Northstar Care for Children is a proposed program in Minnesota that consolidates Adoption Assistance, Relative Custody Assistance, and family foster care into just one program that would equalize payments for these programs for children ages 6 and older.
This program aims to increase permanency through adoption or legal guardianship by a relative, recognizing that current payment rates provide monetary disincentives for adoption or kinship care of children in the child welfare system. The bill text explicitly states,
“Northstar Care for Children focuses on the child’s needs and strengths, and the actual level of care provided by the caregiver, without consideration for the type of placement setting. In this way caregivers are not faced with the burden of making specific long-term decisions based upon competing financial incentives.”
According to MPR, an average foster care subsidy is almost $700/month while adoption assistance is half that.
Ideally, with this program, the number of children in out-of-home care would decrease as would the length of stay, and the number of children adopted within 2 years of entry into foster care would increase.
Currently there are two Senate Files (1034, with House File companion 1233, and 1159) and one House File (1233) that include this program in their texts.
Key Points
The Minnesota Department of Human Services released a fact sheet on Northstar Care for Children. Here are the key points they lay out:
- Monthly payment would be based on the child’s age.
- Most children will receive an increased benefit.
- Children under 6 years of age would receive a lower monthly payment since they are more likely to be adopted faster.
- In addition to the basic monthly payment, children would go through a uniform assessment in order to determine needs beyond the basic payment level (i.e. Difficulty of Care (DOC) rates).
- Currently, DOC rates are fairly complex with many, many rate levels. The current bill would simplify these additional monthly rates into $100 incremental levels, up to a maximum of $1000, and rates would be based on the ability of caregivers to provide needed services (as opposed to rates being tied to how difficult a child is to care for).
- Children currently involved in any of the three programs would be grandfathered into Northstar Care for Children.
Governor Dayton’s budget proposal includes $2.57 million for Northstar Care for Children. The program would be implemented beginning January 1, 2015.
Questions to consider
This is the latest of several iterations of this legislation, all of which are trying to deal with the inequities of foster care, kinship care, and adoption subsidies in Minnesota. The Department of Human services worked hand-in-hand with advocacy groups across the state to try to ameliorate some of their concerns that arose from previous bill versions; however, all legislation always requires some compromise. What do you see as some of the strengths of this legislation? What do you find challenging? Overall, do you feel this is a step in the right direction? Why or why not?