Several Republican lawmakers gathered on the steps of the Michigan Capitol Thursday evening to demand an overhaul of Children’s Protective Services and foster care within the state.
State Sens. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake), Joseph Bellino (R-Monroe) and Reps. Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville) and Gina Johnsen (R-Portland) joined with individuals with direct experience with Michigan’s foster care system, as well as supportive organizations, to raise awareness of issues with the current system and drum up support for legislation aimed at providing greater oversight.
“For now, almost 12 years I’ve been in office and 30 years observing the system, I have been fighting to reform the Child Protective Services and the foster care system in Michigan,” said Runestad, who was a foster parent. “And what I’ve seen is not just a broken system, it is a system that is causing real harm.”
Since 2008, Michigan’s child welfare system has been subject to a federal consent decree, with the state remaining under oversight from two court-appointed monitors, tracking and reporting on Michigan’s progress on reform.
The most recent report, released in February, found that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services failed to meet required standards in 18 of the 24 areas under evaluation, including 14 areas where the state’s performance was more than 10 percentage points below the requirements.
Following the department’s appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to discuss its efforts to improve the system, officials issued a statement noting its progress in ensuring there are sufficient homes to meet the needs of the foster care population, its success in meeting performance standards for providing services, ensuring visits between siblings placed elsewhere in foster care, and ensuring children entering foster care receive medical and mental health examinations.
However, lawmakers and advocates at Thursday’s rally argued more efforts are needed to support foster parents and protect kids.
The senator said he also plans to put forth legislation creating a task force to investigate the state’s child welfare system, uncover failures and offer solutions.
Meerman, who chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Child Welfare System, said the House is also working on its own plan to revamp Child Protective Services. In the interim, the representative has introduced House Bill 4696 which, alongside House Bill 4697, allows children to be placed with relatives who are not foster parents but have received approval from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
The measures passed the House with bipartisan support and have been assigned to the Senate Human Services Committee for further review.
Alicia Homrich, a former CPS worker, told attendees that she could provide a lengthy list of harmful policies and procedures within the current system, having witnessed many during her time working with the system. However, she honed in on three.
“Child protective services workers are not provided with adequate training,” Homrich said. “They get nine or 10 weeks of classroom training, and then they’re sent out into the field. Very little time is spent on teaching the new CPS workers appropriate methods, techniques, strategies to conduct an adequate investigation.”
Additionally, these workers are given 30 calendar days to complete their investigations, Homrich said, arguing the process ensures workers will miss details during their investigation, and that the process should instead focus on being thorough and exhaustive.
Lastly, children within the child welfare system are being “re-orphaned,” Homrich said, explaining that foster parents and adoptive parents are returning children to the state as they were not equipped to properly support their wards.
“The state prioritizes the number of foster homes that they license, not the quality,” Homrich said. “And they’re not giving the compensation, and they’re not giving the support that is necessary to continue to keep a placement for as long as possible. And every time a child is rehomed, it’s a further wound on that child.”
Tavia Bentley, a former foster youth and a parent whose child was later involved with CPS said the system feels punitive rather than supportive.
“When I reached out to CPS for help with my child with mental health challenges, I wasn’t met with the support I needed. Instead, the situation escalated,” Bentley said. “That should never be the outcome. When a parent reaches out to ask for help, we need a system that responds early, with resources, with guidance and with compassion before removal becomes the only option.”
Runestad also offered tributes to the families of children who had died while involved with child protective services, including Ethan Belcher, whose aunt filed a lawsuit against the state alleging that CPS failed to protect Belcher and his brother while investigating abuse. Belcher’s mother and stepfather were later sentenced to life in prison for murder and abuse charges.
