By: Nicole Billings

This is the first blog entry in a series of blog entries that will discuss the roles and responsibilities of the key players in child protective matters in light of my experiences in the system, and as detailed in Chapter 260 of the Minnesota Statutes.

During my time in the system, I assisted in terminating the parental rights of fourteen parents. All fourteen of those parents were single mothers, thus I will only refer to "her" or "the mother" when recalling my experience in the system. I will also only refer to "the child", however many of the mothers had multiple children. As a child welfare social worker for the State, I was interjected into a family's life at what was, most definitely, the highest point of crisis they had ever experienced. An abuse investigator had just removed the mother's child from her care and custody, and placed the child in state licensed foster care, or in some cases, the child was placed with a suitable relative. I was then assigned to the case to assess the needs of the mother, and to craft a plan to reunify her with her child.  On the other hand, I was also responsible for collecting any damaging information against her that the County Attorney could then use in court proceedings to terminate her parental rights. A strange bond was formed between the mother and me, as we navigated through the system together. I was both her helper and the greatest threat to her never seeing her child again.

Nicole Billings is an Associate Attorney at Tuft & Arnold, PLLC