Unannounced Site Visits Completed 3,992 3,658 3,853
Individual Assessments Completed 17,837 15,945 16,975
Site Visits Resulting in Serious Concerns 526 507 644
Site Visits Resulting in Moderate Concerns 2,594 1,917 2,095
Site Visits Resulting in No Concerns 1,227 1,272 1,114
Site Visits Resulting in an Incident Report 237 172 162
Two Hour Guardian Notification - Requires notification of injuries to individuals receiving services.
DDD Community Calls made within 2 Hours 2,567 2,795 2,269
DDD Developmental Center Calls made within 2 Hours 588 612 525
Incident Verification - Within 48 hours, DHS verifies severity of reported incidents.
Verifications Completed 5,409 5,556 5,088
Visits that resulted in a New Code Added 93 102 68
Visits that resulted in a New Incident Report 74 47 35
Visits that resulted in the Original Code being Changed 65 53 51
Drug Testing - Pre-employment, random, and suspicion-based drug testing requirements.
Pre-Employment Drug Tests Completed - Licensed Agencies 15,445 15,416 15,044
Pre-Employment Drug Tests Completed - Unlicensed Agencies 12,339 13,609 12,857
Random Drug Tests Completed - Licensed Agencies 2,540 2,801 2,938
Random Drug Tests Completed - Unlicensed Agencies 1,076 1,113 1,296
Reasonable Suspicion Drug Tests Completed - Licensed Agencies 125 102 89
Reasonable Suspicion Drug Tests Completed - Unlicensed Agencies 9 10 10

Chart last updated 4/1/2026

This table displays yearly data on the number of allegations the Critical Incident Management Unit closed, broken down by the allegation types and the percentage of substantiated findings.

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall CIMU Substantiation Rate 2025:  39.6%
Physical Abuse Major injury 1 0.00
Physical Abuse Minor injury 154 23.38
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 1 0.00
Physical Abuse No injury 423 28.61
Physical Abuse w/object Minor Injury 1 100.00
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 1 0.00
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 933 37.08
Financial Exploitation under $100 68 29.41
Personal Exploitation 27 44.44
Neglect Minor injury 53 69.81
Neglect No injury 1539 62.18
Professional Misconduct 633 77.88
Rights Violation 304 48.36
Sexual Assault 6 33.33

Chart last updated 4/6/2026

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall CIMU Substantiation Rate 2024:  50.2%
Physical Abuse Minor injury 188 19.15
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 1 0.00
Physical Abuse No injury 455 23.96
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 2 100.00
Sexual Abuse 1 0.00
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 980 39.49
Financial Exploitation over $100 1 100.00
Financial Exploitation under $100 89 21.35
Personal Exploitation 36 30.56
Neglect Minor injury 64 70.31
Neglect Moderate injury 1 100.00
Neglect No injury 1718 59.20
Professional Misconduct 1086 72.38
Rights Violation 376 45.21
Sexual Assault 21 71.43

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall CIMU Substantiation Rate 2023:  38.22%
Financial Exploitation under $100 71 26.76
Neglect Minor injury 72 65.28
Neglect Moderate injury 2 50.00
Neglect No injury 1656 62.86
Personal Exploitation 28 42.86
Physical Abuse Minor injury 187 18.72
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 1 0.00
Physical Abuse No injury 425 21.18
Physical Abuse w/object Minor Injury 1 0.00
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 2 100.00
Professional Misconduct 935 72.30
Rights Violation 383 45.43
Sexual Abuse 1 0.00
Sexual Assault 14 35.71
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 973 32.27

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall CIMU Substantiation Rate 2022:  34.38%
Financial Exploitation over $100 1 0.00
Financial Exploitation under $100 86 29.07
Neglect Minor injury 65 60.00
Neglect Moderate injury 3 100.00
Neglect No injury 1325 60.23
Personal Exploitation 31 48.39
Physical Abuse Minor injury 161 13.04
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 2 0.00
Physical Abuse No injury 355 17.18
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 1 0.00
Professional Misconduct 481 69.85
Rights Violation 323 46.44
Sexual Abuse 1 0.00
Sexual Assault 11 36.36
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 816 35.17

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

This table displays yearly data on the number of allegations the Office of Investigations closed, broken down by the allegation types and the percentage of substantiated findings.

