Two weeks ago, officials ruled the death of a 3-month-old boy from White Bear Lake as a homicide. Imaging showed bleeding between the brain and skull, consistent with shaking. He was under his father’s care at the time.
Last week, a couple was arrested for allegedly beating a 3-year-old boy from Moorhead to death. The final autopsy report, according to the Star Tribune, stated the boy suffered 28 blunt force injuries.
The number of children being removed from their homes has been decreasing. But are children really safer?
“Year after year, Minnesota – as well as the federal government – continue to release annual data showing a decline in the number of children in foster care, congratulating themselves on keeping families together. They seem to have forgotten that reductions in foster care were supposed to be accompanied by increased services so that children could be safely maintained at home,” says Marie Cohen with the Child Welfare Monitor.
Believe it or not, no one knows if more children and their families are receiving in-home services as the foster care rolls decline, since the government doesn’t ask for this information. And participation in many of these services is voluntary.
Of all the children with reports in the system, 18 percent are reported again within a year. Are they any safer after a year?
Family preservation is not always in the best interest of the child, despite the state’s best efforts to provide parents with voluntary programs and services.
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