The full Governor’s Task Force on the Protection of Children, meeting on December 12, 2014, in the State Office Building. Image source: Author

The last two meetings of the Governor’s Task Force on the Protection of Children (CPS Task Force)—held on December 4 and December 12—were mainly concerned with developing preliminary recommendations to the 2015 legislature, which are due this Wednesday, December 31, 2014. Since October, the CPS Task Force workgroups have met regularly in order to come up with preliminary recommendations related to their workgroup’s focus. At the most recent task force meeting, held on Friday, December 12, each workgroup presented their preliminary recommendations. Specific workgroup recommendations will be presented in later blog posts throughout this week. Below are some of the main concerns brought up at the meeting.

Racial Disparities and Disproportionality

Many of the task force members indicated a concern with racial disparities and disproportionality in child welfare and asked that the formal report to be submitted to the legislature include a focus in the preamble on culturally responsive practice in order to reduce disparities and disproportionality.

Child Safety as Paramount Concern

A general theme throughout the meeting was a focus on child safety above all as a way to readjust the child protection pendulum—as CBS states, “even if that means breaking up the family.” The pendulum analogy is often used to describe child protection practice throughout the decades; in this instance, task force members described the pendulum swing as going from too much focus on forensic investigations and not enough family engagement, to too much focus on family engagement and not enough on child safety. In the draft of the report containing the CPS Task Force’s preliminary recommendations, there is a call to revise the public policy statement in Minnesota’s Reporting of Maltreatment of Minors Act (Minn. Stat. 626.556) to better emphasize child safety as Minnesota’s paramount concern. Additionally, the report includes a recommendation to remove the statutory preference for Family Assessment (FA) Response for screened in reports and instead have the child’s best interests in mind when determining track assignment.

Should Minnesota Continue Its Two-Track Response System?

One of the long-standing issues in the CPS Task Force is whether Minnesota will retain its current 2-track system. Judith Brumfield, HHS Director at Scott County, indicated that her workgroup was not quite ready to address the track assignment issue; several other task force members from the other workgroups concurred. Some of the preliminary recommendations put forth in the draft were based on whether Minnesota decides to keep its 2-track system.

One point of confusion was related to services being offered at case close, which the draft stated were voluntary only in FA cases. Brumfield provided a clarification on this, stating that current statute requires families to participate in both FA and FI

[Family Investigation], while services offered at the end are voluntary, regardless of track assignment. Nicollet County Attorney Michelle Zehnder Fischer then pointed out that if a family fails to cooperate with ongoing services and the worker feels that such services are needed, the worker should (and generally does) consult with the county attorney to decide if a CHIPS [Child in Need of Protection or Services] petition could be filed. Dr. Mark Hudson stated his concern about an existing gap between when a CPS worker feels such services are needed and when the county attorney feels that the case does not meet a legal threshold to file a CHIPS petition. One of the recommendations that will be included in the preliminary recommendations due Wednesday is that services remain voluntary, but if they are declined, a consultation with the county attorney is required; another is that the legal threshold for a CHIPS petition to be filed be reexamined in order to help close that gap that Dr. Hudson mentioned.

In an interview with the Star Tribune, James Koppel, newly appointed Assistant Commissioner for Children and Family Services, said that the issues seen with FA may be more related to its implementation than to the actual model.

Outcome and Final Thoughts

At the end of the meeting, members voted to accept the draft of the document, pending certain amendments to the document. The final draft of the preliminary recommendations will also include notations regarding whether certain recommendations are practice or statutory changes.

Prior to the last CPS Task Force meeting, Brandon Stahl of the Star Tribune wrote an article about how other child protection systems across the country are experiencing issues in their practices and policies. He mentioned the recently established national Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities and included statements from this commission’s members on child protection reform. One member, Dr. Cassie Bevan of the University of Pennsylvania, stated that:

To come up with an effective system, however, [] the country needs to first answer two questions: How much is the public willing to pay for child protection, and how much government intervention in the life of a family is the public willing to tolerate?

(Source: Child protection in turmoil across the country, Star Tribune)