Republican State Representatives Angela Rigas of Caledonia and Luke Meerman of Coopersville say they are alarmed after testimony to the child welfare subcommittee from the Auditor General on its report on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Children’s Protective Services.
The report found both agencies were failing to perform adequate criminal background and household checks during investigations due to policy changes.
The 2024 audit showed CPS has only had partial compliance with recommended corrections from a 2018 report that discovered severe issues with the agency’s policies.
Rigas questioned why the department allows a longer response time to speak with a child after a report and why fewer adults are required to have background checks when fostering children.
Meerman, who chairs the subcommittee, is concerned the department is watering down standards to show progress instead of implementing substantial improvements that help children.
“We have 70,000 CPS calls in the state of Michigan approximately a year. And we're talking about timeliness of when those calls are responded to. I realize that's a tremendous load and they can't all be responded to within, you know, 12 hours or so, but somehow there's got to be some triage of the most important ones.”
More testimony to the subcommittee is expected this week and next.
