White Earth Children in Out-of-Home Care, 2016–2024
Verified from Minnesota's own annual reports.
Between 2016 and 2024, the number of White Earth children in out-of-home care during the
year fell from 411 to 134, and the rate fell from 205.5 to 56.8 per 1,000 children under
18, by the state's own count. The peak was 2017: 500 children, 250.9 per 1,000, about one
in four White Earth children. Set beside the statewide rate for all Minnesota children
(11.3 in 2016, 7.2 in 2024), the White Earth rate ran about eight to twenty times higher in
every year of the period. Every figure is taken from Minnesota's annual Out-of-home Care
and Permanency Report; each edition is linked below, so every number can be checked at its
source.
White Earth children in out-of-home care, 2016–2024
(Minnesota's Out-of-home Care and Permanency Report)
White Earth children in out-of-home care, 2016–2024 (Minnesota's Out-of-home Care and Permanency Report)
| Year |
Children in care during the year |
White Earth rate per 1,000 |
Minnesota rate per 1,000 |
| 2016 | 411 | 205.5 | 11.3 |
|---|
| 2017 | 500 | 250.9 | 12.5 |
|---|
| 2018 | 470 | 235.2 | 12.7 |
|---|
| 2019 | 390 | 192.3 | 11.2 |
|---|
| 2020 | 291 | 140.3 | 9.8 |
|---|
| 2021 | 259 | 117.8 | 8.7 |
|---|
| 2022 | 209 | 93.8 | 8.1 |
|---|
| 2023 | 161 | 68.8 | 7.6 |
|---|
| 2024 | 134 | 56.8 | 7.2 |
|---|
The table scrolls sideways to show all four columns →
Method notes
- Counts and rates. Each row is the White Earth Nation figures in that year's
edition: children who experienced out-of-home care at any point in the year, and the rate
per 1,000 children under 18. The rate counts only children under 18; the totals include a
small number of youth aged 18 or older (in 2023: 161 children in care, 143 of them under 18;
in 2024: 134 in care, 118 of them under 18).
- Population base. Each edition divides by a fixed Census-based count of White
Earth children: 1,981 in editions through 2020 (2010 Census); 2,079 in editions from 2021
(2020 Census). The counts are children residing on the reservation who indicated American
Indian alone or as one of two or more races; the reports note there are no intercensal
estimates for these groups.
- Statewide column. The same measure for all Minnesota children, from the same
tables in the same editions.
- To check a row. The 2023 edition (Table 3) reads, for White Earth Nation: 38
entered care, 123 continued, 161 total in care, 143 under 18, population 2,079, rate 68.8.
The 2024 edition (Table 3) reads, for White Earth Nation: 54 entered care, 82 continued, 134
total in care, 118 under 18, population 2,079, rate 56.8. Each row above is that same row in
its own year's edition. All nine editions have been re-downloaded and every row re-checked
against the published tables (the 2016–2023 editions on September 11, 2026; the 2024 edition
on September 17, 2026).
- What this page is not. These are the state's numbers as published. The page
records placements; it does not explain them.
Sources
Minnesota's Out-of-home Care and Permanency Report, annual editions.
(Minnesota Department of Human Services through the 2021 edition; Minnesota Department of
Children, Youth, and Families from the 2022 edition.)