HF 342 Summary

• Establishes the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act to protect African American and disproportionately represented children, prevent unnecessary family separation, and improve family reunification outcomes.

• Requires local social services agencies to make "customized efforts" using culturally informed practices to prevent out-of-home placement, implement 60-day in-home safety plans before removal (except in cases of sexual abuse, physical abuse, or egregious harm), and prioritize placement with relatives or noncustodial parents.

• Creates a 33-member African American and Disproportionality Child Welfare Oversight Council to monitor child welfare outcomes, review case plans, develop policies addressing racial disparities, and establish partnerships for housing, employment, and education support.

• Appoints six child welfare disproportionality specialists to assist counties, monitor out-of-home placements, review case plans, and establish grant programs for organizations led by African Americans and other disproportionately represented groups.

• Restricts termination of parental rights to cases involving serious crimes or sexual abuse, increases parent visitation to 3-5 one-hour visits weekly and sibling visits to minimum two hours weekly, requires African American cultural competency training for child protection workers, and extends parental rights reestablishment timelines from 36 to 24 months.