HIGHLIGHTS OF MINUTES OF THE WJCIA BOARD OF DIRECTOR’S MEETING
November 11, 2005
Wintergreen Resort in Wisconsin Dells, WI
Correspondence
Received e-mail from Pam Eitland updating the Board that her replacement will be Gretchen Coudnik(sp)
Received an e-mail from regarding the 2006 conference, stating WJOA has continued interest in working towards a successful joint conference. Communications appear to be going well between WJCIA and WJOA. Will continue efforts towards a memorandum of understanding with WJOA.
Case Problem
- Question regarding residency for a juvenile, where the State of Wisconsin has guardianship after a TPR has taken place. The case in question, the juvenile is currently placed in an RCC (Homme Home) and commits a new delinquent act while in this placement. Does the county where the RCC is located / delinquent act occurred accept responsibility for the juvenile? The concern is the cost and resources to the county. Suggested following the appeals process from the Interagency Agreement that exists between counties as a solution.
- Question about timelines for filing court reports prior to dispositional hearings. Caseworkers should follow their county’s juvenile court policy since there is nothing that could be located in the statutes identifying timelines for this issue.
-Question about SJO placements regarding whether the court report needs to identify the specific facility used. Response: court orders should read, “commit to the care of DOC” and then the Department of Corrections can change placement as needed. Check DOC website for more information.
- Question about eWISACWIS. Do shelter placements require permanency plans to close out ticklers? Cathy Connolly, DHFS, responded, indicating shelter and detention placements should be entered as in-home services instead of placements. These should only be entered as placements if the need arises for ongoing placement of the juvenile.
Conference Committee
Conference 2005 attendance was very good, with 23 one-day attendees and 187 full-conference attendees.
The sign-in / sign-out sheets for individual sessions went okay at the conference. There was some congestion at the tables at times during the beginning and ending of sessions. The committee recommends to continue this practice at future conferences, but only to have people sign-in once. They would only need to sign-out if they left the session early. Also, a copy of the sign-in / sign-out sheets will be kept with both the Conference and Membership Chairs.
The 2006 Conference is set for Chula Vista in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin on September 27-29. This will be a joint conference with WJOA. The committee is looking for suggestions for keynote speakers. There are still key issues to be resolved with WJOA.
Conference Site Committee
No site has been set for the 2007 Conference
Newsletter Committee
The next Prima Facie will be released next week.
Looking for articles for upcoming issues.
Curriculum Committee
There is no advanced intake training scheduled at the current time.
The committee will be reviewing all test questions
Membership Committee
There are currently 210 WJCIA members.
Intake Directory
Intake Directory update letters have been mailed out along with a survey for the possible use of e-mail distribution of the registration
Legislative Committee
The following bills are currently being tracked by the committee:
- SB24 – Threat to Harm Social Workers This bill has passed the Senate and is currently in the Assembly. The last action was on October 25, 2005. The Committee agreed to send a letter in support of the bill to the State Assembly.
- Act 25 – The Budget Bill. The Committee wants to send a letter to DHFS to help define wording regarding who an individual is for purposes of entering information into eWisacwis. This was raised by DCFS Memo 2005-10. The Committee will not send a letter until board members are able to review this memo.
SB226 – Informed Consent for Treatment and Access to Records. This bill allows parents to sign for mental health treatment or psychotropic drugs for their minor child.
- AB699 This bill would allow for the State to establish medium security correctional institutions at Lincoln Hills School, Ethan Allen School, and Southern Oaks Girls School for 17-21 year olds.
- AB82 This bill would place 17 year olds back into the Juvenile Justice System. This bill is currently not moving forward.
- SB285 This bill would allow for educational neglect to be filed in the CHIPS arena.
- SB660 This bill is regarding “dumpster babies.” This would allow the State to continue to cover the cost of care for these children to protect the counties where it is likely to take place from substantial cost.
- SB284 – Non-caregiver Abuse Bill This bill would allow investigators and police departments the option of investigating non-caregiver abuse reports, making the matter discretionary.
Training Committee
- Darren reports at the September 2005 training 44 out of 45 attended, with all attendees passing the exam.
- The trainer evaluations were all positive.
- Some concerns were raised about the number of attendees being too high for the trainers to meet all of the attendees’ needs. This will be monitored in the future.
- Idea raised of having a refresher course for experienced intake workers. The committee agreed to consider and review this request.
Recognition Committee
Committee will hold off with decisions until it is closer to the Conference 2006. There could be possible changes of criteria, which would be included in the newsletter and the website.
By-Laws Committee
Committee did meet and provided a copy of the by-laws to all current board members, indicating that if any changes were needed they should be brought to the January 2006 meeting.
Forms Committee
Question rose if the Intake Inquiry form could contain a confidentiality notice regarding the input of information into eWisacwis. This will be addressed at future meetings.
Information Technology Committee
Will be create a legislative update page for the WJCIA website with minutes from the legislative committee meeting available to members.
Will create a past conference page with pictures of previous conferences, information from conferences, etc.
Region 1- No report
Region 2 - The next meeting is scheduled for December or January. No update
Region 3 - They met on October 4, 2005 in Eau Claire. Overall, it was a very positive meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for January 20, 2006.
Region 4 - Trying to arrange a meeting sometime in February 2006.
Region 5 - Set to meet November 15, 2005.
Region 6 - Next meeting scheduled for February 9, 2006.
Region 7 - No report.
WCHSA PAC Committee
Prison Aversion Programs were also addressed. According to research on the programs, kids who attend these programs have become more delinquent; therefore, the State no longer supports these types of programs. It has also been noted that there is a possibility that counties can be held liable if children attend these programs and go on to commit further delinquent acts. No additional information provided as to how or if this has ever happened.