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Minnesota House unanimously passes bill making grooming a felony and tightening field-trip rules
Summary
The Minnesota House passed House File 3489 to create a felony grooming offense, require supervision rules for school field trips, expand mandatory-reporter training, and let the Minnesota Department of Education look back beyond three years; the vote was 133-0.
House File 3489, carried on the House floor as a bipartisan effort to strengthen student protections, passed the Minnesota House by a 133-0 vote after members described it as a needed tool to address prolonged patterns of sexual grooming in schools.
Representative Bennett, the bill’s author, opened floor debate by recounting how a reporter’s inquiry and a meeting with a survivor named Hannah prompted her to sponsor the measure. Bennett said the bill “creates clear field-trip supervision rules” that generally prohibit a staff member being isolated alone with a student, establishes a new felony offense for child grooming, makes grooming conviction grounds for revoking or suspending an educator license, adds grooming to mandatory-reporting requirements and training, and allows the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) to look back farther than three years in investigations.
The sponsor disclosed personal experience with grooming while a student and credited Hannah and Detective Chad Clawson of the Egan Police Department for bringing forward research and practical insight. “Grooming is not just a precursor to abuse. It is an abuse all on its own,” Bennett said on the floor.
Members from both parties framed the bill as protective of students while affirming that most educators are dedicated professionals. Representative Bakeberg, Representative Jordan, Representative Altendorf, Representative Prior, Representative Kresha, Representative Knudsen and Representative Mueller each urged support, stressing prevention, mandatory reporting and the need for clear supervision standards on overnight and other field trips. Representative Prior highlighted the bill’s extension of the investigatory lookback window, saying survivors sometimes need more than three years to come forward.
The bill carries an ongoing fiscal impact the sponsor described as about $1.4 million in additional costs; Bennett and other members said the figure reflects MDE’s assessment that additional investigative staff would be needed to handle an expected increase in mandatory-reporter intakes. Representative Mueller and others said the fiscal note supported, rather than undermined, the bill’s urgency because staffing will be required to pursue investigations and protect children.
On the final roll call the clerk announced 133 ayes and 0 nays; the bill passed and its title was agreed to. The House did not record any floor amendments during the third reading.
What happens next: With passage on the House floor, the bill proceeds to the Senate for consideration (status: passed House).
