Pine County officials warn new ‘active efforts’ child‑welfare law will strain staff and budgets

Pine County Health and Human Services officials told the county board that a new state law requiring “active efforts” to preserve families will dramatically increase staff time, service costs and operational demands on local child protection work. Becky Fossum, Pine County’s health and human services director, told commissioners the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act (commonly called MAPPA or CWDA) takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, and “really demands more in terms of staff time and resources compared to reasonable efforts cases.” Fossum said the county’s fiscal analysis found the change could require adding at least another child protection supervisor and administrative support and would raise recurring costs for services and staff time. “When we did our assessment in house, we determined that we would need a lot more staff,” Fossum said. Why it…