MN HF4182

County child welfare workers, supervisors, and Department of Human Services child safety and permanency division staff must complete a competency certificate within the first 12 months of employment before serving as primary case manager for cases involving American Indian children or families.

Training curriculum must cover the Indian Child Welfare Act, Minnesota Indian Family Preservation Act, tribal sovereignty and self-determination, historical trauma, cultural competency skills, American Indian cultural ceremonies and traditional healing, and the 11 federally recognized tribes of Minnesota.

American Indian experts must develop and present the training using evidence-based teaching methods with simulation-based practice opportunities and the Minnesota Child Welfare Practice Framework.

Training must foster cross-cultural engagement through interactive approaches to tribal worldview and family dynamics to improve collaboration between county and state child welfare staff, tribal governments, and tribal agencies.

$1,030,000 is appropriated in fiscal year 2021 from the general fund to the commissioner of human services for the Tribal Child Welfare Partnership, to be located at and administered by the University of Minnesota, Duluth Center for Regional and Tribal Child Welfare Studies.