MDHHS tells appropriations subcommittee it has cut monitored child-welfare requirements and aims to exit 17-year consent decree

Demetrius Starling, senior deputy director for children's services at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services during a committee meeting that the department has reduced the number of consent-decree provisions under active monitoring and is targeting an exit from federal court oversight within the next one to two years.

Starling said the department renegotiated and streamlined the long-running lawsuit settlement, noting that a stipulated order signed in January 2024 removed 31 provisions and reduced monitored items to 23. "We've been able to achieve more than 20% of the measures in a stipulated agreement in less than one year," Starling said.

The presentation outlined structural changes MDHHS said it has implemented since the original class-action lawsuit was filed in 2006 and the initial settlement in 2008: a division of continuous quality improvement, a statewide centralized intake unit for reports of abuse and neglect, a maltreatment-and-care division, enhanced oversight of congregate care facilities, and new permanency-focused roles such as Permanency Resource Monitors and an executive strike team. Starling said those changes were partly funded through legislative resources and departmental reallocations.

Why it matters: Michigan has been under court supervision related to the children's-rights lawsuit for 17…