On Monday, a group of us gathered at the Capitol to meet with key legislators about Minnesota’s child protection system. We shared the stories of children in our families, clinics and neighborhoods who were abused or even killed. Ultimately, the child protection system failed them. We, as a state, failed them. The system needs to change. Child protection has been a low priority at the Capitol for too long. More than two dozen children were killed as a result of maltreatment between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023. That’s one child killed every two weeks. The following bills are a good start t ..read more

On Monday, we’ll be having conversations at the Capitol about the need to improve Minnesota’s child protection system. A victim of child abuse himself, Representative Jim Nash is the author of one of several bills we support. “There were a lot of nights that I would pray for someone to come and save me. And no one came. …We’re going to save a lot of heartache and we’re going to save a lot of damage in life, and we’re going to make it so that people don’t have to go through the same things that I went through for 17 years,” he said. His bill (HF 4793) would prohibit schools and other organiz ..read more

Last week many of us received an AMBER Alert on our phones, asking us to watch for a missing 3-year-old boy from Red Lake. Law enforcement found him a short time later and “immediately observed” the child had scabs covering his entire body along with open sores across his face. The lesions were thought to be from chemical burns or some type of heat source. The boy was in so much pain that he could barely stand or walk on his own. Many of his teeth were found to be rotten. When he was given a cheese stick to eat, he could hardly chew it. His mother has since been charged with child torture ..read more

It may be Spring Break, but the legislative session is in full swing, and Safe Passage for Children is tracking about a dozen bills related to child protection. We’ve also been talking with legislators about several bills, some of which we support, some of which we oppose. Recently, our Board Chair, Dr. Lisa Hollensteiner, testified in support of a bill that would create an advisory council to review and improve practices within the system. We also submitted a letter endorsing the bill on behalf of a coalition of frontline professionals we helped convene. Other bills we ..read more

There were over 76,000 calls into counties about possible child abuse and maltreatment in 2021, according to the most recent public data. That’s over 200 calls per day.  Most reports are made by mandated reporters, such as teachers, law enforcement and social workers. However, the vast majority of reports are never investigated. That’s because the decision of whether to assign a case to Family Investigation or Family Assessment Response is made quickly, and often with limited data about a child’s immediate safety and risk factors. We believe counties should assess allegations of abuse ..read more

On Wednesday, a group of concerned citizens joined us to discuss the need for reforms to Minnesota’s child protection system. Several were frontline professionals who had seen too many children suffer or die at the hands of their caregivers. We all agree that more must be done to protect children. Earlier this week a Minneapolis woman was sentenced to probation – and ordered to take a parenting class – in connection to her toddler’s death back in 2022. The parenting class is too little, too late, in our opinion. Her 2-year-old boy, Ona’Je Prince Sincere Jackson, arrived at the hospital unre ..read more

Approximately 25 years ago, Minnesota introduced an “alternative response” to the child protection system. The alternative response was initially well-defined and was only offered after the reassurance of an initial safety and risk assessment. By the time of Governor Dayton’s Task Force on the Protection of Children in 2014, over 70 percent of Child Protection cases were receiving an “alternative response,” and track assignment occurred prior to any safety or risk assignment. The Task Force recognized that the pendulum had swung too far and course-correction was necessary, noting “it i ..read more

Minnesota lawmakers gaveled in the 2024 legislative session on Monday – with a short list of priorities and a much smaller pot of money compared to last year. Our work in 2024 will be influenced by many factors, including a limited state budget. However, we will continue to monitor, support or oppose bills that have a direct impact on children in the child welfare system. Below are a few examples of legislation being put forward: Sen. Mary Kunesh recommends an analysis of how Minnesota is currently accessing and utilizing federal dollars to fund prevention efforts (SC1071) Sen. Bobby Joe C ..read more

This morning, a group of lawmakers will gather to discuss potential reforms to the child welfare system in Minnesota. In the first three weeks of 2024, there were 2,569 children who had child protection reports closed. Of those children, only 85 percent received a timely response from the state. Almost 400 of those children didn’t receive a face-to-face visit within the time limit specified by state statute. This measure has been falling short of the state’s 100 percent performance standard for years. And some counties fare worse than others. Based on the data, a child living in Pine County ..read more

The latest federal data underscores what we’ve been saying for years: Minnesota screens in fewer maltreatment reports than almost every other state. The National Administration for Children and Families recently released its annual report on child maltreatment, which examined state and national data from 2022. The report found that Minnesota is screening in only 31 percent of maltreatment reports – one of the lowest rates in the country. The national screen-in rate is just over 50 percent.  One bright spot is that the average response time for cases that have been screened in has impro ..read more