Throughout the last few days and continuing into next week, the House Health and Human Services (HHS) Finance Committee has been discussing the delete-everything (DE) amendment to HF 1638, which would turn this bill into the omnibus HHS finance bill.

The DE amendment is 354 pages long; what follows is the child welfare–related components. This post does not include any additional amendments as discussed in the HHS Finance Committee hearings; those will be highlighted next week. Be sure to follow its progress on our Bill Tracking page.

Born Alive Infants Protection Act

The DE amendment would establish the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which seems to be more about holding medical professionals accountable than anything else. There is a provision in this Act that would make infants born alive as a result of an abortion abandoned wards of the state, unless one or both parents agree within 30 days after the infant’s birth to accept parental rights, or the abortion was performed to save the life of the mother or fetus.

Runaway and Homeless Youth

The definition of homeless youth would be raised from 21 years of age or younger to 24. This would expand the number of youth eligible for services under the Homeless Youth Act.

Counties would also be required to immediately locate children missing from foster care and respond to the issues that led to the youth running away or being absent from care. As part of the follow-up service to these youth, counties would be required to screen runaway foster youth to determine whether the youth was a victim of sex trafficking. Should there be any reasonable cause to believe that the youth was a victim of sex trafficking (or at risk of being a victim), the county would be required to report this information immediately to law enforcement.

Northstar Care for Children Modifications

Currently, statute states that Northstar kinship assistance agreements end upon the death or dissolution of permanent legal and physical custody. This would be modified to include incapacity of the relative custodian. It also specifies that only in the case of death or incapacity of the relative custodian can Northstar kinship assistance eligibility be continued. In order for eligibility to continue, a successor must have been named in the agreement. If a successor was not named, the commissioner would be able to give written consent to allow a court-appointed guardian to take over.

Extraordinary levels under Northstar would be applicable to children physically living in a foster residence setting. Currently, these levels apply only to children in foster family settings or in the home of the adoptive parent or relative custodian.

Adoption-Related Provisions

The commissioner of human services would be able to enter into grant contracts with Minnesota tribes in order to provide child-specific recruitment and adoption placement services for Indian children under tribal jurisdiction.

The statute related to out-of-home placement plans would be modified to strengthen language around adoption being the preferred permanency outcome. Plans would be required to include documentation of steps to finalize adoption as the permanency plan, and in cases where adoption is not the permanency outcome, documentation of steps to finalize the transfer of permanent legal and physical custody to a relative, including (among others) steps taken by the agency to make adoption the permanency outcome, reasons why the relative opted not to pursue adoption, and reasons why permanent placement with a relative through Northstar kinship assistance is in the child’s best interests.

Expansion of the Definition of Sibling

The definition of “sibling” (as used in child protection–related matters) would be modified to include individuals who were siblings prior to one of the following:

  • A termination of parental rights of one or both parents
  • A suspension of parental rights (as under tribal code)
  • Another disruption of parental rights, such as the death of a parent

There is a great emphasis in child welfare policy on maintaining the sibling relationship throughout a child protection response (when it is in the best interests of each sibling). By modifying this definition, this might signal a greater emphasis on maintaining sibling contact when siblings are separated due to out-of-home placements and different permanency outcomes.

Independent Living Plans

The age at which foster youths’ independent living plans must be reviewed by the court would be lowered, from 16 to 14. Additionally, this would allow youth ages 14 and up to select up to 2 individuals to help in the preparation of the youth’s out-of-home placement plan.

Another age change would be related to the age at which courts can order permanent custody to the county, from age 12 to age 16. Moreover, the youth would need to be asked about the youth’s preferred permanency outcome prior to making this order.

As part of preparing youth for exiting foster care, agencies would be required to assist youth with obtaining tribal enrollment identification cards (when applicable), and they would be responsible for helping to establish “normalcy” for youth by allowing them to engage in age- or developmentally appropriate activities. This would include expanding the authority of foster parents and residential facility staff to allow youth to engage in such activities. The “normalcy” initiative is part of recently enacted federal legislation.

Child Protection Task Force Recommendations

The DE amendment would explicitly define when Family Investigations (FI) and Family Assessments (FA) could be used: FI for when the report alleges sexual abuse or substantial child endangerment, and FA for when there is no alleged substantial child endangerment.

It would also remove the requirement that unreasonable physical discipline must be done in anger or without regard to the safety of the child in order to be deemed physical abuse.

Language related to cross-reporting requirements between child welfare and law enforcement would be strengthened and clarified to include all reports (both screened in and screened out). This is currently the law, but testimony at Task Force meetings indicated that this might not be happening consistently across all counties.

Counties would be required to ask about and consider prior reports of child maltreatment, including screened out reports, to determine whether an investigation or family assessment must be conducted. Another provision would limit the use of records of screened out reports to assist in future screening decisions (along with the already existing statute that allows screened out reports to be used for risk and safety assessments). Screened out reports would be required to be archived for 5 years, and they must contain enough information to identify the subject(s) of the report, the allegation, and the reason(s) for screening out the report. The archival time for FA cases and FI cases where the investigation resulted in no maltreatment determination would also be increased, from 4 years to 5.

Counties would also be required to follow the statewide child maltreatment screening guidelines developed by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, who would need to update the screening guidelines to have a clear focus on the health and safety of the child no later than August 1, 2015. The guidelines would need to be distributed no later than September 30, 2015, with county implementation no later than October 1, 2015. Counties would also be able to consult with their county attorney’s office to develop processes by which reports could be screened in even if the guidelines don’t require them to be screened in.

The state would be required to begin providing quality assurance reviews of county screening practices and decisions by September 30, 2015, in order to ensure consistency, appropriate decision-making, and accuracy in documentation and maintenance of reports. A public report would be published each year summarizing these reviews.

Funding Appropriations

The DE amendment would appropriate funding for:

  • Northstar Care for Children for FY 2016 ($41,096,000) and FY 2017 ($46,336,000)
  • Safe Place for Newborns for FY 2016 ($350,000) to increase public awareness of the law
  • Title IV-E Adoption Assistance in the form of additional federal reimbursement to the state, to be used for postadoption services, including a parent-to-parent support network
  • Adoption assistance incentive grants in the form of federal funds
  • Children and Community Service Grants for FY 2016 and FY 2017—$56,301,000 for each year
  • Safe Harbor for FY 2016 and FY 2017—$1,000,000 for each year, for emergency shelter and transitional and long-term housing beds for sexually exploited youth and youth at risk of sexual exploitation; and $150,000 for each year for statewide youth outreach workers connecting these youth with shelter and services
  • Child mental health grants for FY 2016 ($23,136,000) and FY 2017 ($23,963,000)