SF3350 Summary

• Amends Minnesota child welfare law to strengthen "reasonable efforts" requirements for social services agencies in preventing child placement, reunifying families, and achieving permanency, with emphasis on culturally appropriate services and family preservation.

• Expands the definition of "relative" to include important friends with whom a child has resided or had significant contact, broadening kinship placement and engagement options.

• Mandates concurrent permanency planning efforts starting at the six-month permanency progress hearing, requiring agencies to identify and support relatives as potential permanent placement resources while pursuing reunification.

• Establishes enhanced relative search, notification, and engagement procedures, including continuing agency duties to contact and consider relatives throughout the case, even after initial diligent efforts findings.

• Prioritizes relative placement through adoption, guardianship, or custodial transfer by requiring courts to give preference to permanency dispositions placing children with relatives consistent with the child's best interests.