Wis. Dept. of Children and Families Secretary Reggie Bicha
Focusing on the children
Focusing on the children
The Capital City Hues. “We’ve talked to state employees, contract agencies, people in the faith community, tribal and local units of government, child care
providers, child welfare workers, union members, children who have been in the foster care system, parents who have been receiving W-2 services and women in
homeless shelters. We’ve really been all over. And the unanimous perspective that we get from these folks is a passion for wanting to do something better for
children and families in our state. People seem uniformly committed to our mission and our priorities and the work that we want to do.”
One of the programs Bicha is inheriting is the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program, which has been a source of controversy from time to time. Bicha is looking
forward to the challenge. “I see the W-2 program as an opportunity,” Bicha emphasized. “We’ve had the W-2 program in Wisconsin for about 11 years now. In
many ways, the W-2 program has been successful. We went from 90,000 people on the AFDC program; a program I think was one that bred dependency
throughout generations. We’ve moved away from that. We now encourage people to get a job, to work to be more independent and successful. We’ve lowered
the caseload to 6,400 people in the W-2 program today. At the same time we’ve seen progress; we also know there have been unintended consequences. And
there are lessons we should have learned from the last 11 years. So we are trying to gather information and review the W-2 program and think about how we
again adapt the W-2 program, re-prioritize it and have a new focus on it that positions us to be more effective in making sure more families are able to be
economically stable.”
While Bicha has a full array of tools in his arsenal, he also realizes that the impact his agency has on children and families depends on the work of other.
“We work very closely with Health Services as well as all of the other state agencies that have a stake in the social and economic well-being of kids and families
in the state,” Bicha. “There is no one state agency that can be all things to all children. Health Services has the Medicaid program, long-term care for both
children and adults, mental health and substance abuse programs for children and adults and public health. So we want to work closely with them. Workforce
Development has employment and training programs, unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation that impact families, so we are working very close to
them as well. Corrections has juvenile justice and folks who are in community corrections or institutions who are also in families that we are serving. Go down the
list to agencies such as Transportation and Commerce. So we’re trying to think holistically and the Governor has been very forward with this. He has put together
a cabinet workgroup of those on the cabinet who have a stake in children and families issues including those agencies I just mentioned as well as the Wis. Dept.
of Administration and his chief of staff. We’re meeting regularly to ensure we are connecting the dots and integrating our approaches as collaboratively as we
can for children in our state.”
And even though it is headed by a constitutionally-elected superintendent, Bicha feels that there is a lot of room for collaboration with the Dept. of Public
Instruction. “I have personally met with Superintendent Burmaster several times during the past few months,” Bicha said. “We are working very closely on
everything, from early childhood issues, early care and education, to how do we better serve children in the foster care system and their educational needs to
how do we make sure children are able to continue their education beyond high school when that is appropriate.”
The initiatives that Bicha will push for are the ones that have been defined under the leadership of Governor James Doyle. “We need to make sure parents
have the right resources,” Bich emphasized. “Governor Doyle has worked to raise the minimum wage twice during his time in office and in his most recent State
of the State address, he called for raising it a third time because he knows there are so many families in our state who are working hard and just can’t get ahead.
Badger Care Plus, which is a change in our state Medicaid program, now has expanded health care coverage. Over 80,000 new citizens since February 1 have
health care coverage that didn’t before Badger Care Plus. Those are the types of initiatives that we think are helpful to make sure the families are able to get the
jobs that have the right supports so their families can get ahead. We want to continue in that fine tradition that Governor Doyle has led.”
Bicha has also been looking at several legislative initiatives that he will push next January when the new legislature convenes. One is the codification of the
Indian Child Welfare Act into state law, which was passed by the federal government in 1978. He hopes to see it signed into law next year.
