Most Minnesotans give the child protection system a passing grade, although a third say officials need to be more aggressive in removing children from abusive homes.
The latest Star Tribune Minnesota Poll found that 62 percent of residents said child protection officials are doing a good or a fair job, compared with 15 percent who said they are doing poorly. Another 21 percent said they were not sure about the job that child protection was doing.
Yet when asked about the most difficult recommendation a child protection worker has to make — to remove a child from the home of an abusive parent — 31 percent said workers were not being aggressive enough. Four percent thought child protection was too aggressive, while 33 percent said they were not sure if they were making the right decisions.
Traci LaLiberte, the executive director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare, said it was concerning that a large proportion of the respondents did not have enough information to say whether child protection was doing a good job.
"The findings of this poll tell me that we need to continue to educate the public on the roles and responsibilities of child protection to encourage informed civic engagement," LaLiberte said.
Some of the 800 likely voters polled Oct. 20-22 said they did not know enough about how child protection workers did their jobs to respond to the questions.
"I think the average person doesn't pay much attention to what they're doing unless they get involved with the system or an incident ends up occurring and it ends up in the news," said David Fishbeck, a retired postal worker who lives in New Brighton. "Otherwise, they're just doing their jobs and no one notices."
Part of that lack of understanding may be explained by the privacy that state law grants to families involved in child protection, closing off much of the work child protection does from the public.
