Accessing Your Minnesota Foster Care Records: A Guide for Fosters

Hey there—welcome.

If you spent time in foster care in Minnesota and you’re looking for information about your story, you’re in the right place.

At Power of Story, we know how important it can be to understand your past—and how hard it can be to get the answers you deserve.

Looking back on tough times can bring up a lot. Before you start, take a breath. Think about how this might affect you—emotionally, mentally, even physically. You get to decide when and how to begin.

As you go through your records, you might find missing pieces, new facts, or pages with blacked-out sections. You might learn things about your birth family—some helpful, some painful. There could be medical info, good memories, or hard ones you didn’t expect.

Understanding your past can help you make sense of your present. But it’s not always simple. Some records might be confusing, incomplete, or upsetting. That’s okay.

You don’t have to rush. You get to go at your own pace.

No matter what you choose, we want you to feel supported and in control. This is your journey. You deserve to find the pieces that matter to you, in a way that feels safe and right.

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Request Your File

If you were in foster care in Minnesota and want to see records about your time in care, you have the right to ask for them. These records might include where you lived, who was involved in your case, and what kinds of support you received. 

Each county and tribe in Minnesota keeps its own records, so your first step is to contact the county where you were placed. If you’re not sure which counties were involved, you can call the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families at 651-431-4661. They may be able to help you figure that out.

It’s important to know that how long your records are kept depends on what happened in your case. In MN, if your birth parents’ rights were not permanently ended and you were in foster care temporarily, your records are only kept for 10 years after your parents’ case was closed. But if your parents’ rights were terminated in court, or if you were adopted or placed with a new guardian, your records are kept permanently.

You have the legal right to ask for this information under something called the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act. You don’t need a lawyer or special permission—just send a request to each county you were in foster care. However, they will be redacted or blacked out when you receive them back.

You can contact counties by phone or by mail.
To find the mailing address for your county’s office, use this link.

MN County And Tribal Nation Offices

When you write, include:

• Your current full name (and your birth name if it’s different)
• A copy of your ID (to prove who you are)
• Your date of birth and current age
• Your birth parents’ names
• The years you were in foster care (it’s okay to estimate)
• Why you’re asking—“personal reasons” is a perfectly fine answer
• What kind of information you’d like to see*

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After you get your documents

Take a deep, deep breath. Like, all the way in… and out. You’re doing something big.

Grab a pen and some paper. As you read, you might have questions—some might get answered later, and some might not. Writing them down helps you keep track of what you’re wondering.

You can also write down your thoughts or feelings as you go. This is for you—no one else. It can help you notice what stands out, what hurts, what surprises you, or what brings clarity.

Go at your own pace. You can read a little, take a break, come back later. There’s no deadline. This isn’t a test. You’re allowed to take your time.

It’s normal to feel a lot of different things. Confusion, anger, sadness, relief, curiosity… all of it is valid. If the documents feel confusing or overwhelming, that’s completely normal.

If you have a support person you trust—reach out. You can ask them to look through the documents with you. Or, if you’d rather read them alone first, that’s okay too. Just try to check in with someone after.

And here are more MN support resources as well. You are not alone, and you are not the first foster who has walked this road.

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MN Supports

• Foster Advocates – MN Foster Advocacy+ Resource Guide
• Connections to Independence – Hennepin County Resources for Fosters
• The Office of the Foster Youth Ombudsperson – handles complaints from anyone, prioritizing concerns from young people about their rights, care, safety, and placement in Minnesota foster care, including youth in Extended Foster Care and those who have recently aged out of care.
• Children’s Law Center – Free legal representation and advocacy for youth in foster care for 30 years.
• Foster Adopt MN Therapist Directory – Therapists with some Foster/Adoption experience
• Fast Tracker Search – real-time service availability for mental health

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Understand What You Got

One of the biggest issues after you get your documents, is understanding what the heck they actually mean. They are confusing, hard to understand, and filled with huge words.

The documents overall are simply NOT written for you to read. Instead, they are mainly written to professionals* to prove that:

• Your family was struggling so much you couldn’t remain in their care
• You were struggling so much you needed extra help

To prove those things, it is the job of the person writing the document to point out all that was going wrong and very little of what was going right.

Also, when a person is writing to other people who understand similar things, people tend to use a lot of words that are specific to THAT area using slang or jargon. So, if you are not in that profession or familiar with that topic, it is very hard to understand what they are talking about.

So, if you find these hard to understand, it does not mean you are not smart, or capable, only that you don’t understand the “language” of the document or that area. When you come up across a word that is hard to understand there are a few ways to make it more clear.

