Sept. 15, 2019 8:55a
(WGTD)---Kenosha County officials may add another attorney to the district attorney’s office because there are so many parental termination cases pending.
Ron Rogers of the county’s Children and Family Services Division say it’s because an increasing number of parents have addiction problems and no longer can care for their children.
Because some parents challenge proposed termination orders, the cases can get complicated. As of the beginning of July, a backlog of 97 cases were waiting. The lone attorney assigned to such cases has an average annual capacity of about 40.
The good news is that adoptive parents are already lined up for all of the kids on the waiting list. Rogers says most of them are foster parents or relatives who are already taking care of the kids they want to adopt. But Rogers says the wait can be nerve-wracking. "They're ready in their hearts and minds to do this yet it's not getting done," he said at a recent meeting of the county's Human Services Committe.
The attorney that the county wants to hire in the next budget year would be paid on the basis of a one-year contract. The final decision on adding staff will be up to the county board.
The number of referrals that have resulted in court orders has grown from 58 in 2016 to 85 in 2018. And if the current year's rate continues, the county will end 2019 with 106 cases that have resulted in court orders.
The average daily number of children either in foster care or treatment foster care has grown from 180 in 2016 to 215 in 2018. The county anticipates ending this year with a daily balance of 252.
Rogers emphasized at the meeting that the first goal of social workers is to try to reunify families.
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