Memory Care in Minnesota (2026): Rules & Cost

In Minnesota, memory care is a specific kind of assisted living: an Assisted Living Facility with Dementia Care, a distinct state license.1 If you're arranging dementia care for a parent here, that license is the thing to confirm first, because it carries concrete safeguards written into state law. This guide walks through what those safeguards require, what it costs, and how to vet a place.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• What Memory Care in Minnesota Is
• The Safeguards Behind a Secured Dementia Care Unit
• What Memory Care Costs in Minnesota
• How to Vet a Memory-Care Facility
• Frequently Asked Questions

What Memory Care in Minnesota Is

When you start calling places, "memory care" gets used as if it's one licensed thing. In Minnesota it's more precise than that, and the precision works in your favor. Memory care here is delivered inside an Assisted Living Facility with Dementia Care, one of two license types under the state's Assisted Living Licensure, administered by the Minnesota Department of Health.3 That licensure took effect August 1, 2021, replacing the older housing-with-services registration framework, and it draws a clear line between an ordinary Assisted Living Facility and one that holds itself out as providing specialized dementia care.3

The dementia care license is the one that matters for memory care. A facility that operates a secured dementia care unit, a designated area that is locked or secured to prevent or limit residents from exiting, must hold it.1 The same license covers any assisted living facility that advertises or promotes itself as providing specialized care for Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, secured unit or not.1 So if a place advertises memory care, the dementia care license is the first thing you confirm.

What makes that license more than a label is what state law attaches to it. A secured unit restricts a person's freedom of movement, and Minnesota treats that as a setting that has to be staffed and built to a higher standard, not just marketed as specialized. The safeguards below are written into Minnesota Statutes chapter 144G, so they're questions you can ask of any licensed place in the state.

One thing to settle early is how you'll pay. Standard assisted living in Minnesota is largely private-pay, but the state's Medical Assistance Elderly Waiver can cover the services portion (what Minnesota calls customized living) delivered in an assisted living facility for people who qualify and meet a nursing-home level of care, while the resident pays room and board.3 It doesn't pay the room-and-board piece, so plan for that separately.

The Safeguards Behind a Secured Dementia Care Unit

A secured dementia care unit in Minnesota isn't just a locked door with a nice common room. State law sets three concrete requirements you can ask about directly, and a place that can't answer them plainly is telling you something.1

The awake-staff rule is the one you feel at 2 a.m. Minnesota requires a staff member to be awake and physically present in the secured unit around the clock, not on call from another floor and not asleep at a desk.1 A resident with dementia may become disoriented or try to leave in the middle of the night, and the awake-staff requirement is the protection behind those hours. When you tour, ask exactly how many awake staff are on the unit overnight and what happens if that person steps away.

It's also the one rule in the dementia care section of the law that the state can't waive. A facility can ask the commissioner for a variance or waiver from the section's other provisions, but not from the awake-staff requirement.1 So if a place mentions a waiver, ask exactly which requirement it covers.

The licensing checks are the second safeguard. The Department of Health must inspect a facility on site before it issues a dementia care license, to confirm the physical environment complies, and if the facility's assisted living director and clinical nurse supervisor have no experience managing residents with dementia, it must employ a consultant for at least its first six months.1 Ask how long the current leadership has run dementia care, and what training the aides on the unit actually get and how often it's refreshed.

The Life Safety Code requirement is quieter but it's real. A secured unit must meet the applicable provisions of the 2018 Life Safety Code (NFPA 101), the national fire and building-safety standard, but the minimum design standards are required for new licenses and new construction, and the requirement that the whole facility have a supervised automatic sprinkler system doesn't take effect until August 1, 2029.1 So in an older building, don't assume either one. In a locked setting fire safety matters more than usual, because residents can't simply walk out an exit on their own in an emergency. Ask whether the building is sprinklered throughout, whether the unit meets the 2018 design standards, and when it was last inspected.

What Memory Care in Minnesota Costs

Cost is usually what families brace for, and the honest answer is that there's no clean single number for memory care in Minnesota. The state doesn't publish one, and because memory care isn't its own surveyed category, the industry surveys that track senior-care prices don't isolate it the way they isolate assisted living.

What we do have is a solid anchor for the base. Per the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey (data collected mid-to-late 2025, released March 2026, the most recent state-level data), the assisted-living median in Minnesota is roughly $77,790 to $78,870 a year (about $6,500 a month), the 18th highest rate among the states and above the national median of $6,200 a month ($74,400 a year). CareScout's own Minnesota release and its ranked state tables give those two slightly different figures for the same private one-bedroom basis, so treat it as a range.2 Memory care costs more than that, here as everywhere, because a secured dementia care unit means heavier staffing, the awake 24/7 coverage the state requires, dementia-specific training, and a secured physical layout. How much more depends on the facility, its size, and the level of care, and because CareScout collects rates by metro area, what a particular Minnesota community charges can sit well above or below the state median.2 Treat memory care as a premium on top of the assisted-living base rather than a fixed figure, and be skeptical of any source that quotes one precise statewide number for it.

For context, the same survey puts a semi-private nursing-home room in Minnesota at about $10,646 a month ($127,750 a year), the 21st highest rate among the states, and a private room at about $13,870 a month ($166,440 a year), 14th.2 Both sit above the national medians of about $315 a day ($114,975 a year) semi-private and $355 a day ($129,575 a year) private.2 Minnesota runs above the national median in every setting the survey tracks, so don't plan against a national number here.2 Those are industry-survey figures, not government numbers, so use them to set expectations, then get a specific written quote from any place you're serious about. The advertised figure is almost always a base rate. Ask each facility what the base includes, how it charges as care needs grow, how it reassesses care as dementia progresses, and how often rates rise. Two places with the same headline price can land far apart once the dementia-care fees are in.

If your parent qualifies and meets a nursing-home level of care, the Medical Assistance Elderly Waiver can pay the services portion of customized living in an assisted living facility, while they pay room and board.3 It won't cover everything, but for a family stretched thin it's worth checking eligibility before you assume the whole bill is private-pay.

How to Vet a Memory-Care Facility

You don't have to become an expert in dementia care to make a good decision. You have to confirm the place is licensed for what it's doing and ask the questions Minnesota's rules hand you.

Tour at least a couple of places. The goal isn't a perfect one. It's a place whose limits you understand going in, and whose license and staffing you've confirmed rather than taken on faith.

Learn More

Find personalized help comparing memory care in Minnesota at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.