Another initiative is how the state looks at placement of children outside of the home. He wants to look at a different combination of services that will create
a higher sense of permanency. “We’ve got some legislative proposals we’re thinking about implementing for both the use of concurrent permanency planning,
which is a unique strategy for children in the child protective services system to achieve permanency in a more timely way,” Bicha said. “For every child that
goes into an out-of-home foster home or group home situation, they have what is called a permanency plan. It asks the question ‘How are we going to achieve
permanency for this child?’ Usually it is through reunification. Sometimes it is through adoption, sometimes it is through a guardianship with a relative. But in
certain circumstances, we should identify what those plans are. Sometimes, we want to have two different options and be pursuing both at the same time. We
want to strengthen that in Wisconsin. We’re also thinking about open adoptions. We’ve had great success when children need to be adopted. But we know that
other states have had success by allowing for an opportunity for openness so that a parent who voluntarily allows their child to be adopted, there is some sort of
an agreement where the adoptive family agrees to maintain some sort of contact with the biological parent. It can be as simple as a letter once per year or a
picture once per year or it can be extensive. It can be visitation in an open sort of relationship. We think those work well with lids and we want to make them
more of a possibility in Wisconsin. In some cases, shielding the child from their natural parents is still absolutely necessary and we need to allow our statutes to
recognize that and support that. There are other times where an open arrangement is also what is best for a child and we want to make sure our statutes are
written in such a way that the court has the discretion to consider that and allow for that”
Bicha has been personally involved as well as professionally in the cause of children. He and his wife were foster parents for a number of years and he calls
on people in the community to consider becoming foster parents or mentors for children. “The Dept. of Children and Families can’t do this alone,” Bicha
emphasized. It does take a village to raise a child.
providers, child welfare workers, union members, children who have been in the foster care system, parents who have been receiving W-2 services and women in
homeless shelters. We’ve really been all over. And the unanimous perspective that we get from these folks is a passion for wanting to do something better for
children and families in our state. People seem uniformly committed to our mission and our priorities and the work that we want to do.”
One of the programs Bicha is inheriting is the Wisconsin Works (W-2) program, which has been a source of controversy from time to time. Bicha is looking
forward to the challenge. “I see the W-2 program as an opportunity,” Bicha emphasized. “We’ve had the W-2 program in Wisconsin for about 11 years now. In
many ways, the W-2 program has been successful. We went from 90,000 people on the AFDC program; a program I think was one that bred dependency
throughout generations. We’ve moved away from that. We now encourage people to get a job, to work to be more independent and successful. We’ve lowered
the caseload to 6,400 people in the W-2 program today. At the same time we’ve seen progress; we also know there have been unintended consequences. And
there are lessons we should have learned from the last 11 years. So we are trying to gather information and review the W-2 program and think about how we
again adapt the W-2 program, re-prioritize it and have a new focus on it that positions us to be more effective in making sure more families are able to be
economically stable.”
While Bicha has a full array of tools in his arsenal, he also realizes that the impact his agency has on children and families depends on the work of other.
“We work very closely with Health Services as well as all of the other state agencies that have a stake in the social and economic well-being of kids and families
in the state,” Bicha. “There is no one state agency that can be all things to all children. Health Services has the Medicaid program, long-term care for both
children and adults, mental health and substance abuse programs for children and adults and public health. So we want to work closely with them. Workforce
Development has employment and training programs, unemployment insurance and worker’s compensation that impact families, so we are working very close to
them as well. Corrections has juvenile justice and folks who are in community corrections or institutions who are also in families that we are serving. Go down the
list to agencies such as Transportation and Commerce. So we’re trying to think holistically and the Governor has been very forward with this. He has put together
a cabinet workgroup of those on the cabinet who have a stake in children and families issues including those agencies I just mentioned as well as the Wis. Dept.
of Administration and his chief of staff. We’re meeting regularly to ensure we are connecting the dots and integrating our approaches as collaboratively as we
can for children in our state.”
And even though it is headed by a constitutionally-elected superintendent, Bicha feels that there is a lot of room for collaboration with the Dept. of Public
Instruction. “I have personally met with Superintendent Burmaster several times during the past few months,” Bicha said. “We are working very closely on
everything, from early childhood issues, early care and education, to how do we better serve children in the foster care system and their educational needs to
how do we make sure children are able to continue their education beyond high school when that is appropriate.”
The initiatives that Bicha will push for are the ones that have been defined under the leadership of Governor James Doyle. “We need to make sure parents
have the right resources,” Bich emphasized. “Governor Doyle has worked to raise the minimum wage twice during his time in office and in his most recent State
of the State address, he called for raising it a third time because he knows there are so many families in our state who are working hard and just can’t get ahead.
