A meeting of the Legislative Task Force on Child Protection is proposing immediate policy changes after reported failures in the system.
David Kirchner with the office of the Legislative Auditor spoke about his concerns with a lack of unified policy when it comes to removing children from their homes.
"Beltrami County, in practically every instance where a child is removed from the home, there is a subsequent court decision that the child remain outside of the home for a longer period time," says Kirchner. "On the other end of the spectrum, in Washington County a third of the instances where a child is removed from the home, that child is returned to the parents. So why, why differences in terms of what happens after that law enforcement hold occurs?"
A recent Star Tribune series found since 2012, at least 86 children died from maltreatment and another 11 died from suicide after their cases were not followed up on properly after Minnesota's child protection system failed to protect them.
Kirchner says one major issue is the lack of reporting on the number of children removed from their homes by law enforcement.
"We can't tell you how many were done by the City of Stillwater Police and how many were done by Washington County Sheriff's Office," says Kirchner. "And how many done were by any other jurisdiction. Because that information is not collected by anyone."