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall OI Substantiation Rate 2025:  48.09%
Physical Abuse Major injury 1 0.00
Physical Abuse Minor injury 11 36.36
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 20 30.00
Physical Abuse No injury 19 42.11
Physical Abuse w/object Minor Injury 9 33.33
Physical Abuse w/object Moderate Injury 5 80.00
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 30 20.00
Sexual Abuse 44 11.36
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 29 51.72
Medical Life Threatening Emergency- 911 Not called 16 18.75
Neglect Major injury 20 80.00
Neglect Minor injury 1 0.00
Neglect Moderate injury 42 76.19
Neglect No injury 38 71.05
Financial Exploitation over $100 5 100.00
Professional Misconduct 6 100.00
Rights Violation 9 66.67

Chart last updated 4/6/2026

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall OI Substantiation Rate 2024:  46.14%
Physical Abuse Minor injury 8 62.50
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 23 21.74
Physical Abuse No injury 19 57.89
Physical Abuse w/object Major injury 1 100.00
Physical Abuse w/object Minor Injury 13 15.38
Physical Abuse w/object Moderate injury 4 25.00
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 43 23.26
Sexual Abuse 54 7.41
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 44 40.91
Medical Life Threatening Emergency- 911 Not called 38 2.63
Financial Exploitation over $100 13 46.15
Financial Exploitation under $100 1 0.00
Personal Exploitation 1 100.00
Neglect Major injury 18 77.78
Neglect Minor injury 2 100.00
Neglect Moderate injury 56 73.21
Neglect No injury 50 58.00
Professional Misconduct 14 64.29
Rights Violation 15 46.67
Sexual Assault 1 0.00

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall OI Substantiation Rate 2023:  42.18%
Financial Exploitation over $100 16 62.50
Financial Exploitation under $100 2 50.00
Medical Life - Threatening Emergency - 911 Not called 17 5.88
Neglect Major injury 17 70.59
Neglect Minor injury 1 100.00
Neglect Moderate injury 51 58.82
Neglect No injury 52 75.00
Personal Exploitation 3 66.67
Physical Abuse Major injury 2 0.00
Physical Abuse Minor injury 14 35.71
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 23 30.43
Physical Abuse No injury 30 53.33
Physical Abuse w/object Minor Injury 11 9.09
Physical Abuse w/object Moderate injury 4 0.00
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 51 25.49
Professional Misconduct 10 50.00
Rights Violation 15 66.67
Sexual Abuse 37 5.41
Sexual Assault 2 50.00
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 50 28.00

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

Incident Code Description Total closed % Substantiated

Overall OI Substantiation Rate 2022:  28.74%
Financial Exploitation over $100 18 38.89
Financial Exploitation under $100 4 25.00
Medical Life - Threatening Emergency - 911 Not called 31 9.68
Neglect Major injury 17 82.35
Neglect Moderate injury 55 50.91
Neglect No injury 48 62.50
Personal Exploitation 6 16.67
Physical Abuse Major injury 3 0.00
Physical Abuse Minor injury 16 31.25
Physical Abuse Moderate injury 25 16.00
Physical Abuse No injury 26 38.46
Physical Abuse w/object Minor Injury 18 27.78
Physical Abuse w/object Moderate injury 3 0.00
Physical Abuse w/object No Injury 41 19.51
Professional Misconduct 7 42.86
Rights Violation 14 50.00
Sexual Abuse 37 5.41
Sexual Assault 1 0.00
Verbal / Psychological Abuse 59 28.81

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

Public Law 2012, Chapter 69, was enacted in December 2013, which established “Tara’s Law”, an Act concerning individuals with Developmental Disabilities. The law was created to provide protections to and increased oversight of individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) residing in community care residences (CCRs).

In addition, the statute directed DHS to compile data about investigations conducted pursuant to this law concerning abuse, neglect or exploitation of an individual with an intellectual/developmental disability residing in a community care residence and annually report this data.

In 2019, the reporting requirements of Tara’s Law were promulgated into NJAC §10:44D Central Registry of Offenders Against Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, section 3.4 Compilation of Data by the Office of Investigations.

 

# Description 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
1 The number of individuals with developmental disabilities residing in community care residences who were the subject of an allegation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation and the number of substantiated, unsubstantiated, and unfounded allegations 38 8 26 11 20 15 5
  Abuse Substantiated 7 2 3 1 2 0 0
  Abuse Unsubstantiated 10 3 4 3 18 3 3
  Abuse Unfounded 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Neglect Substantiated 13 1 13 3 4 7 2
  Neglect Unsubstantiated 19 4 12 2 3 7 1
  Neglect Unfounded 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Exploitation Substantiated 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Exploitation Unsubstantiated 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Exploitation Unfounded 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 The number of deaths, if any, of individuals with developmental disabilities who were residing in community care residences and were the subject of a report of abuse, neglect, or exploitation and the cause of death. 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
  Cause of death         Multi-organ failure; septic shock    
3 The number of case managers or case managers' supervisors who have been reassigned or terminated, or both, as a result of an investigation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an individual with a developmental disability residing in a community care residence. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 The number of case managers or case managers' supervisors against whom a civil or criminal action has been brought as a result of an allegation of abuse, neglect, or exploitation of an individual with a developmental disability residing in a community care residence. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Chart last updated 4/1/2026