Achieve Racial Equity in Child Welfare Services
Minnesota
In 2001, the Minnesota State Legislature mandated a Children’s Services study of outcomes for African American children in Minnesota’s child welfare system and convened the African American Disparities Advisory Committee. The Committee was tasked with monitoring and evaluating county practices and presenting annual recommendations to the legislature. African American community members, state and county child welfare professionals, educators, and child advocacy groups all sit on the Committee. They have partnered with the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work to collect and analyze data. The Committee made four recommendations to eradicate the overrepresentation of African American children in out-of-home placement to the Minnesota Legislature in their 2002 report.
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Monitor and evaluate county practices to eliminate disparities;
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Emphasize culturally competent training and innovative service strategies;
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Work on partnerships with the African American community; and
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Advocate for supports needed by African American families to ensure children are growing up in safe and nurturing homes and families are thriving.
In 2004, Family Assessment was implemented statewide. The method was introduced in 20 pilot counties in Minnesota in 2000. This form of assessment offers a safety-focused, non-adversarial response to accepted reports of child maltreatment and has been developed so that low to moderate risk families involved in a child maltreatment report can participate in an assessment process rather than the traditional child welfare investigative response. In addition, Family Group Decision Making has been integrated into case management and youth programming for child protection. As part of permanency planning staff are required to offer a Family Team Conference within 30 days of a case assignment and a Family Group Conference within 90 days of a case assignment.