Foster care and kinship care rates and payments
The bill eliminates the separate monthly basic maintenance rates that the state or a county pays to foster parents certified to provide level one care so that age-based monthly basic maintenance rates are paid to all foster parents. The bill changes the rates paid to all kinship care providers, which under current law are $375 per month for a child of any age, to be the same as the age-based monthly basic maintenance rates paid to foster parents. The bill also increases these age-based monthly basic maintenance rates by 5 percent. Beginning on January 1, 2026, the monthly rates are $463 for a child under five years of age, $507 for a child 5 to 11 years of age, $575 for a child 12 to 14 years of age, and $601 for a child 15 years of age or over.
The bill provides that, in addition to the monthly rates currently paid to a foster home or a kinship care provider who is providing care and maintenance for a child, DCF or a county department of human services or social services may make emergency payments for kinship care to a kinship care provider or for foster care to a foster home if any of the following conditions are met:
1. The governor has declared a state of emergency, or the federal government has declared a major disaster, that covers the locality of the home of the kinship care provider who is providing foster care in the home (home).
2. This state has received federal funding to be used for child welfare purposes due to an emergency or disaster declared for the locality of the home.
3. DCF has determined that conditions in this state or in the locality of the home have resulted in a temporary increase in the costs borne by foster homes and kinship care providers, including a pandemic or other public health threat, a natural disaster, or unplanned school closures of five consecutive days or more.
The bill provides that DCF must determine the amount of an emergency payment based on available funding and may promulgate rules governing the provision of the payments.
The bill changes the statutes and the administrative code to make all foster homes and kinship care providers eligible to receive exceptional payments to enable siblings or a minor parent and minor children to reside together and to receive an initial clothing allowance. Under current law, these payments are only available to foster homes certified to provide higher than level one care.
Benefits eligibility screening
The bill directs DCF or a county department (the department) to periodically screen each child under the placement and care of the department in out-of-home care, other than children placed with kinship care providers receiving kinship care payments, to determine if the child is eligible for federal or state benefits (benefits). If the department finds that a child is eligible for benefits, the department must do all of the following:
1. Apply for the benefits for which the child is eligible on behalf of the child.
2. Ensure that the child, the child’s guardian ad litem, and the child’s parent, guardian, or Indian custodian receive proper and timely notice of any application for benefits, the results of an application for benefits, and any appeal of a denial of benefits that could be or is filed on behalf of the child.
3. Provide the child with training covering financial literacy and maintaining benefit eligibility prior to the child aging out of out-of-home care.
If the department is appointed as representative payee for a child receiving benefits under the bill, the department must conserve the child’s benefits in protected accounts that avoid asset limitations for federal and state programs, consistent with the best interests of the child; provide a periodic accounting to the child, the child’s attorney or guardian ad litem, and the child’s parent, guardian, or Indian custodian regarding the conservation and use of the child’s benefits while the child is in the department’s care; and work with the child and the appropriate federal agency to return remaining funds to the child or another fiduciary once the child exits the department’s care.
The department may contract with a public or private agency to fulfill the requirements of the bill. The department may not use benefits received on behalf of a child to pay for the costs of caring for the child in out-of-home care, but may use the child’s federal benefits for the child’s unmet needs beyond what the agency is obligated to, is required to, or has agreed to provide.
The bill requires DCF to promulgate rules to implement the bill and authorizes DCF to promulgate emergency rules for the period before permanent rules take effect.
Representation of parents in CHIPS proceedings
Under current law, a parent is generally not entitled to representation by a public defender in a proceeding under the Children’s Code in which a child is alleged to be in need of protection or services. However, a pilot program that began in 2018 requires the SPD to assign counsel to any nonpetitioning parent in these cases in Brown, Outagamie, Racine, Kenosha, and Winnebago Counties. This five-county pilot program is set to expire after June 2025. The bill extends the expiration date of the pilot program to December 31, 2026.
