Find Resources for Kinship Caregivers

This is a permanency option found in Minnesota statute and used in state district courts in child protection cases. A juvenile court orders giving a relative permanent legal and physical custody of a child in foster care. The relative becomes the child’s primary caregiver and decision-maker through adulthood. Birth parents remain legal parents, but their rights are secondary and may be limited by the order. Under a TPLPC order the child may be eligible for Northstar Kinship assistance that is equal to the foster care payment until the child turns 18, and the child retains M.A. insurance. Tribal courts may offer a transfer of custody. Several tribal courts in Minnesota offer this alternative, although it may not be called a TPLPC and may come with a different term, it essentially operated in the same way. Custody is transferred to a relative or kin, and they may be eligible for Northstar Kinship assistance and M.A.

Adoption is practiced differently in state court than in tribal customs. Most tribes practiced the custom of making more relatives for a child when needed. The practice did not involve severing ties to their biological parent. There are traditional origin names in the language for these practices, depending on the tribe, as well as specific ceremonies that incorporate this practice. Again, those ceremonies vary from tribe to tribe. In Minnesota, both the Dakota and Ojibwe tribes have a traditional practice of making more relatives for a child. Not all tribal courts have incorporated this ceremonial practice into court codes, however, so not all tribes utilize an adoption practice as a permanency outcome in child protection cases. In State Court, adoption is a court process that creates a permanent legal parent-child relationship. The adoptive parent assumes the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent, and the biological parent’s rights are terminated by the court. The child may be eligible for ongoing MA insurance and northstar permanency payments.

Customary adoption is a ceremonial practice from time immemorial that was practiced by several tribal nations. It involves a ceremony that recognizes making more relatives for a child, who are assuming responsibility for the child. Some tribal child protection systems have included this ceremonial practice into tribal courts as an acceptable permanency outcome for the child. The ceremony occurs, and then is recognized in tribal court by fact witnesses. This traditional practice preserves the child’s connections to family, culture, and Tribe, while not severing parental connections. It makes more relatives for children rather than severing the child’s ties to their family. When Tribal law allows, customary adoption occurs without terminating the birth parents’ rights, and the Tribal court determines how these relationships will continue in the best interests of the child. The child may be eligible for ongoing MA insurance and northstar permanency payments.

A termination of parental rights is a court order ending a birth or adoptive parent’s legal rights and responsibilities to a child. The person is no longer the child’s legal parent, and they are no longer allowed to have a connection to the child, legally. Minnesota allows parental rights to be restored only in limited circumstances. This practice is largely oppositional to tribal customary practices. Most tribal courts in Minnesota don’t allow TPR’s unless there is egregious harm by the parent.

CHIPS is a state district court term meaning there is a child protection case involving the child. A juvenile court case involving a child’s health, safety, or welfare. A CHIPS case may involve abuse, neglect, truancy, running away, voluntary placement, or another situation in which a child needs protection or services. See the Minnesota Judicial Branch CHIPS overview. In tribal courts, the proceedings may be called something else in code. However, the framework in tribal court codes include protection of a child for their health and safety; and provides authority to a tribal agency to look out for the child and family’s welfare.