New law transfers duties and responsibilities to Department of Children, Youth and Families

A new law reorganizes statutes to transfer duties and responsibilities from existing state agencies to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families that was created by a 2023 law and will begin operating in 2024.

Sponsored by Rep. Dave Pinto (DFL-St. Paul) and Sen. Melissa Wiklund (DFL-Bloomington), the law, effective July 1, 2024, transfers oversight of certain areas currently overseen by the Human Services, Education and Public Safety departments.

Some programs and services that will become the responsibility of the new agency include child care assistance, early learning programs, licensing functions, fraud protection, food support programs, child protection and welfare activities, juvenile justice and adoptions.

In a description of the law when it was proposed, the nonpartisan House Research Department summed up the transfer as follows: “Given the complexity and volume of the affected statutes, staff decided to accomplish the recodification by moving, or, in some cases, duplicating the affected statutes into seven new chapters of statute organized topically. Nonpartisan staff have reorganized the affected language for clarity and ease of use and removed obsolete language. This recodification is not intended to change existing policy or to have a fiscal impact beyond the reorganization of executive branch functions and the establishment of a new state agency.”

HF3646*/SF3770/CH80

HF3646* / SF3770 / CH80