There are a few hearings this week in both the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives that are of interest to those in the child welfare field. You can attend in person, or check to see if you can watch them live via the Senate Media Services. Senate Committee on Health & Human Services, Room [...]
(written by Lindsay Brekke) The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits held an Advanced Advocacy training on February 8, 2012, which outlined a number of resources right here at our state Capitol for advocacy work by nonprofits. This post is a recap of this training and is meant to help others in their advocacy work. First is [...]
Tomorrow at noon the Minnesota legislative session will begin. We will be providing regular updates on bills and committee hearings throughout the session, just like we did last year. In addition, we will be updating our webpage on child welfare policy to include separate pages on Policy Resources, Live Federal Bill Tracking, and Live Minnesota [...]
Because the Minnesota legislative session will begin in a couple of weeks, I'd like to focus this blog post on a Minnesota-specific bill related to child welfare. Last April, the Minnesota House (HF 0749) and Senate (SF 1339) introduced a bill called the Family Reunification Act of 2011. The bill would reestablish legal rights between [...]
Did you know that the average annual cost of housing juveniles in a locked facility is $88,000 per person? As a whole, states spend approximately $6,000,000,000 a year on incarcerated youth. In addition to the cost, incarcerated youth are 50 times more likely to recidivate than their counterparts who remain in the community. Finally, 70 [...]
Governor Dayton issued a statement last night that the State Capitol would reopen this morning at 9am. This is a result of Governor Dayton's acceptance of the June 30 GOP budget offer last Friday (7/14), which offered to balance the budget with borrowing from future tobacco settlement payments and shifts in school aid. However, Governor [...]
As of today, Judge Gearin has ordered continued funding of additional programs and grants from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, based on Special Master Kathleen Blatz's recommendations from July 11: MFIP Consolidated Support Services Grants & MFIP Consolidated Support Services Grants T01, F640These two grants provide support services for MFIP/DWP recipients, including job skills [...]
As I'm sure you know by now, the Minnesota government began its shutdown on July 1 due to a budget impasse between the governor and the legislature. It is now Day 6 and no deal is in sight. Several news outlets (see below for links) have reported that the two sides did not meet over [...]