This just-released Minnesota Department of Human Services 2018 Child Maltreatment Report shows some notable trends compared to 2015, when the current state child welfare reforms began.
More uniform standards caused an increase in reports screened in for child protection services from 27% to 44% between 2015 and 2018. This means 14,180 more children annually are getting child protection help.
There are also some encouraging trends in racial disparities. The percentage of cases investigated for discretionary reasons decreased by 20% for African-American children, compared to a 9% drop for white children. As this chart shows, the gap between African American, American Indian and white children also narrowed for several other measures such as number of children per 1,000 screened into child protection.
We will analyze these results further in coming weeks.