BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ) – Brown County is getting $1.2 million in funding from the state for a newly proposed three-part plan to fight a rising number of child neglect and abuse cases, which was unveiled Wednesday.
County Executive Troy Streckenbach says the first step is to hire about 13 more people for Child Protective Services.
“In the end, we realize that as we attempt to address and protect the children within our communities, we need people at the ground floor, so this comes at a great time, considering our caseloads, the number of children we are reporting in, has been increasing. We’re trying to figure out ways for us to better manage it and the best way for us to do that is by having the people on staff,” says Streckenbach.
The second piece of the plan aims to create a Child Death Review Team to find trends and prevent potential cases of serious injury or death. The third part focuses on research, which would be structured community input opportunities.
Brown County Health and Human Services executive director, Erik Pritzl, says this is a major investment for the county.
Pritzl says “This is the most significant investment I’ve seen in child welfare in my career in Child Protective services as well as general public human services, which spans 25 years. I started as a child welfare worker many years ago, I’ve never seen an investment like this at the state or local level. I believe this is going to help us address the challenges of the system and to tackle our primary task which is to keep children safe every day.”
When looking at criminal justice reform and trauma-informed care in Brown County, Streckenbach points to the history of many people who are incarcerated or struggling in the community.
Streckenbach says “we realize that the individuals who are in our system have some form of neglect or abuse that has taken place. If we’re ever truly going to tackle this issue, we need to better understand the root causes.”
Pritzl adds that “counties have been struggling to keep up with child welfare caseloads, and the primary driver of that has been substance use.”
Drugs, specifically opioid and meth use, also seem to be a major factor in the rising numbers. From 2011-2018, there was a 111% rise in children in the county being taken from caretaker homes where substance abuse was involved.
The Department of Health and Human Services reports that on average, Brown County screens 400 child protective services each month and assesses over 130 reports. Those numbers are second only to Milwaukee, which holds the highest in the state.
The county board of supervisors will discuss the proposal during their annual budget hearing on November 6th.
