RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF REQUESTING INCREASED FUNDING AND OVERSIGHT REFORMS FOR WISCONSIN’S CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES SYSTEM

The Wisconsin child welfare system is county-operated and state-supervised, except Milwaukee County, where the system is administered by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS).  DCF provides insufficient funding to counties for the provision of child abuse and neglect services including prevention, investigation, treatment, and out-of-home placement costs, though the state has primary responsibility for compliance with federal requirements and shares liability for ensuring the system is meeting its obligations to children and families in all 72 counties.  In recent years, the state of Wisconsin added numerous mandates and practice expectations which increased county Child Protective Services (CPS) workload and costs and the opioid and methamphetamine epidemics have brought Wisconsin’s child welfare system to a point of crisis, with increasing concern about the system’s ability to meet its obligations to children and families.  The capacity for counties to continue to bear the lion’s share of financial responsibility to address this crisis has been exhausted, as rising county contributions to the CPS system have far outpaced increases to the DCF Children and Family Aids allocation and counties have used reserve funding to cover CPS expenses and increase staffing.  Maintaining sufficient resources for Wisconsin’s child welfare system is critical to secure the safety and future of our most vulnerable children and without a proportional increase in the DCF Children and Family Services allocation, the CPS system has been stressed for over a decade, causing caseloads for CPS workers to grow to unreasonable levels, contributing to high levels of staff turnover in some counties, and an overrun of out-of-home care costs above what counties can sustain within available resources.

Wisconsin’s CPS system leaves significant gaps in state-level oversight for all counties except Milwaukee County, including the absence of caseload standards, no process for regular legislative evaluation and prioritization of CPS needs and the absence of a legislative committee that provides regular policy guidance concerning CPS system issues such as adequate funding, performance, cost sharing and long-term stability.

Along with DMCPS, all eleven of Wisconsin’s peer states with county-administered CPS systems have either adopted caseload standards for CPS caseworkers, completed thorough workload studies as a basis of determining funding needs, or otherwise have made significant recommendations related to keeping CPS workloads manageable.           

The children within Wisconsin’s CPS system are too important to allow the current level of under resourcing, oversight gaps, and disparity of attention, while shifting the burden to property taxpayers.