A report was released Wednesday taking a look at the foster care system in Milwaukee County. Several foster parents, case managers and child advocates were interviewed for the study. Most said the lines of communication among people and agencies involved need to be improved. WUWM’s LaToya Dennis has more.
The state of foster care in Milwaukee County has been called into question numerous times in recent years. Back in November, 13-month-old Christopher Thomas was beaten to death by his foster mother, who was also his aunt. The baby’s death was the catalyst for the study by the Planning Council for Health and Human Services. Executive Director Kathleen Pritchard says although such incidents are rare, there was a need to take a look at what’s going on in the system.
“According to the federal data, it’s like 99.5 percent of children are safe. But of course any child who is foster care who is not safe is of concern,” Pritchard says.
The study was commissioned by the Bright Futures Milwaukee Fund. The Planning Council interviewed dozens of people involved in the system, including foster and biological parents and case workers. People talked about how they feel the system works and where improvements can be made. Pritchard says her organization found that many services available to foster parents and caseworkers are underutilized.
“We have here a Child Protection Center that’s a really good resource, but it’s not being used as much as it should. There are some really good collaborative relationships between the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare in providing training, but again some people say that there certainly could be more done,” Pritchard says.
Last night, Pritchard spoke about the report at a community meeting. She told the group that just about everyone interviewed for the report described the system as fragmented. She says half way through the study she stopped referring to what Milwaukee County has as a “system.”
“I’m a political scientist by training and a system means you have a group of interdependent items that interact regularly to perform a task. That’s not the way we heard this described to us. We heard about lots of isolated and sincere, but siloed actions, Pritchard says. David Evans attended last night’s meeting. He works for Citizens Protecting Abused Children, also known as CPAC. He says a lot of problems could be avoided if communication was improved when children are first removed from their homes.
“So it’s a lack of understanding from a parent when their children are removed and a lack of communication with the case worker on explaining in a good way where a parent can understand,” Evans says.
Other recommendations in the report include identifying family problems early on so kids don’t end up in foster care and making sure foster parents know the rules of the system and what to expect. The report also says Milwaukee County’s Child Welfare System needs more caseworkers. Right now, each caseworker in the county is assigned to more than 21 kids on average. That far exceeds the national recommendation of between 12 and 15 kids for every social worker. Deborah Blanks is CEO of the Social Development Commission, which helps low income people in Milwaukee. She’s also president of the Planning Council Board.
“I think the recommendations are great. The concern is then how do we take those and move them forward?” Blanks says.
Blanks says some of these recommendations have been made before. She says now it’s time to act.
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