Public Notice Detail

ST. PAUL, MN (April 18, 2001) – Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Kathleen A. Blatz and Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) Commissioner Michael O’Keefe today kicked off a statewide initiative to reform the child protection system.  The five-year effort, called the Children’s Justice Initiative (CJI), is designed to improve processing and outcomes of child protection cases through collaboration between juvenile courts and social service agencies.  This will provide permanent homes for abused and neglected children (either through reunification or placement with another family) in a more timely manner. 

The initiative was launched at a three-day conference in St. Paul and makes Minnesota the first state in the country to spearhead a statewide effort to significantly improve juvenile courts’ handling of child protection cases and the delivery of services to maltreated children. 

Every year in the United States, about 15,000 children “graduate” from foster care by turning 18 with no permanent family.  Nearly 40 percent of these children eventually end up on welfare.  Approximately 80 percent of the adults in our nation’s prisons were involved in the child protection system during their youth.

“We must turn our attention to the front end of the system, where we have the greatest chance to encourage positive change in a child’s life,” said Chief Justice Blatz.  “The Children’s Justice Initiative will bring people together and encourage them to reform our system into one that operates through the eyes of the child, not the bureaucracy.”

“The department and the courts initiated this project because we recognize that children must have safe, loving, permanent homes,” said Commissioner O’Keefe.  “Painful experience has taught us what happens when kids don’t have that opportunity.  Children who drift in foster care develop predictable problems in adolescence and adulthood that we hope this initiative will help prevent.”

Lead judges in 12 pilot counties across the state have formed teams of people from the juvenile courts, social services departments, county attorneys’ and public defenders’ offices, court administration, guardian ad litem programs and others involved in child abuse and neglect cases.  Each team will study how its county currently processes child protection cases and then will implement changes that better meet the needs of maltreated children.

Each team will base its assessments on “best practices” manuals drafted by the National Center for Juvenile Justice for use in Minnesota, and eventually, nationwide.  The National Center will pattern the manual after national and state child protection guidelines and timeframes for providing permanent, safe homes for children.

“There is no cookie-cutter approach that is going to work for everyone,” said Chief Justice Blatz.  “But if we make an individualized effort, we can have a measurable effect on our communities and most importantly, on the thousands of children who enter Minnesota’s child protection system each year.”

The pilot counties are Carver, Chippewa, Crow Wing, Faribault, Hennepin, Kanabec, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Ramsey, Stearns, St. Louis and Washington.  CJI will phase into the rest of Minnesota’s 87 counties within the next five years.