Michigan CPS makes progress but falls short of expectations, says auditor general report

LANSING, MI – Michigan’s Child Protective Services agency has made progress but needs to do more to protect children from abuse and neglect, according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Auditor General.

The audit found that in 5% of the cases reviewed, CPS investigators had failed to conduct in-person interviews with the allegedly abused or neglected children within the timeframe specified by the department.

According to the report released on Tuesday, July 9, investigators in these cases needed between 17 hours and 42 days longer than required to meet with the children and assess their safety.

The report also found that CPS investigators misjudged the risk of future harm in 29% of cases investigated, resulting in families potentially not receiving adequate monitoring or help to address the risk of child abuse.

The follow-up report was prepared to determine whether the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CPS, had taken corrective action following a scathing 2018 audit report that found numerous failures in conducting investigations into child abuse cases.

Related: Michigan Child Protective Services accused by auditors of multiple failures

This most recent review found that MDHHS had partially corrected nine deficiencies, fully corrected five others, failed to correct two others, and substantially corrected one other.

MDHHS disagreed with the report’s conclusions that it had not fully complied with most of the recommendations made in the last audit to correct the problems, the report said.

MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel claimed Tuesday that the auditor general’s observations were in some cases “agenda-driven and based on arbitrary standards,” resulting in a “biased report designed to mislead the public about the agency’s true performance.”

However, Hertel said the audit confirmed that the department had made “great progress” in addressing the problems identified in the previous audit.

“These results confirm our focus and strengthen our resolve,” Hertel said. “We welcome the opportunity and responsibility to work with the Legislature, law enforcement, judges and other partners to transform Michigan’s child welfare system into a national model of competence and care.”

For the report, the state’s auditor general sampled 68,000 complaints of child abuse or neglect referred to CPS investigation between June 1, 2021, and May 31, 2022.

Two issues that have been fully resolved are that the CPS has referred every relevant case to local prosecutors and that staff have sought legal intervention from the courts in all necessary cases, including where a child has been seriously physically injured or sexually abused.

The previous audit found that 50% of the cases reviewed were not referred to local prosecutors. The latest report also found that in 10% of the cases reviewed that required legal intervention, no court applications were made.

Other progress made between the 2018 audit and the current audit, Hertel said, includes increasing the frequency and effectiveness of regulatory reviews of CPS investigative activities, improving the way CPS conducts background checks on family members, and improving documentation of communications with those required to report child abuse, such as police officers and teachers.

The department has also improved the percentage of cases in which an investigator meets in person with a suspected child victim within the required time frame.

In the previous audit, CPS investigators failed to meet children in a timely manner in 11% of cases investigated. In the most recent audit, that percentage dropped to 5% of cases investigated.

The report questioned some of the policy changes made by the MDHHS and recommended that the department “evaluate the impact of deviations from best practice recommendations.”

One of these policy changes affected the MDHHS definition of initiating an investigation within the required 24-hour period following a report of child abuse or neglect.

Under previous policy, an investigation was considered initiated when a CPS employee contacted someone other than the complainant to assess the child’s safety.

MDHHS changed the policy to define the start of an investigation as actions such as reviewing case history, gathering evidence, case planning and more, the audit found. Assessing a child’s safety is done through in-person contact, according to the policy.

The MDHHS requires that investigations begin within 12 hours if a child is in immediate danger and within 24 hours in all other cases.

The audit found that in 29% of the investigations reviewed, it took between just over 24 hours and 45 days for CPS to make a child safety assessment, with the median time being 1.9 days.

In 8% of the investigations reviewed, CPS did not complete an assessment of a child’s safety within the required 12-hour time limit. Instead, these assessments took between 17 and 110 hours after a complaint, with the average time being 21 hours.

The previous audit found that in 17% of the cases reviewed, investigations were not initiated within the prescribed timeframe. Under the new directive, investigations were initiated within the prescribed timeframe in all cases reviewed.

In a letter Monday to Auditor General Doung Ringler, Hertel said the audit “focuses more on process and paperwork issues than on the efforts of MDHHS staff to increase the safety of children and the strength of families.”

“For example, your definition of ‘initiating’ a child welfare investigation is an opaque and bureaucratic obstacle that distracts from practices at MDHHS that increase child safety,” Hertel wrote.

“You repeatedly claim that MDHHS has changed its policies without making any real impact, and yet you have ignored or swept under the rug our evidence of progress.”