Independent living services eligibility expansion
The bill expands a current program under which DCF must distribute $231,700 each fiscal year for the purpose of assisting individuals who reach the age of 18 while residing in out-of-home care to make the transition from out-of-home care to a successful adulthood. The bill expands this program to also assist an individual who resided in out-of-home care, including in the home of like-kin or in the home of a person who is not a relative or like-kin, for at least six months after his or her 16th birthday; an individual who was placed under a guardianship as a child in need of protection or services on or after his or her 16th birthday; and an individual who was adopted on or after his or her 16th birthday following time in out-of-home care. The bill also allows the services funded by this program to be offered until age 23, and allows the funding to be distributed to Indian tribes and private and public agencies and organizations. The bill also removes the requirement that DCF distribute a minimum of $231,700 in each fiscal year for the program.
Specialized congregate care payments
The bill grants DCF the authority to expend funds to provide payments for specialized services to children with high acuity needs in congregate care facilities. “Congregate care facilities” means group homes, shelter care facilities, and residential care centers for children and youth.
Children and family services
Under current law, DCF must distribute $101,551,400 in fiscal year 2023–24 and $101,939,600 in fiscal year 2024–25 to counties for children and family services. The bill updates those amounts to $104,969,500 in fiscal year 2025–26 and $110,869,200 in fiscal year 2026–27.
Child care partnership grant program
The bill authorizes DCF to establish a grant program to award funding to businesses, nonprofits, or governmental entities (businesses) that provide or wish to provide child care services for their employees. The bill allows such a grant to be used to reserve child care placements for local business employees, pay child care tuition, and other costs related to child care. Under the bill, a grant recipient with 50 or fewer employees must provide at least 10 percent matching funds and a grant recipient with more than 50 employees must provide at least 15 percent matching funds. The bill allows DCF to promulgate rules to administer the grant program, including to determine eligibility for a grant, and authorizes DCF to promulgate these as emergency rules.
Child care access program
The bill requires DCF to contract with Wonderschool, Inc., and Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, Inc., to increase access to high-quality child care. The bill requires DCF to enter into a $4,500,000 contract with Wonderschool to 1) increase the child care workforce by launching an online software platform that is linked to DCF’s website to connect child care providers with child care workers and a pool of substitute child care workers and 2) build child care capacity in this state. The bill also requires DCF to enter into a $5,500,000 contract with Wisconsin Early Childhood Association to provide 1) existing or prospective child care providers with licensing and certification assistance, 2) coaching and other support services, and 3) tax education assistance for child care centers that provide care and supervision for between four and eight children.
Grants for out-of-school time programs
The bill directs DCF to make grants to out-of-school time programs, defined as structured programs or activities that meet all of the following conditions:
1. To the extent practicable, the program or activity is led by adult mentors using evidence-based or evidence-informed practices and is provided to school-age children before school, after school, or during the summer.
2. The program or activity does not supplant instructional services provided by a school or result in academic credit for students.
3. The program or activity relates to improving social, emotional, academic, or career readiness competencies; reducing negative behaviors, including violence and crime, tobacco use, alcohol and substance abuse, disengagement from school, school suspension, truancy, and health-compromising behaviors; providing a safe out-of-school time environment; or engaging in career exploration or formal or informal work-based learning.
The bill requires DCF to promulgate rules to implement the grant program and authorizes DCF to promulgate emergency rules for the period before permanent rules take effect.
Health
Complex patient pilot program
The bill requires DHS to select, using a competitive grant selection process, partnership groups to be designated as participating sites for a complex patient pilot program and then award grants to the partnership groups selected. The bill provides that a partnership group is one or more hospitals in partnership with one or more post-acute facilities. The bill provides that DHS must solicit feedback regarding the pilot program from representatives of health care system organizations, long-term care provider organizations, long-term care operator organizations, patient advocate groups, insurers, and any other organization determined to be relevant by the secretary of health services. Under the bill, DHS must require each partnership group that applies to be designated as a site for the pilot program to address certain issues in its application, including 1) the number of complex patient care beds that will be set aside in a post-acute facility or through implementation of another innovative model of patient care in a post-acute facility to which participating hospitals agree; 2) defined goals and measurable outcomes of the partnership both during and after the pilot program; 3) the types of complex patients for whom care will be provided; 4) an operating budget for the proposed site; and 5) the participant group’s expertise to successfully implement the proposal.
