Project Scope
The goal of this fiscal map is to provide fiscal information on state programs that serve children and youth ages 18 and under in Minnesota.
If a program/funding stream has a primary service for both children and adults (as a family or household), the map includes exact or estimated cost of services provided to children or households with children. For example, programs like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Energy Assistance Program serve households, and for the purpose of this exercise, expenditures included are for those households with children age 18 and under.
When a program or funding stream focused on children also includes those of ages older than 18, the total expenditure for this broader age range is included. For example, Medical Assistance for Children serves children from prenatal to age 21, so the expenditures for children provided include expenditures for individuals accessing Medical Assistance for prenatal care up to age 21.
The exercise excludes programs that address the total population or a broad segment of the population, including those that may have secondary benefits for children and youth. This means that some Children’s Cabinet agencies did not have programs that met the scope of the project and therefore have no fiscal information present, even though their mission and services may impact children in important ways. For example, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has many programs that improve air and water quality for Minnesota communities. These programs benefit children’s environment and lives but are not included in this exercise because they support a broader segment of the state’s population.
Included in the map are 18 cabinet level agencies, as well as the Minnesota State Academies and Professional Educators Licensing and Standards Board. The information displayed includes 567 programs. The total state expenditures toward children determined by this exercise for the 2020–21 biennium is $31.94 billion and for the 2022-23 biennium is $35.89 million. This is 35.6% and XX.XX%, respectively, of the total comparable state budget.
It’s important to note the following key considerations of the data included in the tool:
- It does not include funding from federal COVID stimulus packages or state COVID relief legislation at this time.
- It currently displays information on expenditures in the FY2020-21 and FY2022-23 biennia, and does not include additional appropriations made during the 2022 or later legislative sessions.
- The fiscal map does not include data on expenditures for the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). The agency was created in 2023 and DHS was the fiscal host until 2025, so the expenditure data for programs currently at DCYF are included in the originating agencies.
Service Models and Outcome Goals
For each item included in the fiscal map, agencies selected one Service Model and one Outcome Goal that best fit the program, which helps improve the understanding of state budget resource allocation for child outcomes and better informs investments. While assigning one service model and outcome goal to each program is challenging, it allows for shared understanding of the existing collective services as we work together to improve outcomes for children and families.
The Service Models describe the type of service provided and the Outcome Goals identify and align the intended outcomes of the investments. The Outcome Goals are based on the Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT (see link in Links & Resources section) Child Well-Being Domains. Minnesota’s 2021 KIDS COUNT Profile (see link in Links & Resources section) provides the most recent data on indicators of child well-being in these four domains allowing a comparison of the status of Minnesota’s children and families to other states. Definitions for each of the four Service Models and four Outcome Goals can be found in the Children’s Fiscal Map Glossary document in the Links & Resources section or by holding the cursor over each name in the chart’s (% of Budget by Outcome Goal and % of Budget by Outcome Goal charts).
Methodology
State agencies identified programs in their budget within the scope of this project, assigning a Service Model and Outcome Goal to each, and providing the method, where necessary, to calculate the amount spent on children. Programs are first tracked in the state budget system, called Budget Planning and Analysis System (BPAS), and the amounts displayed on this map are for expenditures data from fiscal years 2020-2023. The map is updated on a biennial basis to add additional fiscal years and new programs, allowing for comparison over time. At the start of a new biennium, data on all new expenditures from the previous biennium were pulled from BPAS and agencies identified which of these new expenditures were in scope. The programs identified were then tracked in BPAS and included in the fiscal map.
Budget Terms and Glossary
Refer to the Budget Terms and Glossary for definitions of terms used in the fiscal map, age and funding categories and a list of agencies and their acronyms.
Road Map to Updating the Fiscal Map
This is the most comprehensive Children’s Fiscal Map the State of Minnesota has released. Over time, the plan is to continue improvements and updates to the tool and the data. Current planned improvements include:
- The fiscal data will be updated biennially, typically in the beginning of each calendar year, with data from the new biennial budget, including additional program expenditures and new investments previously excluded that are within the scope. Previous years’ data will continue to be included in the tool to provide comparison over time.
- Through an Early Childhood Governance and Finance Grant, the State used use the fiscal map to evaluate early childhood funding streams more specifically, including updating the data to better display the spending that goes toward young children, including programs for individual programs. The analysis reviewed $3.48 billion in expenditures across 51 programs administered by six state agencies spent on early childhood in state fiscal years 2020-21. The Early Childhood Spending: An Analysis of Expenditures on Young Children Using Minnesota Children’s Fiscal Map report summarizes this analysis.
- Easily accessible program descriptions and links to more program information will be continually updated. These can be found XXXX.
- Incorporating tax expenditure data, focused on tax credits that increase family income and economic stability.
- Providing additional context to federal expenditures, including a more detailed breakdown and analysis of spending compared to funding received.
