There are many benefits to engaging relatives not only as a potential placement resource but in the overall care and planning for their relative children. Recognizing this, significant changes were made to state foster care and permanency statutes during the 2022 legislative session. For example:
- Several sections of statute were modified to include relative engagement in case planning and permanency planning, and to emphasize the requirement that relatives must be considered for foster care and permanency placement prior to considering unrelated individuals.
- The definition of relative in Minn. Stat. 260C.007, subd. 27 was modified to be more inclusive of culturally and family defined relatives. A child or child's parent or custodian may consider close friends, religious advisors, and other individuals with whom they have significant relationships to be part of their family and kin network despite not being legal, biological, or marital relatives. Foster and adoptive placement consideration order for relatives was also updated to reflect this modified definition.
- The relative search section was restructured and amended to clarify the various points of the relative search process (search, notice, engagement, and placement consideration) and what is required at each point. This section and other sections were modified to ensure greater court oversight of relative search efforts, and to clarify that such requirements cannot be waived or relieved in their entirety (except when Safe Place for Newborns applies).
Join staff from the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Child Safety and Permanency Division, for a statewide virtual webinar to brush up on your knowledge of relative search, notice, engagement, and placement consideration. Learn more about the recent policy changes starting from the point of a child’s placement to permanency. This webinar will be recorded and posted on the Child Welfare Training Academy’s FFPSA webpage at https://mnchildwelfaretraining.com/more/ffpsa/.
Date: Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Time: 1:00pm-3:00pm.
Zoom meeting link:
https://umn.zoom.us/j/91970383263?pwd=NG41VDRnNENVZkVUZmxPN2lzRURyQT09
Meeting ID: 919 7038 3263
Passcode: F5jMCy
Dial by your location
+1 651 372 8299 US (Minnesota)
Meeting ID: 919 7038 3263
Passcode: 724826
Foster care policy and requirements, dhs.csp.fostercare@state.mn.us
If you are not subscribed to this newsletter, click here to subscribe to the DHS Family First Prevention Services Act News and Updates
|