The Minnesota Legislature continues its work sifting through thousands of bills to consider for passage. We are currently tracking nearly 40 bills that are relevant to the child welfare field. The Minnesota Management and Budget office’s budget forecast has increased from December’s projection to $1.65 billion. This means that the governor and the legislature have [...]
The commitment to child welfare reform was demonstrated in the Minnesota legislature this year mainly through its renewal of the Legislative Task Force on Child Protection, which was scheduled to expire at the close of this year’s session. The renewal included new tasks for the group, which will expand to twelve bipartisan members. First, the [...]
The Legislative Task Force on Child Protection last met on February 25 and current statute authorizing the task force states that its work will end as of the end of the 2016 legislative session. It appears that the legislature will approve the bill requesting that this sunset be eliminated. In the Senate bill, it is [...]
As the Minnesota State legislative session progresses, with hundreds of new bills introduced in both the House and the Senate, we are following several bills of interest to child welfare professionals. You can find those bills on our Bill Tracker. While this year’s session will last only ten weeks, and all legislators are up for [...]
In February I wrote about the Health and Human Services omnibus bills. If you've been keeping up with the goings on in the Minnesota House and Senate, you know there has been a need for consensus before moving forward with what will make it in to the final Health and Human Services appropriations bill. The [...]
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 [...]
On Wednesday, April 8, the Senate Committee on Health, Human Services and Housing heard from Ralph McQuarter of the Department of Human Services (DHS) and Jim Koppel, Assistant Commissioner of Child and Family Services at DHS, on proposed child protection funding formulas that are based on recommendations from the Governor's Task Force on the Protection [...]
The two human services policy bills, SF 1356 (authored by Senators Sheran and Lourey) and its companion bill HF 1535 (authored by Rep. Mack), modify the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act (MIFPA), out-of-home placement provisions, and reporting requirements of maltreatment. Most of the child welfare changes found in this bill specifically impact Indian child welfare [...]