New Action in Federal Lawsuit Charges Wisconsin is Failing to Protect and Serve Children in Foster C

PRESS RELEASE

Child advocates filed a new complaint today in the federal lawsuit, Jeanine B. v. Tommy G. Thompson, charging that Wisconsin is failing to protect and serve children in Milwaukee County's child welfare system. The state took over the system in January 1998 in response to this class action lawsuit on behalf of all children in Milwaukee foster care 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. In the supplemental complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, attorneys from Children's Rights, Inc. (CRI) and the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation (ACLU) charge 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 are worse off now than before the state takeover.

Based on information gathered from DHFS's own documents and interviews with participants in the child welfare system, including children's court judges, district attorneys, as well as law guardians and foster parents of the children, the complaint describes a system overwhelmed and understaffed and rife with systemic violations of children's rights:

The number of Milwaukee children in foster care has risen 20% in the last year - from 5,678 to 6,850 - and caseloads have jumped to as many as 70 children per caseworker, more than three times the national standard.

Overwhelmed and untrained social workers fail to visit and monitor children in foster homes, with often more than a year between visits.

Foster parents must fight to get even basic services or support from the system and many are quitting in frustration.

With too few licensed foster homes, children are put into unlicensed homes or, when no homes are available, into emergency children's shelters.
When children's shelters reach maximum capacity, an emergency status called "Code Red" is declared. Code Red is declared every week in Milwaukee County.

"The system in Milwaukee County was strained before the state took over but children are in even greater danger today than a year ago," said Marcia Robinson Lowry, Executive Director of Children's Rights, a national advocacy organization for children. "The state's own documents as well as the stories of foster parents show clearly that the state is not responding to the rapid rise in foster care placements resulting from Wisconsin's welfare reform policies. Since the state has not acted responsibly, even in the midst of a known crisis, we must ask the court to step in."

"The state takeover of the Milwaukee County system appears, even more clearly now, to have been a disingenuous attempt to avoid federal court intervention," stated Peter Koneazny, Legal Director for the ACLU of Wisconsin. "In rushing to set up a new system with different players, the state created a fragmented system combining the worst of government bureaucracy and cost cutting privatization. The takeover has sent the system into disarray so severe that it many never recover."

The new supplemental complaint in Jeanine B. v. Tommy G. Thompson sets forth a series of systemic violations of children's rights by the state: They include the following:

Inadequate Services for Children

With a high percentage of case worker positions vacant, children go for months and even years without a visit from their social worker. · Children are not receiving necessary medical and educational services. · Children are being moved from home to home without any consideration of the negative impact on the child. One eleven year old girl was moved five times in two weeks. · Allegations of abuse and neglect in foster homes are not investigated or acted upon.

Inadequate Planning for Adoption

At least 3,200 of the 6,850 children in state custody have been in foster care over 15 months but few cases are prepared for adoption as required by new federal law.

Inadequate Support and Services for Foster Parents

Foster parents requesting services for children from the state face threats by the state to remove children from homes where they have lived successfully for years.

As a result of poor treatment by the state, qualified foster parents are quitting.
Without necessary supports from the state, foster parents with special needs children are requesting removal of these children.

Unlicensed Foster Homes

Children are put into unlicensed foster homes that have not undergone even a cursory background check. Children remain for six to nine months in these unlicensed homes.

The state threatens to revoke foster parents' licenses if they do not accept children whose care will cause the home to exceed its licensed capacity.

Inconsistent Support in Kinship Care

Children placed with relatives are often left in that home even if it is denied kinship care payment approval due to a criminal records background check.

Other kinship homes previously approved for kinship care payments are terminated for alleged disqualifications. The affected children are also left in those homes.

High Caseloads

Case workers are often responsible for over 70 children at any one time - more than three times the national professional standard.

High Staff Turnover and Vacancy Rates
The overall vacancy rate for workers directly involved in children's cases is over 30%
One service-delivery site had a 64% vacancy rate of social workers - 32 of 50 positions were vacant.

Poor Training

Case workers are often inexperienced and not offered adequate training.

One caseworker without any training or previous experience was immediately assigned eight ongoing cases with no case plans and four new cases involving abuse and neglect allegations. She received no formal training until after five weeks on the job.

Poor Supervision

Supervisors are overseeing up to 13 caseworkers; the national standard is five.

Supervisors directly cover cases themselves because of unfilled worker vacancies, further impeding their ability to effectively supervise other workers.

Lack of Case Management System

The state has repeatedly been directed and given funding to develop an automated case management system for the child welfare system in Milwaukee County by the state legislature since the passing of 1995 Wisconsin Act 303. It has yet to do so. · As a result, state defendants are incapable of accurately tracking service delivery to children in foster care so that they know when the children's needs are not being met.

Minimal Services by For-Profit Agencies

In two of the five service-delivery sites responsible for on-going services to children and their families, DHFS has contracted with a private for-profit vendor to serve as the lead agency.

Service providers are operating under contracts that allot a fixed amount to serve clients and allow for a profit margin if services are delivered for less than the fixed amount.
This arrangement creates a financial incentive for agencies to provide minimal services as cheaply as possible.

"We know that Milwaukee children are in danger and are now concerned that these private operators are profiting on their misfortune," said Ms. Lowry. "We're asking the court to protect these children before more are harmed, since it appears that the state will not."

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

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.