Local Public Health Act Annual Reporting
Each year, Minnesota community health boards are required to report on staffing, finance, and performance measures to help identify and understand trends in how Minnesota's local public health system operates. This is called the Local Public Health Act annual reporting because it's required in Minnesota's Local Public Health Act (Minn. Stat. § 145A).
Reporting is typically open from mid-February through March each year to report data for the previous calendar year.
Local Public Health Act annual reporting is open through March 31, 2025.
About calendar year 2024 annual reporting (reported by March 31, 2025)
Community health boards can expect the following for calendar year 2024 reporting:
Finance and staffing: No major changes.
- Foundational Public Health Responsibility Grant: Reporting on the match for the Foundational Public Health Responsibilities Grant will follow the same format as the Local Public Health Grant.
- Language updates: Reporting will have new language to match the six areas of responsibility to components of the Foundational Public Health Responsibilities Framework. This does not require any changes in local data collection systems.
- COVID-19: Continue reporting on expenditures, if applicable.
- Follow-up questions: Some will be removed.
Instructions for reporting can be found here: Instructions for LPH Act Annual Reporting
Performance-related accountability requirement: Community health boards must demonstrate the ability to meet national measure 1.3.3 (using data to inform public health actions) with a brief narrative example and guided reflection for system learning.
More information and instructions for reporting can be found here: Accountability Requirements for the Local Public Health Act
- Performance measures: All community health boards will self-report (on a scale from fully met to not met) on their ability to meet a set of 46 national measures. See the recommendations report, appendix A, for the full list of measures: Performance Measurement and Performance-Related Accountability Requirements Approved Recommendations (PDF)
Instructions for reporting can be found here: Instructions for LPH Act Annual Reporting
Recorded webinar: For more information on how to complete LPH Act annual reporting, watch the webinar LPH Act Annual Reporting | Feb. 21, 2025 (SharePoint)
Office hours are being held in March 2025 to help local public health through LPH Act annual reporting. See the dates below. CHS administrators were emailed the meeting links. You can also email health.ophp@state.mn.us if you need the meeting links.
Future alignment of finance and staffing to Foundational Public Health Responsibility (FPHR) Framework
Finance and staff reporting is transitioning to align with the Foundational Public Health Responsibilities Framework to synchronize with Minnesota's system transformation efforts.
Foundational capabilities
During the calendar year 2026, community health boards should collect information on staff and finance in two capability buckets:
- All foundational capabilities together (except emergency preparedness and response)
- Emergency preparedness and response
Foundational areas
During calendar year 2026, community health boards should collect information on staff and finance in these five area buckets. Community health boards will need to distinguish expenditures and staffing between activities that are foundational in every community from the important, community-specific activities:
- Communicable Disease Control: Foundational in every community versus community-specific
- Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention: Foundational in every community versus community-specific
- Environmental Public Health: Foundational in every community versus community-specific
- Maternal, Child, and Family Health: Foundational in every community versus community-specific
- Access to and Linkage with Clinical Care: Foundational in every community versus community-specific
Action items
- View the recording:
- Learn about the new changes to LPH Act annual reporting: LPH Act Annual Reporting Changes Webinar | Sept. 30, 2024
- Learn more: Review materials about the FPHR framework and what's foundational in Minnesota: Foundational Public Health Responsibilities and Framework - MN Dept. of Health
- Consider joining the FPHR Community of Practice: FPHR Community of Practice - MN Dept. of Health
- Attend office hours: Public Health Practice staff will be available to answer questions about this annual reporting shift on the following Fridays, from 10 to 11 a.m.:
- April 18, 2025
- May 9, 2025
- May 30, 2025
- June 20, 2025
- July 11, 2025
- August 1, 2025
- August 22, 2025
- September 12, 2025
- October 3, 2025
- October 24, 2025
- November 14, 2025
- December 5, 2025
CHS administrators and public health directors will receive the meeting link via a CHS-PHN Update email. If you need the meeting links, please email health.ophp@state.mn.us.
- Frequently asked questions: Responses to questions about the staff and finance annual reporting shift can be found here: FAQs About LPH Act Annual Reporting Shift (PDF)
Support for annual reporting
If you need access to REDCap for annual reporting, please email Ghazaleh Dadres at ghazaleh.dadres@state.mn.us. CHS administrators, directors, and requested staff have access to the annual reporting projects.
If you need help troubleshooting REDCap, visit this resource page: Help with REDCap for LPH Act annual reporting - MN Dept. of Health. You can also let us know at health.ophp@state.mn.us.
For non-REDCap help and questions, email health.ophp@state.mn.us or contact your public health system consultant: Who is my public health system consultant? - MN Dept. of Health.
Related
- LPH Act annual reporting frequently asked questions
- Title V MCH Block Grant: The Minnesota Department of Health maintains information for Minnesota's Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant and will communicate directly with local public health leadership about Title V reporting.
- Contact database for community health boards: Please keep your community health board's contact information updated here.
- Local public health assessment and planning: Learn more about strategic plans, community health assessment and improvement planning, and more.
- Requirements for the Local Public Health Act: Community health boards have statutory responsibility under the Local Public Health Act. There are two components to compliance: statutory requirements and performance-related accountability requirements