Ratified in Congress Hall, Philadelphia Saturday April 28, 1973.
EVEN more than for other children, society has a responsibility along with parents for the well-being of foster children. Citizens are responsible for acting to ensure their welfare.

EVERY foster child is endowed with the rights inherently belonging to all children. In addition, because of the temporary or permanent separation from and loss of parents and other family members, the foster child requires special safeguards, resources, and care.

EVERY FOSTER CHILD HAS THE INHERENT RIGHT:

• Article I… To be cherished by a family of his own, either his family helped by readily available services and supports to reassume his care, or an adoptive family or by plan, a continuing foster family.
• Article II… To be nurtured by foster parents who have been selected to meet his individual needs, and who are provided services and supports, including specialized education, so that they can grow in their ability to enable the child to reach his potential.
• Article the III… To receive sensitive, continuing help in understanding and accepting the reasons for his own family’s inability to take care of him, and in developing confidence in his own self-worth..
• Article IV… To receive continuing loving care and respect as a unique human being ….a child growing in trust in himself and others.
• Article V… To grow up in freedom and dignity in a neighborhood of people who accept him with understanding, respect and friendship.
• Article VI… To receive help in overcoming deprivation or whatever distortion in his emotional, physical, intellectual, social and spiritual growth may have resulted from his early experiences.
• Article VII… To receive education, training, and career guidance to prepare him for a useful and satisfying life.
• Article VIII… To receive preparation for citizenship and parenthood.

Revisor of Statutes
This website will show you the language of the Minnesota Law that addresses the issue pertaining to the tuition waiver available to state wards. A state ward is a youth whose parents’ rights have been terminated and who remains under the legal guardianship of the State of Minnesota until they reach the age of 21. State wards (21 and under) are eligible for a tuition waiver to any public university, college, vocational, or technical school in the State of Minnesota.