CWB Update - August 2017

February 10, 2021

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Key Highlights This Month:

McKenna’s Law was effective 8-1-17. This requires social workers to provide information on their right to an attorney to children age 10+ who are subject to a CHIPS or a Permanency Petition within 14 days of filing or within 14 days of the child’s 10th birthday. A statement most be obtained either requesting or waiving the right to an attorney.

SAMHSA System of Care Grant: The grant officially begins 10-1-17. There is commitment to the leadership & Governance Structure but not yet formalized. A Governance/Advisory Committee and an implementation team will be developed. Bill Wyss has been coordinating until a project director is named. DHS is working to involve MH, Child/Safety/Permanency, Medicaid as well as DOC, MPH, and MDE. A letter recently was sent to counties who offered commitment/support. It is being determined if additional counties may also participate. A request for a forum at the September MACSSA meeting will be submitted. See attachments for more information.

Prenatal Care to a Controlled Substance: DHS has issued a new bulletin, DHS Bulletin 17-68-18. The bulletin addresses the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) 2016 amendment to the Child Abuse and Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). Included is a best practice guide entitled Minnesota’s Best Practice Guide for responding to Prenatal Exposure to Substance Use. The guide speaks to need for a “child welfare response” when the report alleges an unborn child is exposed to substance use as well as a “safe care” plan. See link to bulletin.

School Transportation under ESSA: MDE will be issuing an RFP to school districts in Sept. or Oct. seeking formal applications to participate in the pilot project for the new state reimbursement system created legislatively last year. School districts will need to be the applicants and demonstrate creation of local agreements with counties regarding how services will be provided and funded, data collection and distribution of funds. Counties should alert schools to look for this as there is a short turnaround time.

Results First Initiative: This bipartisan provision enacted during the 2015 legislative session directed Minnesota Management & Budget (MMB) to implement an evidence-based policy framework. Through the Results First Initiative, MMB uses high-quality evidence to estimate the extent to which publicly funded services may generate positive, cost-effective outcomes for Minnesotans. Results First Initiative partners with state, local, and national partners to identify and estimate the benefits and costs of a range of public services that support the well-being of Minnesotans. They have concluded work on the Substance Abuse area and will next be focusing on Child Welfare.

Requested Actions Needed From MACSSA:

Quality Parenting Initiative: Anticipate needing a recommendation from MACSSA regarding promoting this as a best practice and/or state wide initiative. A Partner Forum will cover this topic at the August MACSSA meeting.

New Trends in This Area:

SSIS Release 17.3 will have substantial changes to the child maltreatment screens. Some changes are a result of the guidelines developed through the Child Protection Task Force. These guidelines are enforceable by law, so changes to incorporate these new guidelines need to be made to the SSIS functionality.

Many of the changes are simply additional data elements to collect. The most significant changes involve allowing maltreatment screening and determinations to occur at the allegation detail level, as opposed to the report and allegation level. An additional goal of this redesign is to provide the user with a unified, topical user interface where they are able to see and edit almost all child maltreatment report data on one screen with multiple tab.

DHS announced the plan to “modernize” SSIS to become compliant with CCWIS instead of development of a new system.

Issues/Concerns Regarding This Topic:

Implementing McKenna’s Law—there are many unanswered questions and concerns as outlined in the attached document from the State Court Administrator (see attachment), including explaining the rights to children who lack capacity due to disability, potential conflict of interest for social workers to provide the notice, question of what entity provides the attorneys and the associated costs.

Legislative Impacts:

McKenna’s Law—see attachments for information and questions. Should there be legislative positions to address the current questions?

DHS has requested assistance reviewing the original 93 Child Protection Task Force Recommendations and current status—what has been accomplished and results, what is left, what is feasible and what requires funding/statutory change.

Possible Legislative Position on Re-Homing of Adopted Children.

Call for any legislative positions to be brought forward related to the CWB area. Please contact Suzanne or Brenda.

Supporting Materials:

System of Care Overview