On Monday, February 23, House File 8 was passed out of the House by a unanimous floor vote (130-0) and sent to the Senate. Today the Senate Rules and Administration committee substituted HF 8 for its companion, SF 807, and HF 8 was given a second reading. Per the Senate lawmaking process, HF 8 will need a third and final reading prior to the whole Senate vote for final passage.
As a reminder, HF 8 would repeal the 2014 law that barred the use of screened out reports for anything other than a social services referral, which would allow the Department of Human Services to issue practice guidance allowing counties to consider screened out reports in making screening decisions. This is one of the recommendations of the Governor’s Task Force on the Protection of Children.
HF 8 also modifies the public policy statement of the Reporting of Maltreatment of Minors Act (Minn. Stat. 626.556, Subd. 1) by emphasizing child health and safety as being paramount in all child protection responses. Currently the public policy statement states that “families are best served by interventions that engage their protective capacities and address immediate safety concerns and ongoing risks of child maltreatment.” HF 8 would essentially reorder those two concepts: “Intervention and prevention efforts shall address immediate concerns for child safety and the ongoing risk of abuse or neglect and should engage the protective capacities of families.” Again, emphasizing child safety is another recommendation of the Task Force.
Based on Friday’s Task Force meeting, this bill will more than likely pass out of the Senate sooner rather than later.
