An act of legislature in 1885 set aside a $30,000 budget for the establishment of a children’s home. The children’s home officially opened it’s doors to child placements in 1886. This home would come to be known as the State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children. However, it was also known by other names, including the Child Care Center, Child Center, Home for Dependent Children, State Public School and Sparta Children’s home.
The Board of Supervisors wanted to follow the model of the Coldwater, Michigan State School, established in 1874. Several locations were considered for the school site, but ultimately, the board decided on Sparta, Wisconsin. They chose Sparta due to a good, clean water supply, fertile farmlands, proximity to the railroad and an overall attractive location. Additionally, there would be economic benefit to the community of Sparta, as the school would create jobs, stimulating the local economy.
Within four years of opening, 2,221 children had passed through the doors of the Child Care Center and they were quickly running out of space and resources. By 1889, two more cottages, intended to house even more children, were constructed. Initially, the school was meant to be a holding place for neglected, abandoned or needy children between the ages of 3 and 16 years old, just until they could be placed in homes or indentured out. Once a child turned 16, they were typically sent back to the community they came from. Some children spent just a few weeks in the home, while others remained in the home their entire childhood. Despite this, the school was never intended to be a permanent solution for these children.
It wasn’t until 1901 with the passing of Bill 246 A that infants under the age of 3 were granted admission to the State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children. The decision to allow infants to be cared for by the center was one met with great resistance. Many people viewed the school as attempting to be a “baby farm,” and were concerned about the increased risk of death in a “herd” vs. an infant alone. Despite the opposition of the community, the Child Care Center added a baby cottage, dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of infants at the center.
Ultimately, the school boasted a two-story school house, an administrative building, engineer quarters, a boiler room, a separate laundry facility, two hospital units, multiple cottages to house the children, a barn, a cemetery and much, much more. Despite the constant improvements and additions of more cottages to accommodate higher numbers of children, the school was consistently over-crowded and under-funded. While the matrons of the cottages felt 20 to 25 children per cottage was an acceptable amount, these cottages consistently housed upward of 50 to 60 children.
Due to the consistent and overwhelming crowding at the facility, it isn’t hard to understand how disease and illness spread so rapidly amongst the children. Diseases such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever, influenza and more spread from child to child and accounted for many child deaths in the home.
Despite the best intentions, medical care was limited at the State Public School, partly due to medical knowledge in that era, as well as limited resources that the school was struggling to allocate appropriately and in the best interests of the children. Staff often had very little to no medical knowledge and likely struggled to care for children with special needs, having received no training on how to do so. Each child received an exam upon admission to the school and spent two weeks in quarantine to prevent the spread of disease to other inmates. The addition of an official hospital and infirmary greatly improved the availability of medical and dental care to the children, allowing for more consistent care, routine check-ups and the ability to promptly address health concerns. The infirmary could handle simple examinations, first aid, minor procedures and general healthcare, however, this infirmary wasn’t established until 1932. Despite these great improvements and the accessibility of care, medical treatment at the time was still extremely limited. Often, the State Public School hospital was regarded as a place to isolate children likely to succumb to their illness in hopes of preventing the spread of lethal disease to other inmates.
Unfortunately, adoption was a rare occurrence at the Child Care Center. Children were typically indentured out as laborers on farms; girls would often work in the homes as maids, while boys worked the land, tending to the animals and crops. Families could apply for the indenture of a child. The child would be placed with these families and then returned to the center when they turned 18 (or in some cases, 21) and a fee of $50 was paid by the family to the center for the use of the child during this time. The child would then receive a portion of this fee and be sent off on their own. These families had to agree to provide the child with continuing education, alongside meeting their basic needs for food, water, shelter and medical care. Unfortunately, these requirements were often left unmet. Workers from the school were supposed to maintain regular on-site checks for children indentured out, however, these checks were often neglected, likely due to the intense workloads staff faced. Unfortunately, many children died while indentured out and numerous allegations (and subsequent investigations) of abuse occurred.
When the Great Depression hit, it affected the State Public School tremendously. Families throughout Wisconsin were struggling to feed themselves and taking in another mouth to feed simply wasn’t an option. In addition to this, many of the children at the Child Care Center had problems or special needs, making them even more difficult to place in homes. This ultimately lead to even more overcrowding, placing tremendous strain on the facilities and resources available.
By 1921 it became apparent to officials and lawmakers that not all children who entered the home would find permanent placements or homes. Because of this, lawmakers began to provide funding for the expansion of services allowing the Child Care Center to improve the facilities, expand educational opportunities, as well as to hire more teachers and medical personnel.
When the center first opened, children who were left at the facility became permanent dependents of the state of Wisconsin. This meant that parents could not get their children back even if their circumstances changed and they were able to provide for their children. This changed in 1923 when a law was passed allowing parents to reclaim their children from the home so long as they agreed to counseling.
School officials wanted to identify the best way to serve children with special needs and began to study the hard-to-place children in their custody. This study, which can still be accessed and read today, lead to the creation of “Free Homes,” or what some may consider early foster homes. In Free Homes, families did not pay for use of the child, but rather the school reimbursed families for expenses related to the child’s needs, while maintaining a strong emphasis on reunification with the child’s natural family. In 1924, this program expanded to include the recommendations of the child’s doctor, the child’s cottage matron, the child’s psychologist and the child’s psychiatrist in an effort to fully understand and meet the needs of the child.
By 1929 a boarding home program was established. This program allowed families who could no longer care for their special needs child to place them with the State Public School. The families were required to pay a fee, but the child was housed and cared for to the best of the abilities of the facility. After the establishment of this program, the school began to heavily focus on adequately training their staff members on the appropriate care of special needs children.
By the 1960s, the entire purpose and goal of the Child Care Center had shifted and the facilities were split into two separate programs; the Child Care Center, which housed neglected, abandoned, abused, and relinquished children, in addition to juvenile offenders under the age of 12, and the Annex, which housed children with special needs. At this point, the school provided two full weeks of training and education to staff members on how to care for children, including those with special needs. This training was comprehensive and even covered appropriate and effective methods of discipline, primarily through the form of loss of privilege. Children who were too troublesome and unresponsive to disciplinary action were typically transferred to the Boys & Girls School in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
The State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children officially closed it’s doors on July 1, 1976 after serving the State of Wisconsin for 89 years. Children who remained in the home at the time of closing were moved to foster homes in the community and the buildings and grounds were sold to the City of Sparta for $650,000. Some of these buildings still stand today, however, many have been demolished or lost to old age. A golf course was constructed adjacent to the school grounds on what used to be the school’s farmland. The cemetery, which holds the remains of 305 children who died at the Child Care Center, is still accessible to the public.
Sources:
State of Wisconsin School for Dependent Children, Sparta, Monroe County, Wisconsin
History of the Child Care Center
Wisconsin Child Center Cemetery
The Parental State: A Study of the Wisconsin Child Welfare System During the Progressive Era
Child Center Cemetery, Sparta, WI
Children Indentured by the Wisconsin State Public School (Book)