Five married couples who had retarded children in Wisconsin mental institutions created the Wisconsin Council for Mentally Retarded Children in the fall of 1949. The group came together because it wanted to change the way that mental health issues were handled and funded in the State of Wisconsin. The organization had two goals: to change the established procedures for committing persons to mental institutions, and to limit the amount of money that the State of Wisconsin could charge for the incarceration of a retarded individual. According to the records, their work led to the passage of Bills No. 762, S., and 710, S. sometime in late June or early July 1951. The records indicate that the group dissolved and became part of the United Association for Retarded Children on April 1, 1962. According to the Encyclopedia of Associations, the United Association for Retarded Children no longer exists.
Additional information on the Council can be obtained in Francis A. Brennan's 1955 thesis, History, Growth, and Development of the Wisconsin Council for Mentally Retarded Children (Call Number: HV10000 B74) or in Alice Wright Gee's 1960 thesis, The Development of Pamphlets for Parents of Severely Mentally Retarded Children (Call Number: L9999 G297).
