Purpose

The proposed legislation aims to update policies for various child and family services in Minnesota, specifically focusing on early childhood education, foster care, child welfare, and empowering local agencies to prevent foster care placements. Additionally, it seeks to exempt the commissioner from electronic benefits transfer contract term limits.

Main Provisions

• Economic Assistance: Allows the commissioner to issue electronic benefits transfer contracts with terms that extend up to ten years.
• Child Care Provider Programs: Updates data management for the Great Start Compensation Program, making payment data public, but personal data private.
• Child Welfare Reforms:
  • Requires active efforts to notify noncustodial parents and relatives prior to foster care placements, particularly for African American children.
  • Establishes the African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council and Unit to improve child welfare outcomes, reduce maltreatment, and address racial disparities.
  • Enhances requirements for case planning and extends agency responsibility to engage families, communities, and tribes in planning and placement.
• Juvenile Protection Proceedings: Offers guidelines for dealing with school attendance issues to prevent educational neglect.
• Foster Care and Permanency Planning: Mandates detailed planning for foster children, including health, education, and efforts to reunite with families or find permanent homes.
• Reporting Requirements: Increases requirements for reporting school attendance issues, potentially flagging educational neglect sooner.

Significant Changes to Existing Law

• Adjusts the terms for electronic benefit transfers, removing the standard term limits.
• Enhances notification and engagement efforts in child welfare, emphasizing culturally appropriate methods, with a strong focus on minority communities.
• Introduces the African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council and Unit to address specific needs and disproportionate effects in the child welfare system.
• Expands legal frameworks for permanency planning to ensure children's prolonged well-being in foster care and preparation for adulthood.
• Modifies procedures for reporting and addressing educational neglect or truancy.

Relevant Terms

• Electronic benefits transfer, Great Start Compensation Program, African American Child, foster care, child welfare, maltreatment, Native American Tribal lineage, Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act, permanency planning, educational neglect, African American Child and Family Well-Being Advisory Council.