Auditor General finds partial compliance with 2018 child-protection recommendations; MDHHS disputes some conclusions

The House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare System heard July 2024 follow-up findings from the Michigan Office of the Auditor General (OAG) showing incomplete compliance by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) with recommendations from a 2018 audit of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations.

OAG Audit Division Administrator Yvonne Benn told the committee the office reviewed 17 prior findings and concluded MDHHS "complied with 6 recommendations" but for 11 recommendations the department "either partially or did not comply," with material conditions remaining for nine of those. "We issued this follow-up report in July 2024," Benn said.

Why it matters: the audit covers whether CPS investigators timely assess child safety, perform central-registry and criminal-history checks, and complete supervisory reviews — activities that OAG said are essential to identify risks to children and to the integrity of investigations.

Observation and findings presented

Keith Edwards, the audit supervisor for the follow-up, described Observation 1 and its link to Finding 1. "The CPL requires MDHHS to commence a CPS investigation within 24 hours after receiving a complaint of child abuse or neglect," Edwards said, adding the state Child Protection Law (CPL) does not define what actions constitute "commencement." He said MDHHS policy now treats "commencement" as any activity to begin an investigation, while the department's prior policy defined commencement to include an assessment of child safety within 24 hours.

The OAG reported these follow-up conclusions and sample results: the auditors reviewed 100 sampled CPS case files and other materials. Among the findings presented to the committee:

- Overall compliance: Of 17 prior findings, the OAG concluded MDHHS complied with 6; for 11 recommendations MDHHS either partially complied or did not comply. MDHHS disagreed with OAG conclusions for 10 of the 11 contested items, the OAG said.

- Finding 1 (commencement and early safety assessment): The OAG concluded MDHHS "partially complied" and that a material condition remains. The auditors said MDHHS revised its commencement policy so it no longer requires an assessment of alleged victim safety within 24 hours; in the sampled cases auditors found 37% of investigations did not complete activities assessing child safety within the required time frames. The auditors reported that in 29 investigations no activity to assess safety occurred within 24 hours, and in 8 investigations where MDHHS assigned a 12-hour commencement priority, no activity assessing safety occurred within that 12-hour period.

- Finding 2 (central registry checks): The OAG reported CPS investigators did not document central-registry clearances for 14% of sampled investigations under the policy in effect at the time. The auditors said sufficient information existed for them to run clearances in 13 of those cases and that 15% of those checks returned a registry match. The OAG also said MDHHS policy changes discontinued required registry checks for many adults in a household; the auditors identified 40 individuals in the sample who were no longer subject to checks and, where auditors could run checks, 12% were listed on the central registry.

- Finding 3 (criminal-history/LIEN checks): The OAG found lien (Law Enforcement Information Network) checks were not conducted for all required individuals in 27% of sampled investigations. Because of the policy change, auditors said 69 individuals were no longer subject to lien checks; auditors were able to perform checks on 25 of those individuals and found 20% had felony or misdemeanor convictions.

- Finding 4 (review of prior CPS history): The OAG said investigators did not document review of CPS history records for at least one required person in 20% of sampled cases and did not document complete review of all CPS history in 46% of cases; both conditions were present in 11% of cases. The audit said 77 individuals associated with sampled investigations were no longer subject to policy-required CPS-history reviews and that 38% of those had prior CPS history when auditors inspected available records.

- Finding 6 (timely face-to-face contact): From a 99-case review, the OAG reported MDHHS did not make face-to-face contact within the department's priority-response time frame for seven alleged child victims (5% of the reviewed investigations). The OAG labeled that a reportable condition.

- Finding 17 (supervisory review): The auditors said supervisors did not consistently identify and correct deficiencies in investigations and that MDHHS did not consistently meet its time frames for completing supervisory reviews; the OAG called this a material condition that contributed to other findings.

Committee members asked for detail on how individuals are placed on the central registry, on sample sizes, and whether delays produced additional harm. The OAG told the committee auditors reviewed electronic and hard-copy case records and said they could not determine from the audit whether delays caused subsequent abuse or neglect in individual cases.

MDHHS response and context

Demetra Starling, Senior Deputy Director for Children's Services at MDHHS, disputed portions of the OAG's approach and conclusions. Starling said MDHHS "disagrees with some findings" and said the OAG applied a standard that did not align with the department's current policies and broader risk-evaluation practices. "The aim of a follow-up audit should be to revisit the originally agreed upon scope to ensure proper alignment," she said.

Starling described policy and program changes MDHHS has made since the 2018 audit, including the department's "Keeping Kids Safe" agenda, targeted funding and pilots, expansion of family resource centers, and updated hotline and decision-making tools. She told the committee MDHHS has secured "approximately $50,000,000 in prevention funds" and cited Wyatt's Law (a 2022 state law) and other efforts intended to improve information sharing and safety reviews.

Starling said MDHHS views some audit findings as emphasizing documentation over broader casework and system transformation. She said MDHHS has developed a supervisory-control protocol to increase supervisor touch points, rolled out a new children's services teaming model, and updated policy requiring LIEN checks to be requested "as early as possible in an investigation, but no later than seven calendar days" (policy change effective September 2023, she said).

What the committee did and next steps

Committee members pressed both OAG and MDHHS for additional details, including requests that MDHHS provide the rationale for prior policy changes that reduced automatic background checks for some household members. The OAG said it could not determine departmental intent for those policy changes and that such explanations "would need to be answered by the department." MDHHS said it would provide additional materials and noted ongoing pilots and trainings.

The only formal committee action recorded in the transcript was the approval of the minutes from the March 11 meeting; Representative Regas moved the motion and the chair declared the motion approved with no objection.

The subcommittee scheduled a second session to review the remaining OAG findings the auditors did not cover at this hearing. Both the OAG and MDHHS told the committee they were willing to provide additional data and answer further questions on specific case outcomes and policy rationales.