This document is a brief summary of the National Study of Social Services to Children and Their Families. Conducted by the United States Children's Bureau, the survey was planned to answer a number of questions about public social service programs: How many children receive service? Who are the children and their families? Why do they come to the social agencies? and, What services do they receive? Data were collected from a representative sample of 315 public service departments throughout the United States. Case-by-case data were requested from each department on samples of children being served by each participating agency at the end of March 1977. A total of 9,597 children were surveyed. (MP)