The bill requires DHS to develop a methodology to evaluate the pilot program and contract with an independent organization to complete the evaluation. Under the bill, DHS may pay the organization’s fee from the funding appropriated for the pilot program. The bill requires DHS to give additional weight to partnership groups that would ensure geographic diversity. Upon completion of the required evaluation, the independent organization contracted by DHS to conduct the evaluation must provide the evaluation to DHS.
Health care entity oversight and transparency
The bill creates various requirements and procedures related to health care entity oversight and transparency.
The bill establishes procedures for review of proposed material change transactions involving health care entities. The bill requires DHS to promulgate rules to define, for purposes of the provisions in the bill, what entities are considered to be health care entities and what constitutes a material change transaction. The bill requires, among other things, that before consummating any material change transaction, a health care entity must submit written notice to DHS. Under the bill, DHS must post information about the proposed transaction on its website no less than 30 days before the anticipated implementation of the material change transaction or, if the department is notified less than 30 days before the anticipated implementation, as soon as is practicable. The bill includes procedures for DHS to review and approve, conditionally approve, or disapprove a proposed transaction. The bill provides for post-transaction oversight, including possible enforcement by the attorney general and DHS, as well as monitoring of compliance and required reporting. The bill also prohibits the corporate practice of medicine and requires DHS to promulgate rules to define what conduct constitutes the corporate practice of medicine within the scope of the prohibition.
The bill adds transparency requirements relating to ownership and control of health care entities. Under the bill, with certain exceptions, each health care entity must report certain information relating to ownership and control to DHS annually and upon the consummation of a material change transaction involving the entity, including the legal name of the entity, its business address, and locations of operations, as well as a current organizational chart showing the business structure of the health care entity and the name and contact information of a representative of the entity. Beginning in 2028, the bill requires DHS to post on its publicly available website an annual report based on the health care entity reporting from the previous year. The bill includes enforcement mechanisms, including granting DHS authority to audit and inspect the records of any health care entity that has failed to submit complete reporting information or if DHS has reason to question the accuracy or completeness of the information submitted. The bill requires DHS to conduct annual audits of a random sample of health care entities to verify compliance with and accuracy and completeness of required reporting. The bill includes penalties for failure to submit a required report and for submitting a report containing false information. Health care entities consisting of independent health care providers or provider organizations without any third-party ownership or control entities, with 10 or fewer physicians or less than $10 million in annual revenue, are subject to forfeiture of up to $50,000 for each report not provided or containing false information, and all other health care entities are subject to a forfeiture of up to $500,000 for each report not provided or containing false information.
The bill also includes authority for DHS to promulgate rules to implement the provisions of the bill.
Women’s health block grant
Under current law, DHS must allocate women’s health funds, which are funds received by the state from the federal government under Title V of the federal Social Security Act, to develop and maintain an integrated system of community health services and to maximize the coordination of family planning services. Current law excludes from the definition of “family planning” the performance, promotion, encouragement, or counseling in favor of, or referral either directly or through an intermediary for, voluntary termination of pregnancy but includes in the definition of “family planning” the provision of nondirective information explaining prenatal care and delivery or infant care, foster care, or adoption. Current law provides that DHS must distribute women’s health funds only to public entities. However, current law allows those public entities to provide some or all of the funds received to other public entities or private entities but only if the recipients of the funds do not provide abortion services, make referrals for abortion services, or have an affiliate that provides abortion services or makes referrals for abortion services. The bill continues to allow public entities that receive funds from DHS to provide some or all of the funds to other public or private entities but eliminates the restriction on which public or private entities may receive those funds. The bill also includes in the definition of “family planning” the provision of nondirective information explaining pregnancy termination.
Nursing home bed access
Under current law, DHS licenses nursing home beds and enforces a maximum limit on the number of these licensed beds in the state. The bill reduces that limit from 51,795 to 25,415. The bill also directs DHS to allocate 125 nursing home beds to applicants that agree to prioritize admissions of patients with complex needs and patients who have been unable to find appropriate placement at another facility.
