Minnesota’s Child Welfare Data Dashboard provides detailed data about how counties are handling child abuse reports. The purpose of the data, according to the Department of Human Services website, is to “monitor the status of children served by Minnesota’s child welfare system.”
Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of child protection officials and workers, the state failed to meet 7 out of 9 of its performance measures. This isn’t the first time. The state has failed to meet most of its own measures since it began tracking them in 2013.
We are left with unanswered questions. Are the state’s performance standards unrealistic? If so, should they be modified? If not, what is needed to meet them more regularly? Additional resources? New policies? What do these performance shortfalls tell us about the safety and wellbeing of thousands of traumatized children? And how, if at all, are these results being used by decision makers to make children safer?
Below is a summary:
Safe Passage is advocating not only for data transparency, but also for improvements in our child welfare system. As the only government watchdog group of its kind in Minnesota, we invite you to join us in looking out for kids.