Badger Care Plus, which is a change in our state Medicaid program, now has expanded health care coverage. Over 80,000 new citizens since February 1 have
health care coverage that didn’t before Badger Care Plus. Those are the types of initiatives that we think are helpful to make sure the families are able to get the
jobs that have the right supports so their families can get ahead. We want to continue in that fine tradition that Governor Doyle has led.”
Bicha has also been looking at several legislative initiatives that he will push next January when the new legislature convenes. One is the codification of the
Indian Child Welfare Act into state law, which was passed by the federal government in 1978. He hopes to see it signed into law next year.
Another initiative is how the state looks at placement of children outside of the home. He wants to look at a different combination of services that will create
a higher sense of permanency. “We’ve got some legislative proposals we’re thinking about implementing for both the use of concurrent permanency planning,
which is a unique strategy for children in the child protective services system to achieve permanency in a more timely way,” Bicha said. “For every child that
goes into an out-of-home foster home or group home situation, they have what is called a permanency plan. It asks the question ‘How are we going to achieve
permanency for this child?’ Usually it is through reunification. Sometimes it is through adoption, sometimes it is through a guardianship with a relative. But in
certain circumstances, we should identify what those plans are. Sometimes, we want to have two different options and be pursuing both at the same time. We
want to strengthen that in Wisconsin. We’re also thinking about open adoptions. We’ve had great success when children need to be adopted. But we know that
other states have had success by allowing for an opportunity for openness so that a parent who voluntarily allows their child to be adopted, there is some sort of
an agreement where the adoptive family agrees to maintain some sort of contact with the biological parent. It can be as simple as a letter once per year or a
picture once per year or it can be extensive. It can be visitation in an open sort of relationship. We think those work well with lids and we want to make them
more of a possibility in Wisconsin. In some cases, shielding the child from their natural parents is still absolutely necessary and we need to allow our statutes to
recognize that and support that. There are other times where an open arrangement is also what is best for a child and we want to make sure our statutes are
written in such a way that the court has the discretion to consider that and allow for that”
Bicha has been personally involved as well as professionally in the cause of children. He and his wife were foster parents for a number of years and he calls
on people in the community to consider becoming foster parents or mentors for children. “The Dept. of Children and Families can’t do this alone,” Bicha
emphasized. It does take a village to raise a child.
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
Earlier this year, the state of Wisconsin did something it does about once a generation. It created a new
state agency called the Department of Children and Families (DCF). For the most part, DCF has taken
portions of the Dept. of Workforce Development and the Dept. of Health and Family Services — whose
remaining components have become the Dept. of Health Services — to create an agency that primarily
focuses on children and their families.
The first secretary for DCF, Reggie Bicha, will have his hands full in the coming months to forge a
coherent, integrated agency out of these parts, an agency with 500 employees and a budget of $1 billion.
If the work seems to be enormous, it doesn’t appear to faze Bicha for what he has on his mind is something
better for children and families in the state of Wisconsin.
Bicha feels that he is part of a broader movement to improve the lot of children in this state. “What
has been phenomenal is that I have had the opportunity to travel across the state and do extensive
outreach over the past year to literally get to every corner of the state,” Bicha said during an interview with
Part 2 of 2
Earlier this year, the state of Wisconsin did something it does about once a generation. It created a new
state agency called the Department of Children and Families (DCF). For the most part, DCF has taken
portions of the Dept. of Workforce Development and the Dept. of Health and Family Services — whose
remaining components have become the Dept. of Health Services — to create an agency that primarily
focuses on children and their families.
The first secretary for DCF, Reggie Bicha, will have his hands full in the coming months to forge a
coherent, integrated agency out of these parts, an agency with 500 employees and a budget of $1 billion.
If the work seems to be enormous, it doesn’t appear to faze Bicha for what he has on his mind is something
better for children and families in the state of Wisconsin.
Bicha feels that he is part of a broader movement to improve the lot of children in this state. “What
has been phenomenal is that I have had the opportunity to travel across the state and do extensive
outreach over the past year to literally get to every corner of the state,” Bicha said during an interview with
Reggie Bicha brings an administrative and social
work perspective to the newly created Children and
Families department.
work perspective to the newly created Children and
Families department.