The Legislative Task Force on Child Protection last met on February 25 and current statute authorizing the task force states that its work will end as of the end of the 2016 legislative session. It appears that the legislature will approve the bill requesting that this sunset be eliminated. In the Senate bill, it is extended until December 31, 2020, while in the House bill, no end date is specified. The Senate has passed its version of the bill and referred it to the House for comparison.
A provision in the Senate version would establish a work group to look at the Minnesota Assessment of Parenting Children and Youth (MAPCY) tool that county and tribal child protection workers use to determine supplemental benefits for foster care provision. A number of people have testified before the task force over the past several meetings that payments have been much lower since the implementation of MAPCY, causing many to reassess their willingness to continue as foster care providers.
The Senate version also includes a request to study the option of allowing child protection workers to remove a child from a home in certain cases, as currently only law enforcement may do that. They also requested that the task force create a definition for “substantial child endangerment” to propose to the legislature for next session.
As it is likely that the task force will continue beyond this legislative session, the composition of the group will change, with Co-chair Senator Sheran’s decision not to run for re-election this fall.
The task force has formed a domestic violence work group and has met twice so far. We will provide an update on the work of that group soon.