Reporting from the Star Tribune
Last October, a baby girl was born eight weeks early in Hennepin County, weighing just over 3 pounds. She had been exposed to fentanyl and methamphetamine in utero. Her mother had already lost custody of three other children to addiction, and admitted to hospital staff she’d used drugs throughout the pregnancy.
The day after the birth, Hennepin County Child Protection Services received a report that the child was at risk. County officials moved to terminate the mother’s parental rights. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office had identified an alternative foster placement, ready to take the baby home from the NICU, and asked for a longer track record of sobriety before any reunification.
A judge disagreed. In November, the mother was granted custody while still in treatment. Two months later, the baby was found dead in her mother’s apartment. Her mother has since been charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota’s most recent Child Fatalities from Maltreatment report found that of the 44 Minnesota children who died from maltreatment between June 2023 and December 2024, roughly half had prior contact with child protection services before their deaths. This case fits that pattern – where a risk was flagged and a recommendation to prioritize child safety was made. But one decision changed the course of the case and a child died.
This is exactly the gap Safe Passage’s mission is built to close — pushing for the kind of system-level accountability that catches these moments before they become tragedies.
Read the full story here.