As described last week, the Minnesota Appellate Court recently absolved Pope County of responsibility for the 2014 death of Eric Dean. This mirrored a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Deshaney v Winnebago, which virtually exempted states and counties from liability in child protection cases.
Thankfully, the Minnesota Department of Human Services has taken steps to reduce child fatalities through its Collaborative Safety Initiative (CSI). This protocol focuses on systemic factors contributing to child deaths, rather than on caseworker mistakes.
Unfortunately, we have heard staff describe CSI similarly to no-fault insurance, i.e. “CSI means we don’t have to worry anymore about being blamed for child deaths”.
The bar for suing public entities in child protection cases should be high. But currently it’s nonexistent. This weakens administrative initiatives to reduce child fatalities.