This post originally appeared at https://reforminggovernment.org/transforming-futures-new-report-charts-a-pro-family-path-to-strengthen-wisconsins-child-welfare-system/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, January 8, 2025 

Transforming Futures: New Reforms Chart a Pro-Family Path to Strengthen Wisconsin’s Child Welfare System

DELAFIELD, WI – The Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) released  groundbreaking reforms on Wednesday aimed at transforming Wisconsin’s child welfare system. Building Brighter Futures: Reforming Child Welfare in Wisconsin outlines five bipartisan opportunities to make meaningful changes that prioritize children’s needs, strengthen families, and ensure every child has the chance to thrive in a loving home.

WHY IT MATTERS

IRG believes that children are best served when their voices are heard, their rights are respected, and their families are supported. This report highlights the urgent need for reforms in Wisconsin’s child welfare system to ensure every child has the opportunity to live in a safe, loving, and permanent home. Children enter the child welfare system through no fault of their own and this report outlines how we can improve their lives now and ensure they have the best opportunity for success in the future.  

THE QUOTE

“Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up in a safe, supportive, and permanent home. By focusing on pragmatic, bipartisan solutions, we can ensure that Wisconsin’s most vulnerable children are given the protection and opportunities they deserve. This report charts a new bipartisan path for policymakers in Madison to consider.” – CJ Szafir, CEO, Institute for Reforming Government

FIVE SOLUTIONS TO STRENGTHEN CHILD WELFARE

• Guaranteeing client-directed counsel for children of all ages

• • • Wisconsin should join a growing trend of states that are moving toward guaranteed self-directed counsel for children entering the system at every age. Studies have shown that this model speeds up the path to permanency and creates better outcomes.

• Eliminating unnecessary financial barriers to family reunification

• • • Payments to the state or county should not remain a barrier to the reunification of a child with their family.

• Protecting children from trafficking

• • • The state can do more to provide education and implement new technologies to keep children safe.

• Ensuring the preservation of their personal property

• • • Any federal benefits received by a child in the system should stay with the child and not be taken to supplement the cost of their care. By setting these funds aside for future use when a child ages out of the system, they will have support to transition to adulthood.

• Implementing an enforceable children’s bill of rights

• • This vulnerable population needs to know what their rights are and know that they are enforceable. Wisconsin needs an enforceable children’s bill of rights.  

Wisconsin can and must do better for the most vulnerable in our state with these bipartisan solutions, even in divided government. These reforms are just one step in working to improve the lives, the safety, and the futures of children in the child welfare system.   

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The Institute for Reforming Government is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that seeks to simplify government at every level by offering policy solutions to thought leaders in American government in the areas of tax reform, government inefficiency, and burdensome regulations.