Newborn screening program
In general, under current law, newborns must be tested for certain congenital and metabolic disorders as specified in rules promulgated by DHS. The federal Department of Health and Human Services maintains a list of disorders for which it recommends testing in newborns, known as the federal Recommended Uniform Screening Panel (RUSP).
Under the bill, DHS must evaluate each disorder that is included in the RUSP as of January 1, 2025, to determine whether newborns in this state should be tested for that disorder. This requirement does not apply to any disorder in the RUSP if, as of January 1, 2025, the disorder is already included in the list of disorders for which newborns must be tested in this state. In addition, the bill requires DHS to evaluate any disorder added to the RUSP after January 1, 2025, to determine whether newborns in this state should be tested for that newly added disorder. If DHS determines newborns should not be tested for the disorder, DHS must annually review medical literature and DHS’s capacity and resources to test for the disorder in order to determine whether to reevaluate the inclusion of the disorder in newborn testing in this state. If, in any of these evaluations or reevaluations, DHS determines that a disorder in the RUSP should be added to the list of disorders for which newborns must be tested in this state, the bill requires DHS to promulgate rules to add that disorder.
The requirements for evaluations, reviews, and reevaluations under the bill do not apply to a disorder in the RUSP if DHS is in the process of adding, by rule, the disorder to the list of disorders for which newborns must be tested in this state. However, if the rule-making procedure for that disorder does not result in promulgation of a rule, then DHS must consider the disorder under the review and reevaluation procedures under the bill.
Electrocardiogram screening pilot project for middle school and high school athletes in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties
The bill directs DHS to develop a pilot program to provide electrocardiogram screenings for participants in middle school and high school athletics programs in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties. DHS is required to award $4,067,200 in grants in fiscal year 2026–27 to local health departments to implement the program. The bill specifies that participation in the program by participants in middle school and high school athletics programs must be optional.
Alzheimer’s Family and Caregiver Support Program
Under current law, DHS is required to allocate funds to agencies to be used for the administration and implementation of an Alzheimer’s Family and Caregiver Support Program for persons with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers. Current law provides that DHS may not distribute more than $3,058,900 in each fiscal year for services to persons with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers. The bill increases that limit to $3,558,900 in each fiscal year.
Maternal and child health grants
The bill authorizes DHS to distribute up to $800,000 in each fiscal year to organizations whose mission is to improve maternal and child health in Wisconsin.
Mobile dental clinic grants
The bill requires DHS to award grants to community health centers to procure and operate mobile dental clinics. A community health center is a health care entity that provides primary health care, health education, and social services to low-income individuals.
Grants for free and charitable clinics and FQHC look-alikes
Under current law, DHS must annually award $2,250,000 in grants to free and charitable clinics. The bill increases that amount to $2,500,000 annually. Free and charitable clinics are nonprofit health care organizations that provide health services to individuals who are uninsured, underinsured, or have limited or no access to primary, specialty, or prescription care.
The bill also requires DHS to annually award $200,000 in grants to federally qualified health center (FQHC) look-alikes. Under the bill, a grant to an FQHC look-alike may not exceed $100,000. “FQHC” is a federal designation for health care entities that meet certain requirements, including providing primary health care services to medically underserved populations, and receive federal grant moneys. “FQHC look-alike” is a federal designation for health care entities that meet all of the requirements of FQHCs but do not receive federal FQHC grant moneys.
Health care provider training grants
Under current law, DHS must distribute grants to hospitals, health systems, and educational entities that form health care education and training consortia for allied health professionals in an amount up to $125,000 per consortium in each fiscal year. The grants may be used for curriculum and faculty development, tuition reimbursement, or clinical site or simulation expenses.
