Apologies for our LONG absence these past couple of weeks. First we were at the 18th National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington, D.C. (held April 16-20), and then we were preparing for our 13th Annual Child Welfare Conference (held yesterday, May 1, in Minneapolis). Many child welfare-related bills have been signed into law, and the point of this blog post is to do a quick overview of those bills. Because there are several of them, I’d rather not discuss them at length here, but will refer you to our bill tracking sheet, which goes into significantly more detail. If you have any questions about these (or any other bills), please feel free to comment below.
Additionally, be prepared for some upcoming blog posts that will go into more detail about the large child welfare bill, S.F. 1675, recently signed into law.
Bills Signed Into Law

  • S.F. 1586, regarding unreasonable restraint of a child, was signed into law on April 18, 2012.
  • S.F. 753, regarding social work licensure and training requirements, was signed into law on April 20, 2012.
  • S.F. 1675, a DHS policy bill with lots of child welfare modifications, was signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton on Monday, April 23, 2012. Check our blog later this week and next week for more in-depth analysis of this bill’s text.
  • S.F. 1678, which outlines financial responsibilities for CHIPS (children in need of protective services) cases, was signed into law on April 23, 2012.
  • H.F. 2149, which makes female genital mutilation a qualified domestic-violence related offense, was signed into law on April 23, 2012.
  • H.F. 2294, the Health & Human Services (HHS) omnibus bill, was signed into law on April 28, 2012. See our bill tracking sheet for more info on this.

Bills Presented to Governor & Awaiting Signature

  • S.F. 1679, regarding extending the American Indian Child Welfare Advisory Council, was presented to the Governor April 30, 2012.