New Children and Families department debuts Tuesday

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Starting Tuesday, Wisconsin will put a new focus on children.

The cabinet-level Department of Children and Families will make its debut as the state’s new fiscal year begins.

One of its first projects is a Web site that lists all 5,700 Wisconsin child care centers and day camps.

Parents can see if those centers ever had trouble complying with state rules. You’ll find the new site at DCF.Wisconsin.gov.

Gov. Jim Doyle says it’s just one way the new department will provide protection for families, while making them deal with less bureaucracy.

The new Children and Families department did not receive its own funding but it did take services from the Departments of Health and Family Services and Workforce Development.

One of the state’s largest children’s programs, BadgerCare, will stay in the health agency.

Still, the new department is the state’s biggest administrative change since the mid-‘90s, when the W-2 Welfare to Work program was created.

Doyle says it’s been frustrating for parents to call several agencies to get what they need.

One advocate said child care centers were licensed by one department and they got state funding from another.

The department’s new secretary, Reggie Bicha, says his goals include raising the quality of early childhood care and to get fathers more involved in the kids’ lives.

Bicha says his office will have a coordinator especially to help fathers.

Tags: wisconsin, news, new, department, children, families