Current law also requires DHS to distribute grants to hospitals and clinics that provide training opportunities for advanced practice clinicians in an amount up to $50,000 per hospital or clinic in each fiscal year and to give preference to training programs that include rural hospitals and rural clinics as clinical training locations. The grants must be used to pay for the costs of operating a clinical training program for advanced practice clinicians. Current law requires grant recipients under both grant programs to match the grants through their own funding sources.
The bill combines those grant programs under a single section of the statutes and funds the grants from a single appropriation. The bill removes the current law matching requirement for grant recipients and the grant amount caps. The bill also requires DHS to distribute grants to health systems that provide training opportunities for advanced practice clinicians and to hospitals, health systems, clinics, and educational entities that form health care education and training consortia for behavioral health providers. In awarding any grant under the bill, DHS must give preference to training programs that include rural hospitals and rural clinics as clinical training locations. The bill specifies that acceptable uses of grant moneys include reasonable expenses incurred by a trainee, expenses related to planning and implementing a training program, and up to $5,000 in equipment expenses.
Falls prevention funding
The bill directs DHS to award $450,000 in each of fiscal years 2025–26 and 2026–27 to an organization committed to reducing falls among older adults for the purpose of statewide falls prevention awareness and initiatives.
Assistive technology services
Under current law, DHS awards grants for certain community programs. The bill allows DHS to distribute up to $250,000 in each fiscal year for grants to provide assistive technology services.
Community dental health coordinators
The bill requires DHS to award grants to support community dental health coordinators in rural regions of the state. Community dental health coordinators are individuals who help facilitate oral health care for families and individuals, particularly in underserved communities.
Grant funding for diaper banks
Under current law, DHS is required to award grants for certain community programs. The bill allows DHS to distribute up to $500,000 in each fiscal year as grants to diaper banks to provide diapers to families in need.
Health care provider innovation grants
The bill requires DHS to award $7,500,000 in fiscal year 2025–26 as grants to health care providers and long-term care providers to implement best practices and innovative solutions to increase worker recruitment and retention.
Medical debt collections reporting
The bill prohibits a health care provider, or a billing administrator or debt collector acting on behalf of a health care provider, from reporting to a consumer reporting agency that a debt arising from services provided by the health care provider is in collections status unless 1) the health care provider provided a written statement to the patient describing the unpaid amount and due date and that included the name and address of the health care provider that provided the services, 2) the written statement includes a statement indicating that if payment is not received, the debt may be reported to a credit reporting agency, 3) six months have passed since the due date listed on that statement, and 4) the patient does not dispute the charges.
Statewide poison control program
Under current law, DHS must implement a statewide poison control system that provides statewide poison control services 24 hours a day and 365 days a year and provides poison information and education to health care professionals and the public. Current law provides that DHS must distribute funding up to $425,000 in each fiscal year to supplement the operation of the system and to provide for the statewide collection and reporting of poison control data. The bill increases this amount to $482,500.
Conversion of lead poisoning and lead services grant appropriation from annual to continuing.
The bill converts an appropriation to DHS for the purpose of providing lead poisoning or lead exposure prevention grants from an annual appropriation to a continuing appropriation. Annual appropriations are appropriations expendable only for the fiscal year for which they are made. Continuing appropriations are appropriations that are expendable until fully depleted or repealed by the legislature.
Mike Johnson grants
The bill increases from $4,000,000 to $4,500,000 the annual maximum amount of Mike Johnson life care and early intervention services grants that DHS awards to organizations for HIV-related services, including needs assessments, assistance in procuring services, counseling and therapy, home care services and supplies, advocacy, case management services, and early intervention services.
Grants for pediatric health psychology residency and fellowship training programs
Under current law, DHS awards grants for certain community programs. The bill allows DHS to distribute up to $600,000 in each fiscal year as grants to support pediatric health psychology residency and fellowship training programs.
Trauma resilience grant
The bill allows DHS, through the grants program it is required to administer, to distribute up to $250,000 in fiscal year 2025–26 and up to $250,000 in fiscal year 2026–27 as a grant to an organization in the city of Milwaukee to support the needs of individuals impacted by trauma and to develop the capacity of organizations to treat and prevent trauma.
Behavioral health and developmental disabilities
