| Minn. Stat. § 260C.001
Minnesota
Statutes
Public Welfare and Related Activities (Ch. 245-267)
Chapter
260C. Child Protection
General
Provisions
260C.001. Title, intent,
and construction
Subdivision
1. Citation.
Sections 260C.001 to 260C.451 may be cited as the child protection provisions
of the Juvenile Court Act.
Subd.
2. Child in need of protection services.
The paramount consideration in all proceedings concerning a child alleged
or found to be in need of protection or services is the health, safety,
and best interests of the child. In proceedings involving an American
Indian child, as defined in section 260.755, subdivision 8, the best interests
of the child must be determined consistent with sections 260.751 to 260.835
and the Indian Child Welfare Act, United States Code, title 25, sections
1901 to 1923. The purpose of the laws relating to juvenile courts is to
secure for each child alleged or adjudicated
in need of protection or services and under the jurisdiction of the court,
the care and guidance, preferably in the child's own home, as will best
serve the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical welfare of the child;
to provide judicial procedures which protect the welfare of the child;
to preserve and strengthen the child's family ties whenever possible and
in the child's best interests, removing the child from the custody of
parents only when the child's welfare or safety cannot be adequately safeguarded
without removal; and, when removal from the child's own family is necessary
and in the child's best interests, to secure for the child custody, care
and discipline as nearly as possible equivalent to that which should have
been given by the parents.
Subd.
3. Permanency and termination of parental rights.
The purpose of the laws relating to permanency and termination of parental
rights is to ensure that:
(1)
when required and appropriate, reasonable efforts have been made by the
social services agency to reunite the child with the child's parents in
a home that
is safe and permanent; and
(2)
if placement with the parents is not reasonably foreseeable, to secure
for the child a safe and permanent placement, preferably with adoptive
parents or a fit and willing relative through transfer of permanent legal
and physical custody to that relative.
Nothing in this section
requires reasonable efforts to prevent placement or to reunify the child
with the parent or guardian to be made in circumstances where the court
has determined that the child has been subjected to egregious harm, when
the child is an abandoned infant, the parent has involuntarily lost custody
of another child through a proceeding under section 260C.201, subdivision
11, or similar law of another state, the parental rights of the parent
to a sibling have been involuntarily terminated, or the court has determined
that reasonable efforts or further reasonable efforts to reunify the child
with the parent or guardian would be futile.
The
paramount consideration in all proceedings for permanent placement of
the child under section 260C.201, subdivision 11, or the termination of
parental rights is the best interests of the child. In proceedings involving
an American Indian child, as defined in section 260.755, subdivision 8,
the best interests of the child must be determined consistent with the
Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, United States Code, title 25, section
1901, et seq.
Subd.
4. Construction.
The laws relating to the child protection provisions of the juvenile courts
shall be liberally construed to carry out these purposes.
CREDIT(S)
Laws 1999, c. 139, art.
3, § 1. Amended by Laws 1999, c. 139, art. 4, § 2; Laws 2005,
c. 159, art. 2, § 12.
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