The House and Senate introduced their 2015-2016 Health and Human Services (HHS) Omnibus Bills that will establish the HHS budget for the next two years: SF 825 and HF 850. The bill covers everything from child protection to health care to food services. This post will highlight the proposed policy changes to past child welfare legislation.

Northstar Care for Children Act

Policy changes to Northstar Care for Children are predominantly centered around what happens if a child’s relative custodian should die or become incapacitated: The child receiving Northstar kinship assistance would not lose this benefit so long as a successor relative custodian is appointed by the court and named in the agreement. Further additions to the bill clarify the necessary steps that the named successor must do, such as meeting background checks and eligibility requirements. The use of Extraordinary Levels (as determined by the new Minnesota Assessment of Parenting for Children and Youth, or MAPCY) to determine supplemental benefits beyond the base benefit would remain the same, with foster residence setting added to the child’s physical living space.

There is also a modification to the statute governing out-of-home placement plans that is related to Northstar Care for Children. This modification does not appear to change anything drastically related to either adoption as the permanency plan or transfer of permanent legal and physical custody (TPLPC) as the permanency plan. Rather, the modification seems to add in more detailed documentation requirements for a TPLPC permanency plan that show why the child could not be returned home or adopted and why a TPLPC is in the child’s best interests.

Tribal Contracts for Customary Adoption

In the statute related to reimbursement of agency costs for adoption placement services, an added provision would allow DHS to enter into grant contracts with tribal social services agencies for child-specific recruitment and adoption placement services for children under tribal jurisdiction, including customary adoption. This bill then removes the phrase “tribal social services agency” dispersed throughout the general eligibility criteria and reimbursement processes for contracted adoption placement services.

Modifications to Definitions of “Relative” and “Sibling”

This section strengthens language related to siblings involved in child protection, foster care, and adoption. First, legal parents, guardians, or custodians of children’s siblings would be added to the definition of “relative” under Minn. Stat. 260C.007 (definitions). The definition of “sibling” would be modified to include individuals who had been siblings prior to a termination of parental rights of one or both parents, a suspension of parental rights under tribal code, or another disruption of parental rights (such as a parent’s death).

Independent Living Plans for Youth

Current statute sets the age at which children’s independent living plans must be developed and court-reviewed to be 16 (and older). This bill would lower that age to be 14 (and older). The independent living plan requirements would also be modified to include opportunities to engage in activities that are appropriate for the age/developmental level and capacities of the child.

Additionally, the bill would allow children ages 14 and older to include two additional individuals to be on the team creating the child’s out-of-home placement plan.

Protecting Missing and Runaway Children and Youth at Risk of Sex Trafficking

A new subdivision would be added under 260C.212 that would require local social service agencies to locate any children missing from foster care as soon as possible by: reporting to law enforcement within 24 hours after receiving information that the child was missing or abducted (including whether the child is or is at risk of being a sex trafficking victim), and keeping the child’s case open until “diligent efforts” were made to locate the child and the court terminates jurisdiction.

Additionally, once a child returns to care, agencies would be required to identify the reasons the child ran away and respond appropriately to them. Agencies would also be required to screen returned children to determine if they are a possible sex trafficking victim and provide appropriate services to children who are or at risk of being sex trafficking victims.

Another subdivision under this same statute would require agencies to “support normalcy for foster children.” It describes the duty of social service agencies, child placing agencies, foster parents, and residential facility staff to support the emotional and developmental growth of children in foster care by allowing participation in age/developmentally appropriate activities. It also defines “prudent parenting standards” as: “standards that are characterized by careful and sensible parenting decisions that maintain the child’s health and safety and are made in the child’s best interest.”

Relative Search Modifications

The relative search process under 260C.221 would be modified by emphasizing that the relative search is for maternal and paternal adult relatives of the child as well as “all adult grandparents; all legal parents, guardians, or custodians; the child’s siblings; and any other adult relatives suggested by the child’s parents” with the exception of instances of family violence.

Ordering Permanency Custody to the Agency

Currently, the court can order permanent custody to the responsible social services agency for the child to remain in foster care once a child has reached age 12 (among other factors). This bill would modify that by changing the age requirement to 16 and adding a requirement that the child has been asked about their desired permanency outcome.