Shawano County’s Social Services Department has passed a review of its adherence to the Wisconsin Indian Child Welfare Act (WICWA), which is intended to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families.
WICWA applies to out-of-home placements for children in need of protection or services, status offenses for juveniles in need of services, certain guardianship cases, termination of parental rights, and pre-adoptive and adoptive placements.
Placements based on delinquent acts or any family court proceedings where one parent has custody are not included.
Social Services Director Rick Kane told the Tribal Affairs Committee on Tuesday that Shawano County is the first county to be evaluated for WICWA compliance, which included interviews with social workers and other county staff, along with judges, attorneys and law enforcement.
“The state wanted to find out if the tribes are working well with their counties,” Kane said. “The result is we’ve done an outstanding job working with tribes.”
The WICWA review examined whether Social Services was making an effort to keep American Indian children with their families, and if that was not possible, trying to keep them in a foster home run by a tribal member. The review examined multiple cases filed with the courts between May 2010 and April 2013.
One area of improvement recommended by the state was sending notifications to parents and tribes by registered mail instead of certified mail. There is a concern in the Social Services Department, however, that notifications sent by registered mail take longer to reach recipients.
Shawano County’s child welfare programs will be an example to other counties as the state does future reviews, according to Kane.
“We were basically told we were going to be the benchmark for other counties to follow,” Kane said. “I was real pleased with that.”
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