• Ask your support person if they know what it means.
• Use Rewordify a helpful tool that give more easy-to-understand descriptions for hard-to-understand words, just copy and paste the text onto the website.
• Ask Google for the simple definition of a specific word. Since so many terms mean different things depending on the context, it’s helpful to say what field the word is most likely pertaining to, foster care, medical, education, etc. (For a foster care document: “Foster care simple definition of ______ …”)(For a medical document: “medical simple definition of ______”)(For an education document “education simple definition of _______.”)

Common Child Welfare Terms and Meanings

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Fill in the Holes

After getting the first round of information from the County, there is often still missing information or highly redacted information. Sometimes this is due to a good reason (like court order limiting access) but sometimes, this is due to county workers not knowing what pieces are public information or able to be accessed by the person whom they refer.

Some common pieces that might be missing (more info on each below):

• Sibling contact information
• Court records
• Medical
• Vital Documents
• School Records

If there is any question on the legality of something withheld, redacted, or otherwise not shared, contact the Children’s Law Center at 651.644.4438.

Sibling Contact Information

In Minnesota, the Siblings Bill of Rights protects the right of siblings, including having contact information for siblings still in care or last known contact information if they are no longer in care.

Court Records

Since 2015, most foster care and child protection information is public information and can be accessed (adoption records are sealed). Since court records are based on your birth parents, be sure to search by birth parents’ names (and not your own).

There are a few ways to access this information:

• Online (Free, but limited information)
• In Person at the County Courthouse where you were in care (free to view, $8-14 cost to print per document, but can have more information available, Each Minnesota district courthouse offers electronic access to statewide public case records through public access terminals. Each district courthouse also offers in-person counter access to locally-stored, public case records in paper form. Courthouse public access terminals provide the most complete access to electronic district court case records)
• By Mail (free to view, $8-14 cost to print per document, but can have more information available) Use the following forms to request: Foster Care Documents or Birth Parent Identifying Information, and/or Birth Record Information).

Medical

It is your right to have access to your own medical information. Below is how you can request your records.*

• Medical Records, use this form to consent to the release of all medical records in Minnesota. After completing it, send copies to all known medical providers and hospitals (at birth and beyond). Additional information about MN Statutes and processes for medical records.
• Immunization Records – This is a registry of immunizations for Minnesotans of all ages but at this time more likely to have more data on children.
• Pregnancy/ Labor/Delivery Records – These records will be confidential since they are mostly related to the mother, but a way to get access, would be to discuss your desire to view them with your birth mom and have HER request the documents, using this form.

*Note: if your name has changed over time, be sure to include documents that show that you are still the same person. In the case of adoption, this would be the adoption finalization document, that lists your birth name and your adopted name.

Vital Documents

The records below are used in a variety of ways, and as such, they are called vital (SUPER important) documents and can be accessed by the person whom they are about.

Vital records are things like birth certificates, death certificates, and marriage and divorce records. It is very important to have these documents and to know where they are, as they will be required for a wide variety of things as they provide your citizenship, your identity and age.

They are used when you apply for a drivers license or passport, travel abroad, enroll in school, get married, join the military, become a foster parent, adopt, claim pension, insurance or government benefits.

Additional information from MN Office of Vital Records

• Birth Certificate – One certified copy of a birth certificate costs $26. Marriage status of the child when born matters!! If born to married parents, the birth certificate is public and can be requested by the person themselves, their legal parents, their grandparent or great grandparent, their child, grandchild or great-grandchild, their current spouse and more. If born to a single parent, the birth certificate is confidential and only available to the person themselves if over 16, their legal parents (that are named on the record) and under court order.
• Death Certificate – One certified death certificate costs $13, can include cause of death information
• Marriage Certificates – Anyone can look up marriage records in Minnesota Official Marriage System (MOMS), a searchable online public database of marriage certificates, some limitations on older records. $9 fee to request a physical copy.
• Divorce Decrees – Are available from the county district court office that granted the divorce.
• Social Security Card – no charge for replacement (Need birth certificate BEFORE applying)

School Records

• Elementary, Jr + Senior High Records in Minnesota – can be requested by you (the student) your parents or legal guardians, needs to be submitted to each school separately
• College Transcripts – can be requested by you (the student)

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About this Guide

In Minnesota, fosters who are over 18 years old, and have aged out or are in extended foster care, can have their foster care records, vital documents, and publicly accessible information. These items are otherwise known as their “file,” but the process process of requesting and reviewing is emotionally charged, confusing and varies based on where they live within MN.

This guide is an approachable and easy-to-understand way to help those who want to more about themselves and their time in foster care.

*For fosters who spent time in MN foster care, but then were later adopted, some of the information you can access and how to get that information will be different. More information on MN record searches for adult adoptees.