Child protection, foster care, adoption: Program overviews

The African American Child Well-being (AACWB) Unit was created by the department in 2020 to oversee equitable and culturally affirming prevention and family preservation strategies to reduce and eventually eliminate racial disparities and disproportionality within Minnesota's child welfare and foster care system for children and families of African American or African Heritage.

Provides competency-based training for Minnesota counties and tribes, promoting culturally responsive services rooted in strengths-based, family-centered best practices that support child safety, permanency and well-being. More information can be found on the department's training page.

The Minnesota Children’s Trust Fund serves as a catalyst to prevent child abuse and neglect by working with national and local partners to strengthen children, families and communities. 

Parent Leadership

The Minnesota Department of Human Services Children’s Trust Fund works in partnership with Minnesota Communities Caring for Children (formerly Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota) to implement Parent Leadership for Child Safety and Permanency. The initiative promotes parent involvement and shared leadership to support child welfare system enhancements.

A collaboration between the Minnesota Department of Human Services and Minnesota Judicial Branch, The Children's Justice Initiative works with local juvenile courts, social services agencies, county attorneys, public defenders, court administrators, guardians ad litem, tribes, and other key stakeholders in each of Minnesota's 87 counties and two American Indian Child Welfare Initiative tribes to improve the processing of child protection cases and the outcomes for abused and neglected children. The overall objective is to find safe, stable, permanent homes for abused and neglected children, first through reunification with the child's parents if that is safe or, if not, through another permanent placement option. When identifying and implementing improvements, the initiative's goal is for all stakeholders to operate "through the eyes of the child" so as to achieve child safety, permanency, and well-being. 

Northstar Care for Children helps more children grow up in safe and permanent homes by consolidating and simplifying the administration of foster and adoption assistance programs to support families caring for children. More information can be found can be found on the department's Northstar Adoption Assistance Program webpage and the Northstar Care for Children page in PartnerLink.

The Parent Support Outreach Program  is a voluntary, supportive, strength-based, family-driven program that provides support and services to prevent child maltreatment from occurring. Families can refer themselves, or be referred by community or social service agencies. The Parent Support Outreach Program works to achieve and maintain safety for children, enhance the well-being of children and families, and support families so that they can meet the needs of their children by themselves and through support systems. Parent Support Outreach Program staff conduct comprehensive assessments of families’ needs and strengths, and together, make decisions about what services or community resources can best achieve success.

Contact county agencies for referral information. 

The Children's Justice Act focuses on improving the handling of child maltreatment cases. Grant funds strengthen the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases, reduce trauma to child abuse victims and promote interagency collaboration.

In Minnesota, Children’s Justice Act funds:

• Forensic interview training for law enforcement and child protection workers
• Indian Welfare Act training for judges, prosecutors, guardians ad litem and child protection workers
• Specialized training for judges, prosecutors, guardians ad litem, law enforcement, medical professionals and child protection workers
• Use of multidisciplinary teams in screening, case management, and case review.

The Minnesota Children’s Justice Act Task Force includes individuals from disciplines involved in county and tribal child protection and court systems. The task force meets four times a year. Its mission is to review and assess how the child protection and criminal justice systems in Minnesota handle child maltreatment cases, and ensure that maltreated children are not revictimized by the systems designed to protect them.

Minnesota Citizen Review Panels involve community members in ensuring that the child protection system works well and protects children from abuse and neglect. Minnesota has panels in Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington and Winona counties. Reports can be found on this Child Protection news, reports, workgroups webpage. More background about the panels is in the fact sheet Minnesota Citizen Review Panels: Reaching out to protect children DHS-5684 (PDF),  

Family Group Decision Making is a family-centered process that recognizes the importance of involving family groups in making decisions about children who need protection or care. Groups can be initiated by child welfare agencies whenever a critical decision about a child is required. Family members lead decision-making, while social service agencies agree to support family group plans that adequately address concerns for child safety, well-being and permanency.

This system facilitates access to experienced peer consultants regarding difficult child safety and neglect decisions with child welfare colleagues within 24 hours of initiating contact with a family. Consultation is available to county and tribal child welfare agency social workers and their supervisors and/or managers when making decisions about child safety. More information can be found on the Child Protection and Child Welfare Supervision page on PartnerLink, or by calling 888-234-1138.

Minnesota’s Safe Harbor Law ensures young people who are sexually exploited are treated as victims and survivors, not criminals. Learn about DHS's role in supporting and securing safety for child victims of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.

The Safe Place for Newborns law provides a safe and anonymous alternative for mothers to safely give up their newborns. Mothers, or someone with their permission, may leave unharmed newborns, no more than seven days old, with an ambulance dispatched in response to a 9-1-1 call, or at a hospital or health care facility that provides urgent care. More information can be found on the department’s  Safe Place for Newborns webpage and on the Safe Place for Newborns DHS-6504 (PDF) fact sheet.

Partners and providers that are considered “safe places” can access related resources and materials on the Safe Place resource page.

Children who cannot safely remain with their families may be placed in family foster care or group residential facilities. Foster families provide critical temporary care and nurturing to children in crisis; they come from all walks of life and may be single, married, with or without children, renters or homeowners. Foster parents play a role in recognizing the trauma children may have experienced, and help give them the structure, nurturing and stability they need every day. Those interested in becoming foster parents should contact their county or tribal social service agency. General information is also available on the department's become a foster parent page, which includes information about financial supports and training.

