Greater Minnesota Newsletter | Everything you need to know about what's happening across Greater Minnesota. Delivered to your inbox Tuesday afternoons. In 2015, the Minnesota Legislature passed laws to strengthen the state’s foster care system, emphasizing intervention and prevention efforts that might allow children from troubled homes to keep living with their parents. Similarly, early last year, President Donald Trump signed a federal law that also emphasizes the prevention of family separation through mental health care, parenting programs and substance abuse treatment for parents. Public officials who work in foster care say it’s the right path to take – though one that many are still trying to navigate. “We have gotten the message that the answer (to fewer foster care cases) is prevention,” said Nikki Farago, the assistant commissioner of Children and Family Services at the Minnesota Department of Human Services. “But once a child is placed into foster care, that is a deep-end system. When there is lots of trauma, reunification (of child and parents) is not a simple endeavor.” The movement to reduce out-of-home placements, or limit the time children live in foster homes, has been complicated in many parts of Minnesota by another issue that is sending more children into the system: an epidemic of opioid and methamphetamine abuse. Last year, according to the Department of Human Services, about 6,700 children and young adults in Minnesota were placed into foster care, bringing the total to about 16,500. The most common reason: Abuse of opioids and methamphetamine, which was behind 32 percent of those 2018 placements. (Allegations of neglect and abuse were the two other leading causes). In 2013, drug abuse accounted for just 17 percent of foster care placements, the agency reported. Moreover, those children who end up in foster care because of parental drug abuse end up staying in the system longer than other children, taxing social workers and county budgets alike. “We have kids that are continuing in care longer because their parents are working on their sobriety and recovery,” Farago said. “Just given the nature of drug addiction and recovery, it’s a longer process.” In Minnesota, counties administer foster care with guidance from the Department of Human Services. Counties cover about one-third of the costs related to foster care – largely through support payments to foster families – with the state and federal governments picking up the rest of the tab. In 2015, the Legislature increased foster care funding by $50 million, much of it for counties to provide more and earlier services. The new federal law, meanwhile, could also include financial aid for counties that invest in prevention efforts. MinnPost took a look at the experiences of three Minnesota counties that are navigating these new foster care realities: tiny Cook County, in the far northeastern corner of the state; northern Minnesota’s Beltrami County, which includes the Red Lake Nation; and Olmsted County, in the more densely populated southeast: Cook County’s courthouse rises a few blocks from one of the more majestic scenes in northeastern Minnesota: the iconic Grand Marais harbor on the shores of Lake Superior. Inside the sandstone building, Alison McIntyre oversees the county’s Public Health and Human Services Department that, among other things, handles foster care cases. The county’s location provides some challenges in caring for children who need foster care. For instance, children who need mental health care must be taken to Duluth – 120 miles down the shore – for diagnoses and, sometimes, residential care. Moreover, the county also helps Native American children from the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa Indians, careful to follow federally mandated cultural guidelines. In recent years, Cook County, with a population of 5,400 people, has been responding to about 100 reports of children in troubling situations who might need to be placed in foster care. In 2018, for example, the county received 101 reports of alleged maltreatment and ended up placing 26 children in foster homes. (Reports come from police officers and social workers, or sometimes from teachers or others who work with children). Beginning in 2015, in response to the state legislation, Cook County began to beef up its staff to address foster care needs. The county now has a supervisor, two child protection social workers, a mental health case manager and an intake social worker who helps to manage some cases. State funds help to cover the positions. The number of annual reports the county investigates has risen – from 33 a decade ago to 68 in 2013 to the 101 from last year.