Over 6,500 Wisconsin children are currently living in foster homes.

Department of Children and Families Secretary Reggie Bicha says the recently enacted state budget helps improve the quality of their care by providing more financial resources foster families and additional training.
State officials want to encourage more households to open their doors to foster children.

Bicha says the Department is also working on ways to standardize how the system works. He says Wisconsin uses a county-based system currently, which means it does tasks such as recruiting foster families 72 different ways.

Currently, Bicha says there’s too much confusion about what it takes to become a foster parent. He says DCF wants to make sure more families know what is required to bring a foster child into their home.

Bicha hopes expanded state efforts will convince more people to take in foster kids.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (MP3 1:05)

The Secretary of the state Department of Children and Families says the agency has accomplished much in its first year.

Governor Doyle launched the agency last summer, with the goal of restructuring how the state provides assistance to families. Secretary Reggie Bicha says they’ve been working to streamline the bureaucracy of state services, improve access for low-income families, and improve the use of technology.

Bicha says one major achievement was the creation of an online public database of licensed child care providers. It allows parents to look up facilities in their area, along with any violations or enforcement actions taken by the state. Bicha says it’s proven quite popular, with over 1.5 million hits in the last year.

DCF hopes to further expand the database to include ratings of child care providers, so parents can see the types of services they provide. Bicha says the state funding to expand the database also includes resources to help low-scoring facilities improve the quality of their care.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (MP3 1:06)