Last week, Judge Nancy G. Edmunds of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan approved a new agreement between the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and Children’s Rights, the advocacy group that sued the state 13 years ago. Taking the place of an earlier deal approved in federal court in 2016, the Modified Implementation, Sustainability and Exit Plan reflects a slate of changes that MDHHS sought.
Examples include eliminating the state’s time-consuming compliance reviews of cases as much as two years old, focusing efforts to prevent child maltreatment on the activities most directly related to stopping it, and shifting efforts for older youth from documenting planning activities to getting youth into effective programs, such as the Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care program.
View the new agreement at www.michigan.gov/ChildWelfareAgreement .