The Minnesota child and dependent care credit helps to balance expenses paid to someone who cared for your child (or other qualifying person) while you worked or looked for employment. Certain qualification must be met in order to claim this refundable credit.

On June 11, 2010, the Dakota County District Courts began the implementation of a new pilot program for family law cases known as the Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE) program.  It was designed for all dissolution cases with children in an attempt to direct divorcing parents to neutral evaluators early in the court process. The parties can choose a Financial ENE to help resolve financial disputes, or a Social ENE to help resolve custody and parenting time disputes, or both.

On June 20, 2011, following an appeal by Anthony Darst, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a decision from the district court which had granted substantial visitation rights to Roxanne Givens, the maternal grandmother of Darst’s son.  The district court granted Givens visitation every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and every other weekend from Friday evening through Sunday evening.  According to the Court of Appeals, the district court's order treated Givens as a noncustodial parent and imposed a schedule that interfered with the father's parent-child relationship.

In 2008, the Minnesota Legislature put together a Study Group to consider the impact that a presumption of joint physical custody would have in Minnesota. The Study Group was provided with the proposed legislation that, if passed, would create a rebuttable presumption that joint physical custody is in the best interests of the child. Currently, Minnesota courts review specific situations of individual children to determine their best interests in regards to physical custody. Under a rebuttable presumption, Minnesota courts would assume that structuring routine daily care, control, and residence between both parents is in the best interests of all children. The burden of seeking a best interests determination would shift to an objecting parent who would have to prove that joint physical custody is not in the child’s best interest.