Safe Passage for Children’s 2025 Advocacy for Children Day

Every day, teachers, doctors and concerned citizens call child protection, expressing concerns about what they’ve observed or heard from a child.

Over half of these calls are immediately screened out because they don’t meet the statutory definition of child maltreatment. As a result, no further action is taken. Children wait for help. Often, help comes too late.

On April 7, we have a chance to talk with legislators about opportunities for meaningful change.

As we gear up for the 2025 legislative session, here’s a brief overview of our top concerns – and where we’re planning to focus some of our efforts.

• Mandated reporter training/education
  Mandated reporters make the vast majority of reports of maltreatment to local agencies. These people work in health care, law enforcement, mental health, social services, education and childcare. The current DHS-sponsored training spends far too much time encouraging mandated reporters to “PASS” before making a report. Mere seconds are spent on recognizing signs of physical abuse. We’re advocating for a complete overhaul of the training.

• Child fatalities and near fatalities reporting
  Information about child injuries and fatalities is not easily accessible. Most of the information we compiled for our own fatality reports came from the media. Child deaths are buried into the state’s annual maltreatment reports with few details about the circumstances surrounding their deaths. A new law is set to go into effect in late 2026, requiring the state to publish an annual summary of child fatalities. However, we would like to see more information about individual cases and will continue to advocate for greater transparency.

• Allocation of state dollars toward child protection
  In recent years, millions in state and federal funding have been left on the table. This money could have been put toward prevention services as well as case management. Last year a bill was introduced to conduct a fiscal analysis of the child welfare system in Minnesota, including an analysis of available funding sources for federal, state, county and tribal systems. However, it didn’t pass. We will be urging legislators to revisit this bill in 2025.

Learn more about key bills impacting child safety. Then meet with your senator or representative — or both — to make them aware of the impact of these bills. If you can’t make it in person, we can schedule a virtual meeting that fits into your schedule. Your time commitment is minimal yet profoundly impactful.

If you’ve never met with your legislator, that’s okay. You don’t need to have a background in social services or medicine; you just need to have a heart for at-risk children. We’ll provide all the training and information you need for a 10-15 minute meeting.

Please plan to join us on April 7 either in person or virtually!