Here & Now

‘This Really is a Crisis’

Frederica Freyberg:
The meth and opioid epidemic is stretching county budgets beyond the breaking point in Wisconsin. That’s what the Wisconsin Counties Association says when it talks in particular about caring for children. Counties call it a child welfare crisis. In tonight’s closer look, we hear from the Director of Human Services in La Crosse County. Jason Witt is here. Thanks very much for being here.

Jason Witt:
Glad to be here.

Frederica Freyberg:
Why do you describe Wisconsin as being in the midst of a child welfare crisis?

Jason Witt:
Well, when you look across the state, county child welfare systems are literally overwhelmed. Overwhelmed because in recent years we’ve seen just a surge of children enter our foster care system. To such an extent that we are struggling to find enough foster homes to keep children local and even at sometimes within the state. Also, now for the workloads for our front line child protective services workers have grown to a point of really being unmanageable. So they’re not able to spend the time with children and their families. So those children are able to be either reunified or adopted in a timely fashion. And all of this, we’ve seen exploding costs where county budgets aren’t able to sustain these type of costs, aren’t able to make the investments to fix these issues.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are some examples of kinds of the numbers, either an uptick of cases or budgets?

Jason Witt:
Yeah. Well, as of 2018 in Wisconsin, we have over 5500 children in foster care or other out-of-home care placements. I should say that number does not even include Milwaukee County because Milwaukee County’s child welfare system is directly run by the State of Wisconsin. So that 5500, that’s a 40% increase over where we were at in 2012. That has really shot up. But even that 40% increase, that’s a large increase. That’s an average across the state. We’ve seen individual counties and communities that have experienced much more than that. I’ll give an example. In Chippewa County just a few years ago, they had 22 children in care. That rose to over 200 children in care in a short amount of time. And they’re primarily driven by the meth issue. So you’ve had counties with 80%, 100% in Chippewa’s case, 800% increase. So it really has been a flood and this really is a crisis.

Frederica Freyberg:
What are you seeking budget-wise from the state to help with this?

Jason Witt:
We’re seeking a $30 million increase in the Children and Families Allocation, which is the funding that helps fund child welfare services in the state of Wisconsin. When we look at that amount, that’s both to help counties address these out-of-home care costs but also make some progress towards getting workloads manageable so we can have a fully functioning system.

Frederica Freyberg:
How likely do you think that ask of the state is?

Jason Witt:
Well, we’re feeling pretty hopeful. And when we look at what could be justified, we could be justifying a $60 million request. But at least this is meaningful enough to stabilize the system, to have a start to talk about long-term solutions. And we appreciate Governor Evers put in his budget a $15 million increase. So far in our discussion with legislators and what we’re hearing out of the Finance Committee are positive things.

Frederica Freyberg:
In regard to child welfare funding, how does Wisconsin compare to other states?

Jason Witt:
Well, Wisconsin is not unique in the fact that these issues with opioids and meth are being experienced all over the country. But unfortunately where Wisconsin is unique is those other states have made investments, recognizing the impacts that this is having on child protective services. So just across the river from us in Minnesota, they made a significant increase in their child welfare system. Colorado is on their third phase of funding to increase the number of child welfare workers. North Carolina has invested funding as well. Other states also have caseload standards for their workers, where Wisconsin does not. So we have to long ways to catch up to get on top of this issue.

Frederica Freyberg:
Meanwhile, where does this crisis leave the children in the system?

Jason Witt:
Well, unfortunately, these children who are the victims of the opioid and meth issues are victims again in coming into a system that overwhelmed. And this means longer time in care for those children. The length of time and care has nearly doubled in recent years. A lot of this we think is because workers overwhelmed, not being able to spend that time. That has a real impact for these kids. Research shows that the longer children spend in care, it has impacts on their development. And it has impacts on their future. We need to get these kids home and forever homes.

Frederica Freyberg:
We need to leave it there. Jason Witt, thank you very much.

Jason Witt:
Thank you.

Frederica Freyberg:
Speaking of children in the child welfare system, tonight an excerpt from a Wisconsin Public Television documentary titled “Not Enough Apologies.” It will air Monday night at 8:00 p.m. It looks at children in the juvenile justice system and the child welfare system and at the trauma in their lives that lands them there. This clip is from a chapter in that program that focuses on children removed from their homes.

Tina Czappa:
Most foster parents are really good and they’re really loving and they want to open their home and their family. But you have those moments where it’s hard for you to receive that kind of love and support because you think, ok, your entire life is mostly filled with the abandonment and the rejection.

Alisha Haase:
I often ask people think about how you would feel as an adult if I walked into your home and said you have to come with me. I can’t tell you very much about where we’re going. I don’t know when you’re going to see your mom and dad again. You’re going to leave your school. You’re going to leave your friends. You’re going to leave your family and I don’t know when you’re going to see them again.

Tina Czappa:
At age one, I was removed from my mom and her significant other. Trauma’s so prevalent and it’s so highly prevalent in foster youth because that’s usually why they enter into foster care.

Tim Grove:
One of the hard parts about being in foster care is often kids move two, three, four, five times.

Pat Schneider:
These kids already are going through probably neglect and abuse at home. So there’s a couple of ACEs of traumas. Now suddenly they’re removed from the home they know and then put into another home. We’re finding that the trauma builds up and continues.

Frederica Freyberg:
State Representative Pat Schneider worked on 11 legislative foster care bills signed into law in 2018, including provisions increasing incentive funding to retain foster homes and encourage permanent homes. He says the need is high for more placements. UW-Whitewater Social Worker Tina Zappa, formerly advocates for such bills in her leadership role in a statewide youth advisory council, made up of current and former foster care children. She says after entering foster care at age one, she moved repeatedly between her biological family and foster homes, including emergency placements due to abuse and neglect.

Tina Czappa:
They didn’t really have places that they knew they were going to put me. In their eyes, there’s a really struggle with shortage of foster home placements.

Frederica Freyberg:
The full documentary can be seen Monday night at 8:00 p.m. on Wisconsin Public Television. You can also visit the web page at wpt.org/trauma.