• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

MILWAUKEE - A new study brings criticism to the foster care system and offers solutions for improving the way foster care is handled. Among the key findings, the study concludes new foster parents are pushed through the screening process because there is a shortage of foster families. It also focuses on the way relatives are not screened as thoroughly as foster parents before getting custody of children. The report was commissioned by the Planning Council for Health and Human Services. It comes in response to several high-profile incidents in Milwaukee including the death of baby Christopher Thomas. Thomas was killed by his aunt, Crystal Keith. The study is based on statistics and interviews with people connected to the foster care system in some way. It finds child welfare workers feel “pressure to license questionable foster homes" because of a shortage of foster care providers. "People do sometimes feel like they have no other choice but to place kids in homes they might not place their own children in,” said Planning Council Executive Director Kathleen Pritchard. The study also focuses on "kinship" care. Kinship care is when custody of a child is given to one of the child's relatives. Kinship care families face substantially less screening and regulation than foster care parents, according to the report. Because young Christopher Thomas was killed by his aunt in kinship care, the report suggests more oversight and regulation of kinship caregivers is needed. The report also calls for more communication between foster parents and child welfare workers. It also suggests community efforts to positively portray foster families and encourage more people to get involved with foster children.