Child Foster Care Licensing Guidelines - Minnesota Department of Human Services

The Guidelines have been published and can be located here: Minnesota Child Foster Care Licensing Guidelines (state.mn.us). The initial format of the Guidelines will be a searchable PDF document and will be posted on the Family Systems Licensor packet site and the Child Safety and Permanency Foster Care policy webpage. In upcoming months, the Guidelines will also be created as an online manual.

Beginning late November various stakeholder groups will have an opportunity to participate in an introduction session to see how their contributions were incorporated into the final product. In December 2023 several introduction sessions will be held for workers and supervisors who have child foster care licensing responsibilities and/or workers responsible for child foster care placement.

As licensors, case managers, supervisors, foster parents, children in foster care, and other community stakeholders become familiar with the Guidelines, we encourage feedback and questions submitted through this engagement website.

The first draft of the Guidelines is written, and editing is underway. The Guidelines are expected to be released in October 2023 and several virtual introduction sessions will follow. Check this engagement page for introduction session dates and registration links. Announcement of the Guidelines release and dates for introduction sessions will be broadly sent to counties, tribes, and private licensing agencies.

Community stakeholders who participated in this effort will receive an invitation by email to attend an introduction session that highlights ways that community feedback was integrated into the Guidelines. Summaries of stakeholder engagement, including surveys from foster parents and licensing workers, engagement groups with youth and foster parents, and workgroups are available on this engagement page.

Please use this engagement page to submit any questions you have related to the Child Foster Care Licensing Guidelines.

DHS Licensing has also launched a Child Foster Care Background Studies Reform: Licensing Engagement webpage related to the changes that went into effect July 1, 2022. The purpose of this engagement page is to provide a place for licensing workers and supervisors to collaboratively discuss the changes made in the reform and the review process for assessing non-disqualifying information. The engagement page includes documents, links, and a place to share questions and ideas related to the background study reform. Monthly Community of Practice sessions for licensing workers and supervisors are hosted by DHS on the first Thursday of the month from 10:00am to 11:00am.

Since the last update in November 2022, the department has continued talking with stakeholders to hear their perspectives on the most important topics to include in this first iteration of the Child Foster Care Licensing Guidelines.

We are more than halfway through our six scheduled workgroup meetings and have focus groups with youth and young adults who have been in foster care, parents whose child/ren have been in foster care, relative and non-relative foster parents in January and February. We had an excellent response rate for both the foster parent (relative and non-relative) and foster care licensor surveys and continue to analyze what we’ve heard from these people who hold so much knowledge. We will circle back to those groups with summaries about what we learned and will also post findings in the ‘What’s Been Done’ section of this engagement page in upcoming months.

A workgroup consisting of child advocates, representatives from community organizations and state ethnic councils, ombudspersons for families, child protection staff and representatives of county and private licensing agencies will have met six times by the end of February 2023. Workgroup meeting summaries can be found on this engagement page.

• Topics covered in meetings held thus far include discussions on how to best support relatives during the licensing process; how to ensure a meaningful home study assessment; current practice regarding the use of safety plans; and effective use of licensing actions as tools to ensure child safety.

One core theme that comes up time and again in our discussions is how essential it is that licensing agencies, placing and/or child protection agencies work together to ensure the safety and well-being of children while they are in foster care.

Additional highlights from this period include:

• We met with the Equity Leads in DHS’ Child Safety and Permanency and Licensing Divisions as well as the Cultural and Ethnic Communities Leadership Council to share about our work and to begin discussion of how to best implement DHS’ Equity Analysis framework while drafting the guidelines. This work will be on-going as the Guidelines are being drafted.
• We have been in regular contact with the Indian Child Well-being Unit and will be meeting with the ICWA Advisory Council to share about our work and to open paths of communication to ensure that the Guidelines cover issues important to Indian children and families. Please note: the Guidelines do not apply to tribal social services. The Guidelines do apply to county, private, and tribal agencies designated or licensed by the department’s commissioner to perform licensing functions and activities, all of whom care for Indian children.
• We met with the African American Well-being Unit and staff from that unit are participating in the Workgroup.
• We have initiated important conversations regarding the training available to workers whose responsibilities include assessing foster care applicants and writing the summary of their assessment (the ‘home study’). Work is underway to update existing curriculum and to strategize ways to increase the reach of who accesses the training.
• Fifteen community members, including several youth, have provided their written feedback regarding the Guidelines. Please consider doing so and share THIS SURVEY LINK with others.

In mid-July work began on the Child Foster Care Licensing Guidelines. Here's some of what has been done so far:

• We sent out over 7000 surveys to relative and non-relatives who are currently licensed foster parents, applicants including those who withdrew from the licensing process, foster parents who closed in the last three years, and parents currently receiving Northstar Kinship or Adoption Assistance. Close to 1200 people responded to the survey and we were able begin reviewing the data in early November.
• By mid-November surveys will also go out to child foster care licensing workers and supervisors. We look forward to using what we learn to inform this work.
• Youth who have experienced foster care have shared their highest priorities and will have additional opportunities for participation in upcoming months
• We are working with a community partner to coordinate focus groups with relative and non-relative foster parents and parents whose children have been in foster care.
• A workgroup consisting of child advocates, representatives from community organizations, representatives of the state ethnic councils, the ombudspersons for families, county child protection staff and representatives of county and private licensing agencies is being convened and will meet several times between November 2022 and February 2023. Summaries of each workgroup meeting will be available on this page shortly after each session.
• Many community organizations and advocates that serve people impacted by foster care licensing have provided important feedback and priorities to guide this work.
• An initial outline of the topics so far identified as priorities is available in the document section of this site.