DCYF Updates

The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families has expanded efforts to engage, support, and work with relatives and kin of children under state or tribal guardianship. Contracted agencies assist with home study services for identified relatives and kin, including outreach to assist in the licensing application process. If a child is placed in a relative’s home, contracted agencies provide placement services until reunification or finalization. Relative Concurrent Permanency Planning focuses on children who enter foster care where caseworkers vigorously pursue family reunification while also developing alternative permanency plans, if safe reunification is not achievable within legal timelines. By planning concurrently early on, rather than sequentially, temporary foster care placements can be shortened, and children and youth can thrive in safe, stable, permanent families.

The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families contracts with private child-placing agencies to provide adoption and adoption-related services to children under state guardianship or Tribal jurisdiction. Six private agencies work closely with county and Tribal social service agencies to place children with adoptive families or relative concurrent foster families. These partnerships maximize the strengths and resources of private agencies and county and Tribal social service agencies to ensure that children are placed in permanent homes, and that they and their families receive the support they need.

Children of all ages need permanent, stable, loving families. In Minnesota, when county social services agencies place children in foster care and if courts ultimately terminate parents’ rights, children are committed to the guardianship of the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families. It is the responsibility of the department to work with counties, Tribes and private adoption agencies to find permanent families for these children. The department is determined to move children quickly into safe, nurturing adoptive families when they cannot be safely reunited with their birth families. In 2024, families adopted 673 Minnesota children from the foster care system.

The Department of Children, Families, and Youth (DCYF) is making updates to the Social Service Information System (SSIS) Time Entry and Contact/Activity tool. This system is an important tool that staff use to write case notes, track their time, and share important information.

Stearns County began piloting a new web-based time entry application on September 10, marking a major step forward in modernizing how workers log their hours. Designed to streamline time tracking and improve integration with existing tools, including the SSIS desktop platform and backend databases, the new system is already earning praise from early users.

Join DCYF’s Community of Practice: Bridging Mental Health and Child Welfare Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) welcomes you to a community-centered gathering that brings together a diverse network of professionals committed to the mental health and well-being of children, families and caregivers. Whether you’re a psychotherapist, faith leader, school counselor, healer or advocate, your voice and wisdom are welcome here.