By Gina Barton of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 4, 2009
State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) plans to introduce a bill this month that would require more information to be made public when a child dies or is seriously injured in foster care.
The chair of the Senate Committee on Children and Families and Workforce Development, Sen. Robert Jauch (D-Poplar), said there is no doubt the committee will address both transparency and accountability within the state's child welfare system during the legislative session that starts today. He plans to hold hearings to address the problems children and families face, with an eye toward comprehensive reform.
The calls for change come after the death of Christopher Thomas, a 13-month-old boy who died in foster care in November. Police say he and his 2-year-old sister were abused for months by Crystal Keith, 24, their aunt. Keith, who told police that she regularly beat the children, has been charged with reckless homicide and child abuse.
They had been removed from their mother's home because of neglect.
Since Christopher's death, several administrative and personnel changes already have occurred. The state's Department of Children and Families has planned sweeping reforms, including having nurses evaluate young children in foster care. Denise Revels Robinson, who served as director of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare at the time of Christopher's death, asked to be transferred. La Causa, which had provided case management and safety services for 650 of the bureau's cases, announced that it would terminate its $11 million contract with the state.
"The decision by La Causa to walk away from their contractual obligation does provide Wisconsin and the community with the opportunity to re-create the child welfare system to restore confidence and be sure all children have safe and secure living environments," Jauch said.
Within about a month, he hopes to schedule a series of panels that would include children, families, community advocates, Milwaukee legislators and city leaders, child welfare caseworkers and representatives from the state Department of Children and Families.
"This is an issue much bigger than all of us, and I think we have to use the best ideas from all parties to put together both new partnerships that don't take law changes and also legislation that the committee could produce," Jauch said.
In addition to bipartisan and community support, the changes Jauch envisions also would take money, which is in short supply these days. The nation is in recession, and Gov. Jim Doyle estimates a two-year budget deficit of $5.4 billion for the state. Jauch is hopeful, however, that the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will put more money into social welfare programs than his predecessor.
"We're going to have to find a way to put money into this problem," he said. "Even though it won't be enough, we've got to find a way to do it."
Darling's bill, meanwhile, addresses a specific obstacle that already has come to light during the course of the Christopher Thomas investigation: secrecy. Current law strictly limits what officials can say about children's deaths and when they can say it. At a meeting last month, Reggie Bicha, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, called the secrecy provisions of the law "terribly frustrating."
The public's need for information, necessary to provide checks on the child welfare system, must be balanced with the privacy of the children whose lives are affected, Bicha said then.
Darling hopes her bill will do just that.
Under current law, child welfare officials police themselves and provide information to the Legislature and the public only if they determine that a child's death or serious injury was suspicious. Otherwise, they don't reveal anything but the most basic information - sometimes not even the cause of death.
Further, even when children die, current law never requires disclosure of information. Rather, the law permits disclosure only if someone is charged with a crime or if the information already has been revealed by the courts, law enforcement, or the child's family. There also are no deadlines for when information should be reported.
Darling's proposal would require that more information be made public, including the cause of death, age, gender and race of the child, and details about the family's involvement with the child welfare system. Officials also would have to list their reasons for whether or not the death or injury was suspicious.
Local agencies would have to report incidents to the state Department of Children and Families within two days. The department would have to issue a report to the Legislature and the public within 120 days.
Provisions to protect the identities of the children, their families and the person who reported the abuse or death would remain intact. A provision prohibiting the release of information that would jeopardize the fairness of a criminal or civil investigation also is part of Darling's bill.
She also wants to ensure that all children's deaths are reviewed, not just those deemed suspicious by internal investigations.
"For several years we've been demanding the accountability, and still it isn't there," she said. "We have to learn from these tragedies and prevent more of them from happening, and it should be done on a timely basis."
Sen. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee), who serves with Darling on the Milwaukee Child Welfare Partnership Council, said public access to information and government accountability go hand in hand. More disclosure would certainly help officials identify potentially dangerous trends, he said.
"With the numbers of reported incidents and deaths, the question becomes: Is there a pattern that we can institutionally eliminate so that more children are safe within these foster home type situations?" he asked.
Hearings could go a long way toward finding an answer, he said.
State Rep. Josh Zepnick (D-Milwaukee) said hearings also could help reconcile a disconnect between bureaucracy and families.
"There's a massive collision between a public demand that the state run a safe program and the hard reality of trying to place children in private homes and monitor them and make sure that things go right," he said. "How do you set policies that the whole state can adhere to when you have so many individual families that you have to manage?"
Jauch vowed that this two-year legislative session would bring a renewed commitment to protecting children.
"We have a moral and social responsibility to care for every child as well as we care for our own," he said. "In memory of Christopher Thomas, we have to step up our efforts to provide adequate resources, training, oversight and responsible accountability measures."
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