Skyline Milwaukee Amy Turim's blog is part of our Purple Wisconsin project. Turim lives and works in Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood and is an advocate for the city through her leadership and volunteerism. SHARE

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Milwaukee has a serious problem, one that if left unaddressed could result in the death of children. The problem is in the child welfare system, and the stakes are as high as can be. State Representatives Chris Taylor and LaTonya Johnson have attempted to address this problem by sending a joint letter to Eloise Anderson, the Secretary of the Department of Children and Families, on July 10, 2014.

The letter indicates that the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare is significantly behind in processing initial assessments of potential abuse and neglect cases in Milwaukee County. Initial assessments occur after a complaint is made to the Bureau. Complaints are screened for suitability for assessment prior to being assigned to an initial assessment worker. The most extreme cases are given to caseworkers with a directive to respond within two hours, but other cases that are not immediately life-threatening go in the initial assessment queue.

The initial assessment workers are required by statute 48.981(3)(c) to complete their assessment within 60 days of the referral of a screened complaint. Representatives Taylor and Johnson found a shocking backlog in processing of abuse and neglect complaints. According to their letter, a whopping 2,806 child welfare cases have been open for 61 days or longer, and the vast majority (2,300) have been open for greater than 90 days. Taylor and Johnson rightly consider this number unacceptable, and further indicate over 2,000 cases have been considered backlogged since February of 2014.

The State Representatives’ letter demands information on the number of initial assessment caseworkers employed by the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, and how many cases are assigned to each worker. These numbers are important, but they do not tell the whole story. The Bureau is a very high turnover employer, and has many initial assessment caseworkers that are still in the process of being trained. Trainees do not take full caseloads, if they have cases at all.

The number of workers also doesn’t indicate anything about the quality of the caseworkers assigned to initial assessments. Caseworkers responsible for initial assessments are now called Initial Assessment Specialists. This is a relatively recent change from the old title, which was Initial Assessment Social Worker. The Social Workers are now called Specialists because a social work license is no longer a requirement for the position. Experienced Initial Assessment Specialists with social work licenses now find themselves training and working with individuals less educated and less qualified for the job.

The number of workers and their caseload count also does not indicate whether there has been an initial triage of the child welfare case. In many instances an initial triage response by the worker has occurred, even though a case is officially considered backlogged in the Initial Assessment department. According to the Department of Children and Families, the triage work is being completed in a timely fashion in 73.4% of Milwaukee Bureau investigations. However, cases are only being moved on from the Initial Assessment department in a timely fashion 35.9% of the time, which is where the backlog occurs. Initial Assessment Specialists can not pass on a case to Ongoing Case Management until the case has been ‘fully investigated’ which is difficult to do when a worker’s caseload is high and significant numbers of new cases are coming in every day. Many Initial Assessment workers have a caseload of 60 to 100 cases, which must be triaged, investigated, and reported on prior to being removed from their caseload. This volume of cases is exponentially above the nationally recommended number of 12 open cases per initial assessment caseworker.

Milwaukee is clearly failing its most vulnerable children. Representatives Taylor and Johnson are beginning to address the issue, but asking the right questions is essential for creating real solutions. Talking to caseworkers directly instead of supervisors and department heads would be another way to uncover the problems. Like many industries, workers on the front lines of the Bureau often see what is wrong with the system, but are not included in process improvement discussions. Frontline bureau workers don’t ever seem to speak to the media, leaving one to wonder why. Transparency from frontline workers without violating client confidentiality would foster the timely discovery of serious issues with caseloads and processing procedures. Open public discussions of issues and starting conversations between legislators and front line workers could benefit the Bureau in addition to the children it serves. If workers thought their opinions and their assessment of issues mattered, turn over at the Bureau could be reduced. It’s clear the current system is not working to support those it purports to serve, and that change must start right now. Milwaukee’s children depend on it.

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