A biometric fingerprint identification system for enrollment and monitoring child care attendance under Wisconsin Shares

What it would have done

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

The Wisconsin Works (W-2) program under current law, which is administered by the Department of Children and Families (DCF), provides work experience and benefits for low-income custodial parents who are at least 18 years old. Also, an individual who is the parent of a child under the age of 13 or, if the child is disabled, under the age of 19, may receive a child care subsidy under W-2 if the individual needs child care services to participate in various educational or work activities and satisfies other eligibility criteria. The child care subsidy program under W-2 is known as Wisconsin Shares.

Under current law, child care providers who receive a subsidy for providing child care to children under Wisconsin Shares are required to maintain a written record of the daily hours of attendance, including arrival and departure times, for each child for whom the provider provides care. This record must be retained for each child for at least three years after the child's last day of attendance. Under this bill, DCF is required to implement, by January 1, 2011, a biometric fingerprint identification system for initially enrolling and then registering the arrival and departure each day of each child receiving child care under Wisconsin Shares and for conducting random attendance inspections at other times. DCF must supply the necessary software, and each child care provider who provides child care under Wisconsin Shares must purchase and install the hardware necessary for use of the system. After the system is implemented, child care providers would no longer be required to make a written record of a child's daily hours of attendance.

Who's behind it

3 senators are its authors⁠. 2 are Republicans and 1 is a Democrat.

8 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.