From the Star Tribune:

Earlier this month, Hennepin County Judge Matthew Frank struck down the rollout of the Minnesota African American Family Preservation and Child Welfare Disproportionality Act [MAAFPA] because it created a raced-based government policy in violation of the 14th Amendment...

In 2022, the American Bar Association undertook an assessment of racism in the child welfare system in Hennepin County. It found 83% of cases and 81% of out of home placements involved children of color. The 2020 Census showed Hennepin County was 66% white...

MAAFPA sought to address this by requiring social service agencies in the state to provide “active efforts” to preserve the families of African American children and other children identified as overrepresented in the welfare system because of “race, culture, ethnicity, disability status or low-income socioeconomic status.”

The phrase “active efforts” creates a higher legal standard than the “reasonable efforts” in Minnesota’s other child protection cases...

Removing a child from a home requires higher scrutiny and can only happen if the child is under life threatening “imminent physical danger or harm.”

“The existence of community or family poverty, isolation, single parenthood, age of the parent, crowded or inadequate housing, substance use, prenatal drug or alcohol exposure, mental illness, disability or special needs of the parent or child, or nonconforming social behavior does not by itself constitute imminent physical damage or harm,” the statute reads.

This decision only effects the rollout in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties and, as of now, the law will go into effect statewide in 2027. However, per the Star Tribune, an attorney who specializes in child protection and family law said this decision "has cast a pall of uncertainty over MAAFPA and its future".