Office of Program Integrity & Accountability

Governor Phil Murphy • Lt. Governor Tahesha Way

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.  

Collapse All Expand All
Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Number of Incidents 18,985 20,898 20,624 26,160 21,757 22,300

Routing Entity

  
Division/Facility (DDD/DMHAS) 13,067 17,024 16,716 20,330 15,018 15,245

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

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

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 11/1/2025

Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Number of Incidents 14,905 15,585 15,381 21,004 17,209 17,735

Routing Entity

  
Division/Facility (DDD) 9,717 12,283 12,154 16,138 11,605 11,891

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, criminal activity.

  
CIMU 4,737 3,024 2,924 4,543 5,305 5,516

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

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 11/15/2025

Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Number of Incidents 2,610 3,645 3,868 3,654 3,179 3,178

Routing Entity

  
Division/Facility (DMHAS) 2,250 3,411 3,552 3,353 2,717 2,678

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

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

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 11/15/2025

Calendar Year 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Total Number of Incidents 1,470 1,668 1,375 1,502 1,369 1,387

Routing Entity

              
Facility DDD-GRC 80 86 45 32 43 50
Facility DDD-HDC 465 436 457 361 313 304
Facility DDD-NLDC 202 187 103 114 138 132
Facility DDD-VDC-E 155 324 173 166 109 98
Facility DDD-WDBN 198 297 232 166 93 92
  Facility Total 1100 1330 1010 839 696 676

The respective facility is responsible for following up and closing incidents such as operational events, hospital visits, medical events, walkaways, rights violations, and criminal activity.
CIMU DDD-GRC 3 3 5 9 23 23
CIMU DDD-HDC 91 89 85 167 136 134
CIMU DDD-HDC 79 66 78 207 222 210
CIMU DDD-VDC-E 17 17 17 51 78 81
CIMU DDD-WDBN 46 47 46 89 74 92
  CIMU Total 236 222 231 523 533 540

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
OI DDD-HDC 41 39 40 35 28 38
OI DDD-NLDC 35 30 37 42 49 59
OI DDD-VDC-E 13 21 16 31 32 53
OI DDD-WDBN 36 22 38 27 29 20
  OI Total 134 116 134 140 140 171

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 11/15/2025

Data Description 2023 2024

Unannounced Site Visits
Requires DHS to annually conduct not less than two site visits of every community-based residential program, in order to evaluate whether the individuals with developmental disabilities who are receiving services from each such program are at risk of, or are being subjected to, abuse, neglect, or exploitation by a caregiver, and report the results of each site visit.
Unannounced Site Visits Completed 3,992 3,658
Individual Assessments Completed 17,837 15,945
Site Visits Resulting in Serious Concerns 526 507
Site Visits Resulting in Moderate Concerns 2,594 1,917
Site Visits Resulting in No Concerns 1,227 1,272
Site Visits Resulting in an Incident Report 237 172

Two Hour Guardian Notification
Requires a provider or licensee of a community-based residential program or day program shall provide notification of any major physical injury, moderate physical injury, or minor physical injury, as prescribed by department regulation, that is suffered by an individual with a developmental disability who is receiving services from the provider or licensee.
DDD Community Calls made within 2 Hours 2,567 2,795
DDD Developmental Center Calls made within 2 Hours 588 612

Incident verification
Within 48 hours after receipt of a report of an incident involving moderate physical injury, major physical injury, or abuse, neglect, or exploitation in a State developmental center or DDD community-based residential program, the commissioner shall send an employee of the department to the location of the reported incident, in order to verify the level of severity of the incident.
Verifications Completed 5,409 5,556
Visits that resulted in a New Code Added 93 102
Visits that resulted in a New Incident Report 74 47
Visits that resulted in the Original Code being Changed 65 53

Drug Testing
A person applying for employment as a direct care staff member at a program, facility, or living arrangement licensed or funded by the department shall consent to and undergo drug testing for controlled dangerous substances as a condition of such employment. Direct care staff members employed at a program, facility, or living arrangement shall be subject, during the course of employment, to random drug testing for controlled dangerous substances. A program, facility, or living arrangement may additionally require a direct care staff member to undergo drug testing for controlled dangerous substances, at any time, if the direct care staff member's immediate supervisor has reasonable suspicion to believe that the staff member is illegally using a controlled dangerous substance.
Pre-Employment Drug Tests Completed- Licensed Agencies 15,445 15,416
Pre-Employment Drug Tests Completed- Unlicensed Agencies 12,339 13,609
Random Drug Tests Completed- Licensed Agencies 2,540 2,801
Random Drug Tests Completed- Unlicensed Agencies 1,076 1,113
Reasonable Suspicion Drug Tests Completed- Licensed Agencies 125 102
Reasonable Suspicion Drug Tests Completed- Unlicensed Agencies 9 10

Failure to Report
A person employed or volunteering in a program, facility, community care residence, or living arrangement licensed or funded by the department, or a person providing community-based services with indirect State funding to a person with a developmental disability, as applicable, who fails to report an act of abuse, neglect, or exploitation against an individual with a developmental disability while having reasonable cause to believe that such an act has been committed, is a disorderly person.
Confirmed Cases of failure to report Abuse, Neglect or Exploitation 13 9

Investigations
A guardian of an individual with a developmental disability, upon request, may be permitted to attend the investigative interview of the individual the guardian represents. The actual records and reports of an investigation shall also be provided to a guardian or other person who is responsible for the welfare of the individual with a developmental disability if the information is needed in connection with the provision of care, treatment, assessment, evaluation, or supervision to the individual; and the provision of information is in the best interests of the individual with a developmental disability, as determined by the Division of Developmental Disabilities.
Incidents Assigned to the Office of Investigations 462 505
Guardians that Attended the Interview 55 59
Guardians/ Family that Requested the Investigation Report 20 12

Chart last updated 11/15/2025

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 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 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
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
  Abuse Substantiated 7 2 3 1 2 0
  Abuse Unsubstantiated 10 3 4 3 18 3
  Abuse Unfounded 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Neglect Substantiated 13 1 13 3 4 5
  Neglect Unsubstantiated 19 4 12 2 3 7
  Neglect Unfounded 0 0 0 0 0 0
  Exploitation Substantiated 4 0 0 0 0 0
  Exploitation Unsubstantiated 2 0 0 0 0 0
  Exploitation Unfounded 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
  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
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

Chart last updated 11/15/2025