Today, Governor Doyle is signing a number of bills related to children, including:
• AB296 reaffirms and strengthens the commitment to support the development of Coordinated Service Teams (CSTs), provides for the transition from the prior Integrated Services Program (ISP) model to the CST model, provides greater flexibility to local jurisdictions or tribes in defining who to serve through their CST effort, provides substantive improvements to provisions related to governance and oversight at the local level, and provides additional funding to support the expansion of CST programs to counties/tribes not currently in operation. Building on the principles of cross-system team collaboration, meaningful family engagement, and outcome-driven case planning that are at the core of the CST model, these models have proven to be incredibly effective in working with children who are involved in multiple systems.
• SB375, a scaled-back version of a prior bill that was wisely vetoed by Governor Doyle in the prior session, provides that the director of state courts and DCF enter into agreement for the transfer of electronic records contained in CCAP to DCF, and vice versa. Access and use of such information is limited for the purpose of providing child welfare or juvenile justice intake or dispositional services. This is a positive step forward for a couple reasons: (1) county social workers who now utilize SACWIS will be able to access critical information in CCAP that will help inform critical intake decisions and case planning, and (2) implementing this will bring Wisconsin into alignment with federal standards that promote/require the sharing of critical information between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
