Child Welfare Policy & Practice Blogs

Overview of State-related ICWA Laws

By |2023-02-14T13:35:19-06:00February 14th, 2023|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: , |

By Ariana King, Graduate Assistant Last November, the Supreme Court heard the case of Haaland v. Brackeen*, which challenges the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Long considered a gold standard in child welfare, ICWA prioritizes keeping Native children in out-of-home care with Native families first before looking to non-Native families for foster care or [...]

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What’s Happening in Child Welfare at the Minnesota State Capitol?

By |2023-02-08T10:15:57-06:00February 8th, 2023|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: |

By Stacy Gehringer   There are many, many bills related to children and families introduced and revisited at the Minnesota legislature during session. Hearings, testimony, debate, companion bills — it’s a lot to track! We have provided bill summaries and brief status updates below that are relevant to the child welfare workforce, as well as [...]

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Week 18: Final Legislation Summaries After Deadline Passed

By |2022-05-26T15:57:28-05:00May 26th, 2022|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: |

Compiled by Mariel Carlson, MSW, Graduate Assistant The legislative session has officially ended as of Monday, May 23 at midnight, according to the constitutional mandate. This means that legislation which was not passed by the House and Senate is not able to be passed unless the governor declares a special session. The governor may [...]

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What are Citizen Review Panels (CRP)?

By |2022-05-23T19:11:23-05:00May 23rd, 2022|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: , , , |

A glimpse into Minnesota’s CRP Process Written by Mariel Carlson, MSW, Graduate Assistant, In the process of preparing this blog, this writer consulted with a local child welfare worker. A Brief History Citizen Review Panels (CRPs) are committees composed of volunteer community members, established in each state for the purpose of keeping state members [...]

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Fosters’ Voices at the Capitol and in the System

By |2022-05-20T10:57:14-05:00May 20th, 2022|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: , , , |

Foster Advocates 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 [...]

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Week 16: Wrapping Up the 2022 Session

By |2022-05-13T10:23:39-05:00May 13th, 2022|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: , |

Compiled by Mariel Carlson, Graduate Assistant Two weeks remain in this legislative session before adjournment on Monday, May 23. This means that the House and Senate must reconcile their party differences in order to pass omnibus bills. Currently, the House is led by the DFL and the Senate has a GOP majority. Governor Tim [...]

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The Color of Child Welfare

By |2022-04-29T13:34:06-05:00April 28th, 2022|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: |

“The racial disproportionality in our system tells its own story. We tend to value some people more than others; we see some people's love for their children as more valid and valuable than others. Racism and messaging about race  and families reinforce the negative, biased beliefs that drive our current system. We're [...]

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Legislative Efforts to Address the Mental Health Crisis

By |2022-04-27T14:18:54-05:00April 27th, 2022|Categories: Child Welfare Policy|Tags: , |

The mental health of children and youth has been negatively impacted during the pandemic. We observed missed developmental milestones, isolation, hunger, unstable housing, grief, ambiguous loss, and lost connections to adults. Simply put, it was a really hard time and many youth had nothing in their “toolbox” to help get them through this [...]

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