Northstar Care for Children helps more children grow up in safe and permanent homes by consolidating and simplifying the administration of foster and adoption assistance programs to support families caring for children. More information can be found can be found on the department's Northstar Adoption Assistance Program webpage and the Northstar Care for Children page in PartnerLink.

Minnesota's Education and Training Voucher Program provides funds to help current and former foster youth pay for post-secondary education. Youth can receive up to $5,000 per school year. These grants do not need to be paid back. More information can be found on the program's webpage, or by calling 651-431-4663.

Youth in foster care and those who left care at age 18 can be at greater risk of homelessness, incarceration, substance use, and early parenting. The STAY in the Community program provides grants to community agencies for current and former foster youth to prepare for a successful transition to adulthood.

A bundled service package for children on Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) is available to qualifying children living in a family foster care setting. To be eligible, children must be younger than 21 and meet the following criteria:

• Live in a licensed family foster home (where the license holder lives in the home; this includes licensed pre-adoptive and pre-kinship placements)
• Be a Minnesota Health Care Program recipient
• Have a diagnostic assessment within the past 180 days that documents a mental illness
• Have documentation of medical necessity that intensive treatment is required to treat symptoms and functional impairments within a foster family
• Have a level of care determination that demonstrates intensive intervention without 24-hour medical monitoring.

Because Intensive Treatment in Foster Care for Children in Foster Care was developed looking specifically at the treatment and permanency needs of children in foster care in Minnesota, the program has specific service delivery requirements in order to bill and receive payment from Minnesota Health Care Programs. 

This program offers services to youth ages 14 up to age 23, who are currently or were formerly in foster care. More information can be found on the department's STAY Program webpage or by calling 651-431-4686.

Independent Living Skills Groups give transition assistance to youth who have been in substitute care after the age 14. Youth workers help to prepare young adults for their future. By using skill-building group sessions to cover topics including budgeting, relationships, effective communication and decision-making.  Independent Living Skills group activity manual DHS-1811 (PDF)

The database collects information about the independent living services Minnesota provides to all youth, and the outcome information from youth transitioning out of foster care. The state database is part of a federal effort to compare and evaluate these services. 

The purpose of this guide is to establish requirements and provide instructions for local social service agency staff when youth, for whom an agency is legally responsible, are reported or believed to have run away. Because of potential dangers to youth, caseworkers are to consider missing and runaway youth as a major event that requires intensive intervention. Responding to youth who ran away from foster care DHS-8015 (PDF)

Northstar Care for Children helps more children grow up in safe and permanent homes by consolidating and simplifying the administration of foster and adoption assistance programs to support families caring for children. More information can be found can be found on the department's Northstar Adoption Assistance Program webpage and the Northstar Care for Children page in PartnerLink.

Adoption is the preferred permanency option for children in foster care who cannot be safely or timely reunified with their parents. Adoption is a process that establishes a legal parent-child relationship between a child and their prospective adoptive parents. Adoptive parents have the same rights and responsibilities for children they adopt as biological parents do. By law, adoptive parents’ rights may not be terminated for reasons birth parents’ rights would not be terminated. For further information, visit the adoption and kinship resources page.

The Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA) was established in 1986 to safeguard and protect the interstate interests of children covered by an adoption assistance agreement when they move or are adopted across state lines. ICAMA is an agreement between and among its member states that enables them to coordinate the provision of medical benefits and services to children receiving adoption assistance in interstate cases. For further information, visit the website of the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance.

A transfer of permanent legal and physical custody (TPLPC) of a child to a relative is the preferred permanency option for children in foster care who cannot be safely or timely reunified with their parents and whose best interests are not served by adoption. In a TPLPC, children’s parents retain parental rights and their status as parent, but all decision-making authority, as well as responsibility for care, education, protection, and control of a child, is permanently transferred to a relative custodian. Relative custodians may not return children for whom they have accepted a TPLPC to their parents without court approval and notice to the responsible county or tribal agency. The Transfer of Permanent Legal and Physical Custody (TPLPC) Process Checklist for Children in County Foster Care DHS-6978 (PDF) has more details.

A uniform law, enacted by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children ensures protection and services for children who are placed across state lines for foster care, adoption, parental, relative and residential placements. It establishes orderly procedures for the interstate placement of children and fixes responsibility for those involved in placing children. For more information, review Minnesota Statutes 260.851 or the American Public Human Services Association website. These pages on PartnerLink also contain helpful information about ICPC: 

• Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children  (PartnerLink page)
• Guide to the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children
• Regulation Number 7 – Expedited Placement Decision
• Recommended Time Lines for Placements
• Placement Type Checklist

The Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICAMA) was established in 1986 to safeguard and protect the interstate interests of children covered by an adoption assistance agreement when they move or are adopted across state lines. ICAMA is an agreement between and among its member states that enables them to coordinate the provision of medical benefits and services to children receiving adoption assistance in interstate cases. For further information, visit the website of the Association of Administrators of the Interstate Compact on Adoption and Medical Assistance.