photo credit: Senate Media Services
At Foster Advocates, we empower our young people by lifting up their passion and expertise and building a Foster-led movement for meaningful systems change. Our network of Fosters* have been working hard this year to elevate three critical issues affecting Fosters in Minnesota. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate Foster Care Awareness Month than to announce that our bill to Establish an Ombudsperson for Foster Youth (HF 3845/SF4209) has passed! The bill is now on Governor Walz’s desk to be officially signed into law!
As we’ve built our Foster network, we’ve encountered a recurring question: why did harm happen to me while in state care? We also heard from child welfare partners and caseworkers who feel stuck and have no place to direct Fosters when their options are limited or when placements and services are falling short. While there are Ombuds that serve parents engaged with the child welfare system, as it stands currently, there are no organizations or entities that track complaints or common concerns that arise for Fosters. Without this data, we have been left powerless to affect meaningful changes in our existing structures – until now.
With the Office for Foster Youth Ombudsperson, there will be an organization to push for positive change and track areas where intervention is needed. The more we can improve the lives of Fosters while in care, the better our system can serve them and prepare them for life after foster care.
Not only will this Office give Fosters a place to call with concerns, but we also ensured Fosters have a voice in the system through the Office’s advisory board. This legislation secures nine Board seats for Fosters, five of which will be youth currently in the foster care system. They will serve in tandem with six board members who work at organizations serving Fosters, of which at least one must be a child welfare attorney, GAL, and/or a practicing social worker. The oversight of this Board will ensure those with lived experience help define the Office’s objectives and evaluate its impact. The Ombudsperson will establish a complaint and oversight process for investigating claims, make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature, and provide legal advocacy when necessary. We’ll be communicating more updates in the future, but for now the law will go into effect this August, with the first step being an appointment process. We expect after a period of staffing and scaling up that in 2023 the Office of the Foster Youth Ombudsperson will be available to serve Fosters across the state!
We are so thankful to all of our Foster leaders who advocated for this bill, our Community Board, and our lead testifiers. While the Office will not directly impact them as they are no longer in the system, our testifiers stand firm in their belief that Fosters in care deserve this support and were able to turn the pain they experienced into power.
We could not have done this without our champions at the legislature, our Chief Authors Rep. Jessica Hanson and Sen. Karin Housley. Thanks to their leadership and deep bipartisan and bicameral support, on May 6th the bill passed 121 – 4 in the House, and on May 11th passed 57 – 9 in the Senate.
On both of these days, our team dropped (almost) everything and made our way to the Capitol to show support. In less than 48 hours notice for both dates, we were able to rally 17 Fosters from all over MN! We had folks drive in from Bemidji, Moorhead, St. Cloud, Rochester, Circle Pines, and from all over the metro. Fosters got to celebrate the passage of the bill with their peers and experience the power of community by showing up at the Capitol.
It served as a powerful reminder for legislators that Fosters are our children. They became ours when we separated them from their families, and we owe them a duty of care just as strongly as we do for the children in our own homes. With the Office for Foster Youth Ombudsperson, Minnesota has taken an important step forward to ensure equal protection for foster youth.
And our legislative work is not done yet! Keep an eye on our other two bills moving through the Health and Human Services Omnibus:
- Maya’s Law (HF3971/SF4435), which would grant all children the right to be interviewed separately from the alleged offender when reporting abuse and for Fosters to speak with their social worker without the presence of a caregiver.
- Social Security Survivor Benefits (HF3211/SF3955), would create a process for ending the current practice of the state/counties taking federal benefits such as SSI, Veteran, Survivor, and Railroad benefits meant for children.
We invite the CASCW network to follow our work through our newsletter to learn more about our efforts and leadership opportunities for Fosters across the state!
*Early leaders in our network stated foster care creates a significant cultural identity, akin to other immutable characteristics, that is unrecognized once they are reunited with family, adopted, or age out. In response, we use the term Foster to name and claim this unique identity.