Safe Passage for Children is analyzing the 87 murders of children in Minnesota since 2014, which equals nearly one per month.
Minnesota Statute 260E.35 Subd. 7 requires counties to provide written summaries of child fatalities upon request. While some have responded quickly to our inquiries, others have delayed or provided only partial information. To date the state Department of Human Services has not provided any data, though they are working with us on that.
Fortunately, Juvenile Court records in child protection cases are public. This enables us to audit and augment information provided by minimally cooperative counties.
While our final report on this project will emphasize the role that policies and practices play in child murders, our recommendations will now also address changes needed to ensure consistent accountability and transparency from the state and counties around these fatalities.