Livingston Today

State Rep. Ann Bollin, R-Brighton Township, has called upon the House Oversight Committee to hold a hearing to investigate failures of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). This request follows concerning findings released by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) regarding the performance of the department’s Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children.

The compact is tasked with protecting and serving children placed across state lines for foster care and adoption, ensuring that vulnerable children find secure homes prioritizing their well-being. However, the report released Friday indicated underperformance within this system.

“The safety and well-being of our children should be the absolute priority of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, yet this report shows a concerning disregard for the essential protections these children deserve,” Bollin stated. “We owe it to these children and their families to fix this broken system. This is a matter of life and safety, and we must address it with the urgency it demands.”

According to the report, nearly one-third of children placed within Michigan did not receive required initial face-to-face visits within 30 days—a crucial step in ensuring their safety and well-being. Additionally, MDHHS failed to obtain necessary supervision reports for more than half of Michigan children placed in other states, leaving them without adequate oversight.

Further findings revealed that MDHHS was late in returning more than a quarter of sampled home study reports to other states.

“MDHHS’s continued failure to protect our children, and now children from other states, is unacceptable,” said Bollin, who serves on the House DHHS Appropriations Subcommittee. “Our state has a duty to look out for kids who cannot advocate for themselves and keep them out of harm’s way. The OAG’s findings must be taken seriously and investigated by the Oversight Committee.”

The full OAG report can be found here.