This guest blog post was written by Ryan Lewsander. Right now the Minnesota Supreme Court is tasked with making a tragic choice: who will they rip two children away from, their prospective adoptive family, or their biological grandmother and extended family in Georgia? The sad drama of this case is documented compellingly in Olivia LaVecchia's [...]
We recently updated our first Child Welfare Policy Brief, which was a primer for Minnesota's 2011 legislative session, to reflect changes in statistics and funding between then and now. It is available on our child welfare policy section of our website. You can also click here for the PDF. More information CASCW publishes policy briefs [...]
This guest blog post, also about the Family Reunification Act, was written by Colleen Doescher-Train. On February 13th, 2013 five Minnesota State Senators introduced S.F.422; appropriately nicknames the Family Reunification Act of 2013. The Family Reunification Act, as currently written would allow parents who had their parental rights terminated at least 36 months ago to [...]
Today's guest post was written by Kris LaFleur. What to do with children reaching the age of majority has been an ageless problem since the inception of the foster care system. Many youth are considered difficult to place; older children, sibling groups, African American and American Indian children. These lost children are forced to leave, [...]
Starting next week, we will be posting posts from students enrolled in the Permanency in Child Welfare courses in the MSW program. Students were asked to choose an article, either in the current media or in a peer-review journal, or other related item, related to permanency and adoption. The purpose of this assignment is to [...]
On Monday, March 11, the House introduced its version of the omnibus health and human services finance budget bill, H.F. 1233; the Senate version, S.F. 1034, had been introduced March 4. As this is a budget year, this bill will be a main focus of our blogging, if not the main focus. Next week I [...]
Amanda at the Declassified Adoptee, a popular adoption blog, wrote a terrific post called "5 Things Every Adoptee Needs To Hear From Absolutely Everyone." Each adoptee will have a different experience with adoption and a unique story. People often want to know how they can be sensitive to someone's story, particularly when it's something that [...]
New Legislation Proposed This legislative session has seen mental health, particularly children's mental health, emerge as a pressing issue. Another bill currently being debated would change the ways in which Minnesota deals with the issue of maternal depression and provides for the care of new and expectant mothers and their babies. This bill, HF1047/SF582, would [...]