The Board bases this conclusion on three findings: (1) each year hundreds of thousands of children are being starved and abandoned, burned and severely beaten, raped and sodomized, berated and belittled; (2) the system the nation has devised to respond to child abuse and neglect is failing; and (3) the U.S. spends billions of dollars on programs that deal with the results of the nation's failure to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect. New strategies should ensure the safety of children, prevent child maltreatment, result in timely and accurate investigation and assessment, aim to rebuild families whenever possible, and assure safe, stable, and nurturing substitute family environments. Appendix