Just released is Minnesota’s 2023 Child Maltreatment Report.
Safe Passage continues to be alarmed by the prevalence of child abuse and maltreatment in a state that strives to “make Minnesota the best state in the country for kids.”
Below are some of the report’s findings:
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77,000 calls were made (mostly by mandated reporters) to local social service agencies. That’s over 200 calls per day.
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Over half of all reports were screened out (61 percent). Most reports were made by teachers, law enforcement, medical providers and social workers, but rarely were judged to have met the “statutory threshold for maltreatment.”
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Even when cases were screened in, children were not seen by social workers within statutory timelines 14 percent of the time, and 18 percent of children were reported again within a year.
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Nearly 5,000 children were determined to be victims of maltreatment, most at the hands of their parents or caregivers.
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There were 27 child deaths and 38 life-threatening injuries determined to result from maltreatment.
Some of the children killed include 2-year-old Ahziyas Solo-Dampha, who was beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend, and 4-month-old Zyear Bagley, who died after his mother – under the influence of methamphetamine – fell asleep with him in her arms. Read about other Minnesota children who have died here.
Minnesota’s children deserve better. We must demand greater accountability, transparency, and urgency from our child protection system—because every one of these numbers represents a child whose safety should have come first.