Milwaukee County Foster Care System Under Fire

[Dazeemay]

More foster kids abused in 2004, analysis finds
County children faced greater number of moves
By MARY ZAHN
[email protected]
Posted: March 16, 2005
The number of Milwaukee County children being abused or neglected after being placed in foster homes for safekeeping increased last year, along with the number of times foster children were forced to move to different placements, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the state-run Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare.

Meanwhile, more than 50% of the case managers responsible for monitoring the care of these children quit their jobs last year, records show. Of 233 case managers employed in January 2004, 129 had left by the end of the year.

"What we have seen is a jump in the wrong direction," said Eric Thompson, senior staff attorney with Children's Rights, a New York-based advocacy group. "We took them out of their homes to protect them and put them in harm's way again."
Forty-one foster children were abused or neglected last year, compared with 32 in 2003, records show.
Thompson's organization settled a federal lawsuit in 2002 that alleged the foster care system in Milwaukee County routinely failed to protect children. The state took over Milwaukee County's child welfare system in 1998 in response to the lawsuit. The two periodic reports released Wednesday are required under that agreement and are done by Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare managers.


Improvements jeopardized
"Most of the improvements in recent years are in jeopardy because the bureau has been unable to stabilize its work force," Thompson said in an interview Tuesday. "Foster children are being subjected to more placement moves and are at higher risk of maltreatment. Without immediate and decisive action, children will continue to suffer the consequences."

Denise Revels Robinson, director of the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, acknowledged the problems cited in the reports but said "substantial improvements" continue to be made. As examples, she cited a significant increase in the number of foster children receiving early health screenings and dental care, low caseloads averaging 11 families per case manager and increased training opportunities for foster parents.

"Overall I am pleased with the progress the bureau is making," she said.

Communication problems
Among the issues mentioned repeatedly in the reports are the continuing gaps in communication between foster care workers, case managers, adoption workers and foster parents - problems that have also been noted in reports from previous years.

Case managers responsible for providing services to children in foster care and their families received the lowest score in their efforts to "engage families in services" and in "assessment of client needs," records show. Initial assessment workers who are responsible for investigating initial abuse and neglect referrals also received low scores in the latter category, as did safety service workers responsible for providing in-home services to troubled families.

"The importance of this finding cannot be overestimated," the report states. "If workers misinterpret, misunderstand, or misidentify family issues and concerns, then any success they have is largely accidental . . . an inability to engage the parents early on in the case process reduces the likelihood of reunification."

Revels Robinson said that coordinated service teams, which bring families, case managers and other key people together on a regular basis to discuss cases, were started in late 2003 to improve communication.

However, the reports state that these meetings are not occurring consistently, sometimes don't take place at all, and often do not include key players. Nine families interviewed for the reports said the purpose of the meetings was not explained to them. Twelve parents said nothing had changed as a result of the meetings.

"We are going to continue to get better," Revels Robinson said. "I definitely think it's the way to go."

Services slow to get started
She acknowledged that one of the issues raised in the reports - not immediately providing services to families whose children have been removed - has already had a serious impact on some cases in Children's Court.

"Once a child is removed, the clock is ticking, and we understand that," she said.

Under federal law, authorities in general have only 15 months to either return the child safely home or begin to plan for some other permanent solution, such as adoption and termination of parental rights.

"Our promise is that we are going to give you services you need to help you work on your issues so you can have your kids back," Chief Children's Judge Thomas Donegan said. "If we don't provide them the services, all we have done is keep the family apart and have not given them a chance to get back together."

After tracking about one month worth of cases this year, Donegan said, judicial authorities discovered that 61% to 86% of the families whose children had been removed did not have needed services in place when the first court hearing was scheduled 21 days after removal. The purpose of that hearing is to review how the services are working, he said. In some cases, families had not even been referred for needed services, court officials said.

'Slots not available'
Case managers told judges they have tried to arrange for services but are either not getting their calls returned by service providers or are being told there "are not slots available," Donegan said.

Revels Robinson said she would be working with service providers to address these concerns.

Measures have been taken to address the increase in the number of children who were abused or neglected in foster care last year, including increased training for foster parents, she said.

The reports note that foster children in all age categories were forced to move more frequently last year than in the previous year. In 2004, 169 children had three or more placements within 12 months, compared with 100 in 2003.

Revels Robinson said there has been an increase in older children with more serious behavioral problems entering the system, which accounts for some of the additional moves.

There are more than 3,000 children in foster care in Milwaukee County. About 48% have been in care for 24 months or longer, according to the reports.

Other issues raised in the report include:

The number of children entering the foster care system increased from 1,123 children in 2003 to 1,308 children in 2004. Revels Robinson attributed those numbers to an increase in larger sibling groups entering the system.

However, the overall numbers of children in placement continue to go down, records show, because more are exiting the system than are coming in.

Fewer children were adopted last year. In 2004, 560 children were adopted, compared with 585 children in 2003. The reports noted that there continues to be a communication problem between ongoing case managers and adoption workers, and that training was an issue.

"In one case, a worker who was pursuing a TPR (termination of parental rights) for a 6-year-old child placed with a relative was overruled by a supervisor, who instead insisted on the less permanent plan of long-term foster care," investigators wrote. "There were also several cases with a permanency goal of adoption that had not yet been referred to the adoption program for consultation or assignment."

Little contact with children
One worker who was assigned to find an adoptive placement for a child nine months earlier had met the child only once.

In some cases the adoption worker had had no contact with the child, or the proposed adoptive parents, or had spoken to them only by phone, the reports say.

Revels Robinson that said she would like to see the communication continue to be strengthened between case managers and adoption workers and that they are already making joint visits to families.

A public meeting to discuss the child welfare findings will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. today at the Children's Health Education Center, 1533 N. River Center Drive, Milwaukee.



From the March 17, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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[Frustrated]

This always makes me sad. It is the Children that suffers the Most at the end. CPS must be proud of themselves, eh?