The Minnesota State Capitol Building. Source: Star Tribune The House Education Policy Omnibus Bill (H.F.2397) and the Senate Education Bill (S.F.1889) continue to make early education and K-12 education a priority in the second year of the legislative biennium. There are various proposed changes that have the potential to make an impact on youth and [...]
Last year Governor Dayton signed into law Northstar Care for Children, which is set to go into effect January 1, 2015. Throughout this legislative session there have been several bills introduced that would make changes to Northstar Care for Children before its implementation, namely S.F. 2754/H.F. 3216, S.F. 2240/H.F. 3027, and S.F. 2753/H.F. 3215. In [...]
On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, Governor Mark Dayton signed into law the Safe and Supportive Schools Act (H.F. 826). The new law establishes the School Student Bullying Policy, which requires public schools—including charter schools—to acknowledge and address both in-person and online (cyber) bullying that occurs on school premises, including school transportation, and at school functions [...]
Gov. Dayton signing the minimum wage bill into law. Source: Tom Scheck/MPR News After a debate in the Senate lasting several hours, with a close 35-31 final vote the bill to raise the state's minimum wage (H.F. 92) was passed last Wednesday evening. Yesterday afternoon, Governor Dayton officially signed the bill into law. What's in [...]
Rep. Rena Moran. Source: David Joles/Star Tribune Across the country state lawmakers are debating passing or strengthening existing legislation that would require random drug testing of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families—"welfare") recipients. Minnesota is one of the few states where legislators are trying to modify an existing drug testing policy for recipients with prior felony [...]
Source: Linda Grobman/Flickr Every year, The National Association of Social Workers–Minnesota (NASW-MN) sponsors Social Work Day at the Capital in Minnesota. This year Social Work Day will be on Monday, April 7, 2014, with the theme of "All Minnesotans Matter," keeping in line with last month's Social Work Month theme of "All People Matter." Although [...]
The delete-all amendment was recently posted for the Health & Human Services Policy omnibus bill. Within this amendment, under Article 1: Children and Family Services, there are provisions requiring smoke-free environments in foster homes. First, home studies of prospective foster parents would have to include the capacity of a foster parent to provide a smoke-free [...]
Source: Northfield Patch It was 1973 when homosexuality was de-classified as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and since then it has become accepted by most professionals in the mental health community that homsexuality is neither a disease nor a conscious choice that a person can alter. However, [...]
