The bill directs DHS, as part of the grants DHS is required to award for
community programs, to award up to $500,000 in grants in fiscal year 2021-22 and
then up to $1,000,000 annually thereafter to develop or support entities that offer
medication-assisted treatment. Medication-assisted treatment addresses opioid
use disorder and opioid dependence.
Substance use harm reduction grant
The bill allows DHS, as part of the grants DHS is required to award for
community programs, to annually award up to $250,000 to organizations with
comprehensive harm reduction strategies for the development or support of
substance use harm reduction programs, as determined by DHS.
Addiction treatment platform
The bill directs DHS to contract in fiscal year 2022-23 for the development of
a substance use disorder treatment platform that allows for the comparison of
substance use disorder treatment programs in the state. Substance use disorder
treatment programs treat individuals for substance use disorder by offering services
including counseling, medication management, and recovery coaching. The bill
requires that DHS may spend no more than $300,000 on the contract.
Training for methamphetamine addiction treatment
The bill appropriates general purpose revenue to DHS to provide grants to
provide trainings to substance use disorder treatment providers on treatment
models for methamphetamine addiction.
General health and human services
Making references in the statutes gender neutral
The bill recognizes same-sex marriage by making references in the statutes to
spouses gender neutral, with the intent of harmonizing the Wisconsin Statutes with
the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 192
L. Ed. 2d 609 (2015), which recognizes that same-sex couples have a fundamental
constitutional right to marriage. The bill also recognizes legal parentage for
same-sex couples under certain circumstances and adopts gender neutral parentage
terminology.
The bill provides that marriage may be contracted between persons of the same
sex and confers the same rights and responsibilities on married persons of the same
sex that married persons of different sexes have under current law. The bill defines
“spouse" as a person who is legally married to another person of the same sex or a
different sex and replaces every reference to “husband" or “wife" in current law with
“spouse." The bill makes applicable to married persons of the same sex all provisions
under current law that apply to married persons of different sexes. These provisions
relate to such diverse areas of the law as income tax, marital property, inheritance
rights, divorce, child and spousal support, insurance coverage, family and spousal
recreational licenses, consent to conduct an autopsy, domestic abuse, and eligibility
for various types of benefits, such as retirement or death benefits and medical
assistance.
In addition to making statutory references to spouses gender neutral, the bill
specifies ways in which married couples of the same sex may be the legal parents of
a child and, with some exceptions, makes current references in the statutes to
“mother" and “father," and related terms, gender neutral.
Under current law, all of the following may adopt a child: a husband and wife
jointly, a husband or wife whose spouse is the parent of the child, and an unmarried
adult. Because the bill makes references in the statutes to spouses gender neutral,
same-sex spouses jointly may adopt a child and become the legal parents of the child,
and a same-sex spouse of a person who is the parent of a minor child may adopt the
child and become the legal parent of his or her spouse's child.
Under current law, if a woman is artificially inseminated under the supervision
of a physician with semen donated by a man who is not her husband and the husband
consents in writing to the artificial insemination of his wife, the husband is the
natural father of any child conceived. Under the bill, one spouse may also consent
to the artificial insemination of his or her spouse and is the natural parent of the child
conceived. The artificial insemination is not required to take place under the
supervision of a physician, but, if it does not, the semen used for the insemination
must have been obtained from a sperm bank.
Under current law, a man is presumed to be the father of a child if he and the
child's natural mother 1) were married to each other when the child was conceived
or born or 2) married each other after the child was born but had a relationship with
each other when the child was conceived and no other man has been adjudicated to
be the father or is presumed to be the father because the man was married to the
mother when the child was conceived or born. The paternity presumption may be
rebutted in a legal action or proceeding by the results of a genetic test showing that
the statistical probability of another man's parentage is 99.0 percent or higher. The
bill expands this presumption into a parentage presumption, so that a person is
presumed to be the natural parent of a child if he or she 1) was married to the child's
established natural parent when the child was conceived or born or 2) married the
child's established natural parent after the child was born but had a relationship
with the established natural parent when the child was conceived and no person has
been adjudicated to be the father and no other person is presumed to be the child's
parent because he or she was married to the mother when the child was conceived
or born. The parentage presumption may still be rebutted by the results of a genetic
test showing that the statistical probability of another person's parentage is 99.0
percent or higher. Expanding on current law, the bill allows for a paternity action
to be brought for the purpose of rebutting the parentage presumption, regardless of
whether that presumption applies to a male or female spouse.
