Wisconsin Kinship Care Reform

A report released last Monday indicates that the kinship care reforms of licensing, training and increased payments may not be enough. Follow-through seems to be lacking.

“Before the change, about 30% of the some 6,500 children in foster care in Wisconsin stayed with relatives. Only 6% of those relatives were licensed.”

But even though licenses now have to be applied for, bizarrely they do not have to be received. The 2010 data shows that only 345 of the 880 kinship foster parents applied for licenses. Only 145 of those received them and 194 (57% of applicants) withdrew their applications. Those that withdrew still were able to be foster parents at the discretion of the social worker.

Other concerns include the following:

• Poor tracking of licensing data.
• Kinship payments not covering the needed costs of the child.
• Training is only 6 hours at the beginning of the process with no requirement to add to that no matter how long the care lasts.
• Other adults living in the kinship home do not need medical exams to show that they can parent.
• Though caseworkers must be in contact monthly, that contact currently can just be by phone or email raising concerns about the lack of face-to-face contact.

Report Finds Room for Improvement in Licensing Kinship Foster Parents
[Journal-Sentinel 3/7/11 by Gina Barton]

To see the whole March 2011 report, download the pdf at Children’s Rights website .

Ensuring High Quality Kinship Care for Children in Wisconsin
[Children’s Rights]

REFORM Puzzle Piece