Milwaukee Child Welfare Agency Destroyed and Falsified State Records About Treatment of Children in

PRESS RELEASE

Children's lawyers ask judge for an order to halt further destruction of evidence in lawsuit seeking reform of Milwaukee's failing child welfare system.

(March 1, 2001 - Milwaukee) Lawyers representing children in the Milwaukee foster care system filed papers today in U.S. District Court charging that Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare (BMCW) children's case records detailing their treatment in foster care have been intentionally destroyed, altered and falsified on an ongoing basis. The plaintiff children's lawyers have asked the court for a hearing to receive evidence, issue an injunction against further destruction of this evidence, and to appoint a special investigator.

The court papers assert that children's records were destroyed, altered and falsified in order to claim that the agency is in compliance with state and federal requirements. Those requirements must be met if the agency is to continue receiving public funds and are expressly designed to ensure that children receive the protection and care they need while in state foster care custody.

Recent deposition testimony by Bureau staff includes the following facts:

*Denise Revels-Robinson, the BMCW director, repeatedly directed casework staff, during the second half of the year 2000, to modify case records relating to "high profile" cases after special case reviews of those cases had identified deficiencies.
*A State review of the out-of-home care program found that approximately 10 out of the fifty cases reviewed appeared to have foster home licenses that were backdated.
*A State review of the safety services program found indications that some of the documents that are completed weekly were either postdated or predated.
*The court papers have been filed in the class-action lawsuit, Jeanine B. v. Scott McCallum which claims that children in the Milwaukee foster care system are being harmed by widespread mismanagement and violations of federal law.

"Falsifying children's case treatment records is not only illegal, it harms the very children this system is supposed to help," said Eric Thompson, lead attorney on the Jeannine B. case for Children's Rights, a national advocacy organization for children. "Such practices undermine the court's ability to protect children and jeopardize federal funding for the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare's foster care services."

A federal audit of state child welfare systems, due to start next month, will be conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, now headed by the former governor of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson.

"The state is to blame for such flagrant misconduct," stated Micabil Diaz-Martinez, Legal Director at the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation. "The child welfare system provides so little oversight, support and resources to its contract agencies that they are systematically failing to meet the needs of the children in their care. We are asking for a court appointed investigator to investigate the alleged fraud and report back to the court within three weeks."

BACKGROUND ON THE JEANINE B. LAWSUIT

May 1993: Jeanine B. v. Tommy G. Thompson lawsuit filed on behalf of all children in Milwaukee foster care.

January 1998: The state took over the child welfare system in response to the lawsuit and is now directly responsible for providing these children with appropriate placement, care, permanency and other necessary services, and protecting them from harm while in state custody.

June 1999: A supplemental complaint was filed charging that despite years of planning and a year and a half of implementation by the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), children in the Milwaukee foster care system were worse off than before the state takeover. The June complaint described a system overwhelmed and understaffed and rife with systemic violations of children's rights:

*The number of Milwaukee children in foster care had risen 20% in the last year - from 5,678 to 6,850 - and caseloads jumped to as many as 70 children per caseworker, more than three times the national standard.
*Overwhelmed and untrained social workers failed to visit and monitor children in foster homes, with often more than a year between visits.
*Foster parents had to fight to get even basic services or support from the system and many were quitting in frustration.
*With too few licensed foster homes, children were put into unlicensed homes or, when no homes were available, into emergency children's shelters.

The ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, Inc. is the litigation and public education arm of the ACLU's Wisconsin affiliate.

Additional pro-bono co-counsel for the Jeanine B. lawsuit are the Minneapolis law firms of Dorsey &Whitney LLP and Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett, P.A.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.