Current law provides that a mother and a man may sign a statement
acknowledging paternity and file it with the state registrar. If the state registrar has
received such a statement, the man is presumed to be the father of the child. Under
current law, either person who has signed a statement acknowledging paternity may
rescind the statement before an order is filed in an action affecting the family
concerning the child or within 60 days after the statement is filed, whichever occurs
first. Under current law, a man who has filed a statement acknowledging paternity
that is not rescinded within the time period is conclusively determined to be the
father of the child. The bill provides that two people may sign a statement
acknowledging parentage and file it with the state registrar. If the state registrar
has received such a statement, the people who have signed the statement are
presumed to be the parents of the child. Under the bill, a statement acknowledging
parentage that is not rescinded conclusively establishes parentage with regard to the
person who did not give birth to the child and who signed the statement.
The bill defines “natural parent" as a parent of a child who is not an adoptive
parent, whether the parent is biologically related to the child or not. Thus, a person
who is a biological parent, a parent by consenting to the artificial insemination of his
or her spouse, or a parent under the parentage presumption is a natural parent of
a child. The definition applies throughout the statutes wherever the term “natural
parent" is used. In addition, the bill expands some references in the statutes to
“biological parent" by changing the reference to “natural parent."
Gender neutral references on birth certificates
Generally, the bill substitutes the term “spouse" for “husband" in the birth
certificate statutes and enters the spouse, instead of the husband, of the person who
has given birth on the birth certificate at times when a husband would currently be
entered on a birth certificate. The name of the person who has given birth is entered
on a birth certificate when the person gives birth to a child, and current law specifies
when another name should be entered on the birth certificate. Current law requires
that if a birth mother is married at any time from the conception to the birth of a
child, then her husband's name is entered on the birth certificate as the legal father
of the child. Under the bill, if a person who gives birth is married at any time from
the conception to the birth of the child, then that person's spouse's name is entered
as a legal parent of the child. The bill also specifies that, in the instance that a second
parent's name is initially omitted from the birth certificate, if the state registrar
receives a signed acknowledgement of parentage by people presumed to be parents
because the two people married after the birth of the child, the two people had a
relationship during the time the child was conceived, no person is adjudicated to be
the father, and no other person is presumed to be the parent, then the state registrar
must enter the name of the spouse of the person who gave birth as a parent on the
birth certificate.
Health information exchange grants
The bill requires DHS to provide a grant of $655,000 in each of fiscal years
2021-22 and 2022-23 to support health information exchange activities. Health
information exchange, generally, is the sharing of patient information between
health care providers or health care systems. The bill allows DHS to transfer moneys
appropriated for these grants between fiscal years.
Home care provider registry
The bill requires DHS to conduct a one-year pilot program to create a home care
provider registry to support home and community-based long-term care support
programs and clients and vendors of care services. DHS is required to use its
competitive request-for-proposals procedures to select a vendor of the software
platform for the registry.
housing
Homelessness
Priority for homeless children
The bill creates a two-year pilot program that gives priority to homeless
children and their families, as defined under federal law, on the waiting list that
WHEDA, or a public housing agency or other entity that contracts with WHEDA,
maintains under the federal Housing Choice Voucher Program. Under the bill,
WHEDA is required to develop policies and procedures for the pilot program.
Report on homeless children and youths
The bill requires DPI to annually submit a report to the legislature on the
number of homeless children and youths in the public schools of this state. Under
the bill, “homeless children and youths” is defined by reference to federal law
providing homeless assistance.