Screening and decision-making for child maltreatment involves a variety of features within a child's ecology. When the alleged child victim of maltreatment has a disability, the type and severity of the disability, as well as the developmental abilities of the child, may call for a different method of assessing maltreatment than one for children without disabilities. This paper advocates that it is critical to understand factors influencing investigators' decision-making, as well as the types of maltreatment related to various types of disabilities and developmental characteristics in order to establish a reliable investigation. Investigators' factors affecting subjective decisions include lack knowledge of disabilities and of how to assess alleged child victims with disabilities, and perception of disabled children as a cause of parenting stress. Children with disabilities involving communication difficulties (e.g., hearing impairment, sensory impairment, learning disabilities, attention deficit, cerebral palsy) were more at risk for physical abuse. Children with intellectual disabilities were more at risk for sexual abuse. No specific type of disability was apparent that was more at risk for neglect or emotional abuse.