Pronunciation: "Om-budz-per-son"
Merriam-Webster defines an Ombudsperson as a person who investigates, reports on and helps settle complaints.
Complaints from youth currently in the Minnesota foster care system, including Extended Foster Care and those who have recently aged out of foster care, are our first priority. If a youth/young person submits a complaint, we will process it within two business days. Any person can file complaints on behalf of a child in foster care, as long as the concern is about the rights, care, safety, placement, or services of a Minnesota foster child. We review each case to determine if it needs further investigation. Some complaints may be referred to other places for resolution.
Complaints from youth currently in the Minnesota foster care system, including Extended Foster Care and those who have recently aged out of foster care, are our first priority. If a youth/young person submits a complaint, we will process it within two business days. Any person can file complaints on behalf of a child in foster care, as long as the concern is about the rights, care, safety, placement, or services of a Minnesota foster child. We review each case to determine if it needs further investigation. Some complaints may be referred to other places for resolution.
We review the information you give us and decide what action to take. We are an independent and impartial agency that doesn’t take sides.
Depending on your complaint, we may:
We will give you reasons for our decisions.
We'll contact you within 2 weeks to give you an update on your complaint. We aim to finalize most complaints within 30 days. Complex complaints can take a lot longer. We will always tell you what we decide to do with your complaint.
We have a confidentiality policy to protect the identity of people who call to make a complaint. The law allows us to release certain information to certain people in the process of conducting our duties; however, if we need to share this information we will tell you.
If there is an immediate safety issue, we may also make a report to the appropriate agencies such as the county’s Child Protective Services agency or Law Enforcement.
At OOFY, one of our responsibilities is to share reports on foster care in Minnesota and areas of improvement. We know that certain groups, such as Black/African-American, Indigenous, and LGBTQ2S+ Fosters, are disproportionately impacted by child welfare. We want to know how specific populations of foster youth in Minnesota are being impacted. We try to collect the data that will inform our work, and not ask for more information than we will use.
The demographic information we collect will only be shared outside of our staff as anonymous or group data. Based on your answers, we may reach out to you about contacting an office that can help us with your case (for example, one of the other Ombudspersons listed here), but we will not share identifying information without your permission.
If you still do not want to share your information, you are welcome to mark, “Prefer not to say.” If you would like to share feedback with us about the questions we are asking, please reach out! We welcome critical feedback and aim to be an inclusive and welcoming office.
There may be times when someone does not want to provide their name or the name of their loved one for various reasons.
Important things to know about complaints made to the Office of Ombudsperson for Foster Youth:
See more about the Office's Data Practices.
To file a complaint anonymously, call the office at 651-946-2940, press 2, and request to make an anonymous complaint .
If this is an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis or thinking about hurting yourself and you need to speak to someone immediately, call 988.
To report concerns about child abuse, neglect, or sexual abuse, contact the county or reservation where the child lives during business hours. Contact us / Minnesota Department of Human Services (mn.gov). If the child is in immediate risk of harm, please contact your local law enforcement agency or dial 911.
If you have reported abuse and neglect to the proper authorities and believe your rights are being violated or ignored, reach out to our office for assistance.
It is best to think of our Office as a last resort — someone who will try to help when other approaches have failed. If you have a problem, first discuss it with the person or agency involved, if you feel safe doing so. This gives them a chance to fix the problem. In fact, agency staff can solve most problems more quickly and easily than we can.
If that does not resolve matters, contact the worker's supervisor, program manager, or agency director. We usually expect you to contact the agency with your complaint before you make a complaint to us.
A list of County and Tribal Children’s Services Supervisors and Managers can be found here: County/Tribal Children's Services Supervisors/Managers (state.mn.us)
A list of county websites is available here: County Websites / mn.gov // Minnesota's State Portal
You can also talk to a trusted adult who can try to help you resolve your problem. This could be your parent, kinship caregiver, foster parent, caseworker, foster care worker, the caseworker or foster care worker's supervisor, your Guardian ad Litem (GaL), or other professional working with you.
If you don’t know who to talk to, or what next step to take, contact us. We can point you to the right person and suggest a way to go about solving your problem. If you have already made a reasonable effort and your problem has not been addressed, contact us.
You can also contact us directly if you don’t feel safe making a complaint to the people suggested here.
We handle complaints for people in Minnesota foster care regarding:
You can submit complaints regarding:
We can help you figure out if your complaint is something we can help with. If we can’t help directly, we will do our best to provide advice, information, and referral to the right place. You may want to review other possible complaints bodies here.
You will need to tell us:
We'll also ask you to share any related documents for your complaint (letters, emails, photos, or other documents) and anyone else it may be helpful for us to contact. We will need all the evidence you have to assess your complaint.
Making a complaint is free.
Any person can file a complaint, if their concern is about the rights, care, safety, placement, or services of someone in Minnesota foster care. Complaints from people currently in the Minnesota foster care system are our priority. This includes people in Extended Foster Care and those who have recently aged out of foster care. If someone currently or recently in foster care submits a complaint, we will process it within two business days. Any trusted person is welcome to help submit a complaint form. Making a complaint is free.
When you're ready, there are several ways you can submit your complaint:
If you experience any technical difficulties while trying to submit your complaint online or need further assistance, please call us at 651-946-2940. We are available by phone Monday through Friday, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm.
We review each case to determine if it needs further investigation. Some complaints may be referred to other places for resolution. If you submit a complaint, we will communicate with you as soon as possible regarding the status of your complaint. See here for more information.
While we may not be able to help with an issue you are experiencing, we may be able to help you find the right person to contact. Here are some places you can start:
| I'm looking: | Try contacting: |
| For legal advice | |
| To report abuse or neglect |
Contact the county or reservation where the child lives during business hours. If the child is in immediate risk of harm, please contact your local law enforcement agency or dial 911. |
| To make a complaint about an attorney | Lawyers Professional Responsibilities Board |
| To make a complaint about a judge | Board on Judicial Standards |
| To make a complaint about a Guardian ad Litem | Guardian ad Litem Board |
| To make a complaint about a social worker | |
| To make a different complaint | Other Ombudsperson Offices and Complaint Bodies |
The Office is here to address concerns and questions of foster youth in Minnesota, or foster youth whose case is managed by an agency in Minnesota.
If your foster care is managed by a Minnesota agency, but you live in a different state, we can probably help to address your concern or question. If you aren’t sure if your foster care case began in Minnesota, feel free to go ahead and reach out. We can help figure out whether we are the right office to address your concern, or we can try to direct you to the right person in your state.