Progressives have labeled Tim Walz a “champion of children,” citing policies he enacted as governor of Minnesota. Those policies, however, have endangered some of the state’s most vulnerable kids.
In May, Walz signed into law the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act, the most radical child-welfare-reform bill in the country. Inspired by activists’ complaints about racial disparities in the child-welfare system, the new law makes it harder to remove black or other “disproportionately represented” children from homes where they may have been neglected or abused. While supporters have argued that the law supports children’s welfare, in reality, it keeps black and minority kids in unsafe environments in the name of racial equity.
Activists seeking to reform Minnesota’s child-welfare system had long cited its racial disparities. Black children (including those of mixed race) make up 26.9 percent of the state’s child-protection cases (blacks constitute 11 percent of the state’s population overall); white children account for slightly less than half of all cases, though whites account for nearly 75 percent of the population. Reformers present these imbalances as evidence of racial bias, but black children nationally are three times more likely to die of suspected abuse or neglect than are white children.
Even before the passage of the law, Minnesota child-welfare professionals were more likely to leave black children in dangerous environments. According to a report by Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota, black children made up 26.1 percent of all child-maltreatment deaths between January 2015 and April 2022, well outpacing blacks’ share of the state population. The report’s authors note that “counties may have left Black children in high risk settings more frequently and for longer periods than children of other races and ethnicities.”
These concerns did not deter Minnesota lawmakers, who had long struggled to pass the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act. The bill, originally titled the African American Family Preservation Act, raised obvious legal concerns. It was revived after the NAACP’s Minneapolis branch filed a federal civil rights complaint in March, alleging that racial discrimination in Minnesota's child welfare system was “devastating . . . black families.” The bill’s authors, apparently hoping to evade legal scrutiny, amended it to apply to all “disproportionately represented children”—rather than only black children—in the state’s child-welfare system. Those amendments, which Walz signed into law, define a “disproportionately represented child” as “a member of a community whose race, culture, ethnicity, disability status, or low-income socioeconomic status is disproportionately encountered, engaged, or identified in the child welfare system as compared to the representation in the state’s total child population.” According to Minnesota records, only white and Asian children are “under-represented” in the state’s child-welfare system “relative to their population size.”
The law makes several changes to the state’s child-welfare system in a misguided effort to rectify racial disparities. First, it weakens the already low standards for removing “disproportionately represented” children by “prohibit[ing]” a court from ordering removal unless there is clear and convincing evidence that the child is at serious risk of harm. This is particularly troubling given Minnesota’s record. A new state report revealed that 45 percent of the 31 child fatalities in 2022 involved children who had previously been part of a child protection case, following a staggering 61 percent the year before.
Another provision requires state agencies to make “active efforts” to reunite “disproportionately represented” children with their families “as soon as possible.” This change is particularly dangerous. Minnesota has one of the highest rates of failed reunifications in the country, and its children often experience repeat abuse or neglect upon their return. Federal records show that in 2021, 552 children statewide suffered maltreatment after getting returned to their caregivers. Those kids constituted 10 percent of all child-maltreatment victims in Minnesota, which has the nation’s fourth-highest proportion of all maltreatment victims who were abused after being returned to their caregivers.
The danger of reuniting children with abusive parents “as soon as possible” is made clear in the case of ten-month-old Kamari Gholston. At just four months old, Kamari was found with “a broken elbow, a cut under his lip and ‘probable fractures’ to his rib, ankle, wrist, and knee,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. These injuries led state officials to remove him from his mother’s care. Despite the clear signs of abuse, however, Kamari was returned to his mother. Two months later, she allegedly smothered him to death.
The law also redefines “[i]mminent physical danger or harm,” which, if substantiated, justifies removing a child from his home. The rewrite clarifies that factors like “substance use, [or] prenatal drug or alcohol exposure” do not, on their own, warrant removing a child from his parent’s custody. This is astonishing, given substance abuse’s significant role in America’s child-welfare crisis. In 2021, 39 percent of children in foster care who were removed from their homes were taken due to parental substance abuse.
This crisis is particularly acute in Minnesota’s child-welfare system. Fentanyl poisoning accounted for 43 percent of child deaths statewide between 2022 and 2023, and parental drug use is a leading cause of children being removed from their homes. Yet, the Walz administration has weakened the state’s system for identifying and protecting these kids. In 2022, the governor signed a bill removing the obligation for social-service professionals to report a pregnant woman’s drug use, provided she continues receiving prenatal, postpartum, or other health services. However, federal data show that only 25.8 percent of Minnesota mothers of infants with prenatal substance exposure were referred to the appropriate services.
The goal of child welfare should be the protection of children. In Minnesota, this priority has been eclipsed by the desires of parents. As a result, children are often left in environments where they suffer neglect, ongoing physical and sexual abuse, and even torture, sometimes for prolonged periods, according to Safe Passage for Children of Minnesota. In the most tragic cases, like Kamari’s, the result is death.
The Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act will lead to more preventable deaths of the state’s most vulnerable youth. Kelis Houston, founder of the nonprofit Village Arms and a proponent of the law, wants to take the concept “national.” Unfortunately for America’s at-risk kids, Tim Walz’s name on the Democratic ticket means that Houston and other advocates may get their wish.
Photo: Catherine Falls Commercial / Moment