Governor Mark Dayton’s Child Protection Task Force inspired a statute that requires Minnesota counties to use uniform standards for evaluating child maltreatment reports.
As a result, the Department of Human Services reported that counties screened in 10,800 more children in 2016 for an assessment or investigation than they did prior to the new law in 2014. (P. 3, 2015 Child Maltreatment Report).
Correspondingly, caseloads increased to 30 per worker compared to standard of 10.
To date the Governor hasn’t supported additional funding for caseworkers, despite the clear need and the fact that the state still only contributes 24% of the program’s cost compared to over 60% for most states.
We encourage the Governor to finish the good work he started by backing appropriate funding for child protection and foster care.