Omnibus health and human services law includes foster care, disability services improvements

The omnibus health and human services law contains a wide range of provisions related to child care, custody, support, foster care, disability services, community supports, civil commitment, maltreatment of minors, child protection and child support.

Sponsored by Rep. Rena Moran (DFL-St. Paul) and Sen. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), the law addresses the goals of the House and Senate in a comprehensive way, but does not touch on health care initiatives. Those were carried in a separate piece of legislation that became law during the regular session.

The law took effect June 19, 2020, unless otherwise noted.

Notable provisions in the new law include language that will:

• call for all children entering foster care to receive prenatal alcohol exposure screenings (Art. 2, Sec. 9);

• require students in foster care to remain enrolled in their prior school unless it is determined that doing so is not in their best interest (Art. 1, Sec. 4);

• require students in foster care to be enrolled in a new school within seven days if they change schools (Art. 1, Sec. 4);

• require agencies to arrange phone calls between parents and foster parents to better improve coordination of care, unless doing so would put the child or foster parents in danger (Art. 1, Sec. 17);

• provide an extension to the adult foster care moratorium exception that allows certain facilities to have a fifth bed (Art. 2, Sec. 2);

• allow military child care providers to receive funding from the state’s child care assistance program (Art. 1, Sec. 5);

• extend an exception that will allow families to participate in “the first three years of life demonstration project” without being financially penalized (Art. 1, Sec. 19);

• require that direct support staff working with people with disabilities receive sexual violence prevention training during orientation (Art. 2, Sec. 6);

• remove reporting requirements for physicians providing prenatal care to a patient struggling with substance abuse (Art. 7, Sec. 31);

• allow cars to be considered “assets” for participants in the Minnesota family assets for independence initiative (Art. 1, Sec. 15);

• modify service planning meeting requirements for people entering home and community-based services (Art. 4);

• update the chapter governing civil commitment to better reflect how civil commitments work (Art. 6);

• expand the number of children eligible to receive respite care grants (Art. 5, Sec. 3);

• permit any minor living apart from their parent or legal guardian to consent to receive homeless youth and sexually exploited youth services (Art. 5, Sec. 59);

• allow tribes and counties to enter into written agreements that will clarify their responsibilities in handling maltreatment reports involving American Indian children (Art. 5, Sec. 66); and

• recodify statutes relating to maltreatment of minors.

The law will also make clarifications, technical corrections, conforming and technical changes, update terminology and definitions, and address consistency issues in current law.

SSHF11*/SSSF9/SSCH2