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HF 4217

as introduced - 92nd Legislature (2021 - 2022) Posted on 03/10/2022 03:41pm

KEY: stricken = removed, old language.
underscored = added, new language.

Bill Text Versions

Engrossments
Introduction Posted on 03/10/2022

Current Version - as introduced

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A bill for an act
relating to child welfare; modifying requirements related to foster and adoptive
family recruitment, engagement, and support; establishing a grant program for
foster and adoptive family recruitment, engagement, and support; appropriating
money; amending Minnesota Statutes 2020, section 260C.215, subdivisions 3, 6.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2020, section 260C.215, subdivision 3, is amended to read:


Subd. 3.

Recruitment specialist.

The commissioner shall designate a permanent
professional staff position for recruitment of foster and adoptive families. The recruitment
specialist shall providenew text begin or arrange for the provision ofnew text end services to child-placing agencies
seeking to recruit adoptive and foster care families and qualified professional staff. The
recruitment specialist shall:

(1) develop materials for use by the agencies in training staff;

(2) conduct in-service workshops for agency personnel;

(3) provide new text begin workshops, new text end consultation, technical assistance, and other appropriate services
to agencies to strengthen and improve deleted text begin service delivery to diverse populationsdeleted text end new text begin efforts to
identify, engage, and support relatives and fictive kin who are potential placement resources
new text end ;
deleted text begin and
deleted text end

(4) conduct workshops for foster care and adoption recruiters to evaluate the effectiveness
of techniques for recruiting foster and adoptive families; deleted text begin and
deleted text end

new text begin (5) provide consultation, technical assistance, and other appropriate services to
child-placing agencies to strengthen and improve successful identification, engagement,
and support of foster and adoptive families that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of
children in need of foster and adoptive families; and
new text end

deleted text begin (5)deleted text end new text begin (6)new text end perform other duties as assigned by the commissioner to implement the Minnesota
Indian Family Preservation Act, sections 260.751 to 260.835.

The commissioner may contract for portions of these services.

Sec. 2.

Minnesota Statutes 2020, section 260C.215, subdivision 6, is amended to read:


Subd. 6.

Duties of child-placing agencies.

(a) Each authorized child-placing agency
must:

(1) develop and follow procedures for implementing the requirements of section
260C.212, subdivision 2, and the Indian Child Welfare Act, United States Code, title 25,
sections 1901 to 1923;

(2) have a written plan for recruiting adoptive and foster families that reflect the ethnic
and racial diversity of children who are in need of foster and adoptive homes. The plan must
include:

(i) strategies for using existing resources in diverse communities;

(ii) use of diverse outreach staff wherever possible;

(iii) use of diverse foster homes for placements after birth and before adoption; deleted text begin and
deleted text end

new text begin (iv) strategies for finding, engaging, and supporting relatives and fictive kin for individual
children in need of foster and adoptive homes;
new text end

new text begin (v) specific targeted recruitment strategies for each individual racial and ethnic community
reflecting the racial and ethnic population of children in need of foster and adoptive homes;
new text end

new text begin (vi) data on the racial and ethnic diversity of the foster and adoptive families that the
agency serves and how the data compares to the racial and ethnic makeup of children in
need of foster and adoptive homes; and
new text end

deleted text begin (iv)deleted text end new text begin (vii)new text end other techniques as appropriate;

(3) have a written plan for trainingnew text begin and supportingnew text end adoptive and foster families;

(4) have a written plan for employing staff in adoption and foster care who have the
capacity to assess the foster and adoptive parents' ability to understand and validate a child's
cultural and meet the child's individual needs, and to advance the best interests of the child,
as required in section 260C.212, subdivision 2. The plan must include staffing goals and
objectives;

(5) ensure that adoption and foster care workers attend training offered or approved by
the Department of Human Services regarding cultural diversity and the needs of special
needs children;

(6) develop and implement procedures for implementing the requirements of the Indian
Child Welfare Act and the Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act; and

(7) ensure that children in foster care are protected from the effects of secondhand smoke
and that licensed foster homes maintain a smoke-free environment in compliance with
subdivision 9.

(b) In determining the suitability of a proposed placement of an Indian child, the standards
to be applied must be the prevailing social and cultural standards of the Indian child's
community, and the agency shall defer to tribal judgment as to suitability of a particular
home when the tribe has intervened pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act.

Sec. 3. new text begin APPROPRIATION; FOSTER AND ADOPTIVE FAMILY RECRUITMENT
AND SUPPORT GRANTS.
new text end

new text begin $500,000 in fiscal year 2023 is appropriated from the general fund to the commissioner
of human services for a grant program to expand the pool of foster and adoptive families
that reflect the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children in need of foster and adoptive
homes throughout the state. The commissioner shall design, implement, and administer the
grant program and award grants to community-based organizations with relevant expertise
that are capable of recruiting and supporting families to become foster and adoptive families.
Grant recipients shall perform the following services:
new text end

new text begin (1) conducting efforts through partnerships between public and private child-placing
agencies, community-based agencies, Tribes, and other entities serving communities of
color to recruit, engage, and support foster and adoptive families that reflect the racial and
ethnic backgrounds of children in need of foster and adoptive families statewide;
new text end

new text begin (2) gathering data and reporting on the racial and ethnic backgrounds of the pool of
licensed and other current foster and adoptive families in the state, including identifying
families that have had foster placements and families that have not had foster placements;
and
new text end

new text begin (3) periodically evaluating the recruitment, engagement, and supportive services in
clause (1) to ensure that those efforts succeed in expanding the pool of foster and adoptive
families of color that reflect the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children in need of foster
and adoptive homes throughout the state.
new text end