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Pioneer Press Editorial: For the sake of children — and families

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

By  | Pioneer Press

PUBLISHED:  | UPDATED: 

Disparities and inequities among Minnesotans — in education, employment, housing, health and more — make troubling headlines regularly. A St. Paul lawmaker is drawing attention to others affecting some of the state’s youngest residents.

The Pioneer Press reported earlier this month that African American children in Minnesota are three times more likely to become involved with child protection and be removed from their homes than white children.

Protecting the safety and well-being of children comes first, Rep. Rena Moran told us, but remedies should include an emphasis on efforts to bring families back together.

That means “giving families tools and support and services they need so that reunification can happen,” said Moran, a Democrat whose election in 2010 made her the first African American from St. Paul to win a Minnesota State House of Representatives seat.

She brings professional perspective to her work on the topic. In her job away from the Capitol, Moran is director of parent leadership at St. Paul-based Minnesota Communities Caring for Children, home of Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota.

Experiences of parents she works with are reflected in legislation that deserves notice: The Minnesota African American Family Preservation Act. Among its provisions, the measure would create a council within the state’s Department of Human Services to better oversee the treatment of African American children and their families by child protective services.

Moran — a deputy minority leader whose district includes parts of the North End, Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods — makes note of the work of a state task force formed in 2014 to study the state’s child protection system. Its creation was prompted by a tragedy the year before involving Eric Dean, a 4-year-old boy from Pope County who died despite numerous reports to authorities about his abuse.

The task force produced 93 recommendations — directives added to the work of an already overburdened system, Moran told us.

In addition, social workers are underappreciated and “feel that they need to err of the side of precaution,” she said. “They’re really fearful that what happened to Eric Dean could happen to one of these kids.”

The aftermath has included more families going into a formal “investigation track versus an assessment track,” Moran said, as their cases are evaluated.

“A disproportionate number of black families have been led down this track of investigation, compared with the number of white families on the same track,” she said. Sixty percent of cases involving African American children are assigned to family investigation for discretionary reasons, compared with 39 percent for Caucasian children, according to Moran. “We also know the family investigation track is more punitive.”

A recent Minnesota Public Radio report noted the overall increase in child abuse cases, and attributed it to such factors as increased awareness, changes in child protection laws and opioid addiction “that has rendered scores of Minnesota parents incapable of caring for their children.”

Similar factors were cited in 2016, when Minnesota was among five states with a surge in children in foster care.

“The hope is that this bill would work to address the disparities at every decision point,” Moran explains, noting that her measure would “protect the best interests of African American children and promote the stability and security of African American families by establishing minimum standards to prevent arbitrary and unnecessary removal” of children from their families.

Moran’s bill hasn’t received a hearing in the House. The best hope this session, apparently, is for the advisory-council proposal, which has been added to another bill in the Senate.

“Every Minnesotan, Moran told us, “has a stake in a child protection system that is fair and equitable.”

In achieving that, there’s no avoiding painful questions, as St. Paul has observed in confronting disparities in its public schools and in work on improving police-community relations. Among the issues are those involving so-called implicit bias, said to include the subconscious assumptions we make about others based on factors that include their skin color.

Lawmakers should listen and lead.

To view this article on the Pioneer Press website, click herehttps://www.twincities.com/2018/04/22/editorial-for-the-sake-of-children-and-families/