The Minnesota Children's Justice Act (CJA) Task Force (Task Force) is established under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and is subject to the Minnesota Open Appointments Act and the Minnesota Open Meeting Law. Per Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, the Task Force is a multidisciplinary task force focusing on children’s justice related to child maltreatment. It's composed of professionals with knowledge and experience relating to the criminal justice system and issues of child physical abuse, child neglect, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and child maltreatment related fatalities.
The Task Force is charged with reviewing and evaluating:
Investigative, administrative and criminal judicial handling of child maltreatment cases
Experimental, model and demonstration programs and
State laws, ordinances, regulations, protocols and procedures.
Other individuals may be periodically included in Task Force activities as non-voting ad hoc consultants. Examples include department staff, subject matter experts, and other agency representatives. The department Task Force coordinator is a permanent, non-voting directly appointed member.
It is important to maintain diverse, statewide representation.
Children’s Justice Act Task Force member seats carry a term of four years. Members may serve until their successors are appointed. Members whose terms are due to expire may reapply for another four-year term, but they may not serve more than two consecutive terms. There is no lifetime limit to the number of terms an individual may serve.
The department directly appointed members may be reappointed for as long as they hold the position for which they were originally appointed if they are fulfilling all responsibilities of membership.
The application process includes an application and interview. New task force members must also complete orientation training provided by the department.
Each May, the department must submit a report and application to the Children’s Bureau to ensure ongoing compliance, operation and funding of the Task Force. In addition to the annual report and application, the department must also submit an assessment report every three years to the Children’s Bureau, documenting the process by which the Task Force determined their work plan for the upcoming three-year period.
