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MDHHS outlines foster care progress and five FY26 budget proposals to bolster kinship placements
Summary
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Services that Michigan’s foster care population has declined to about 10,000 children, roughly half in kinship placements, and outlined five fiscal 2026 budget proposals — including a $24 million kinship investment and a 30-seat professional foster-parent pilot — to support placement stability and permanency.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) briefed the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Services on the state’s foster care system and five executive budget proposals intended to expand kinship care and other supports.
Amy Eppke, senior deputy director over financial operations for MDHHS, and Demetrius Starling, senior deputy director for the department’s Children’s Services Administration, told the committee that MDHHS receives about 175,000 Child Protective Services complaints annually through centralized intake and that current foster care caseloads are near 10,000 children.
The department said roughly half of those children are placed with relatives or other kinship caregivers, a proportion it cited as a major policy success compared with a peak of more than 17,000 children in foster care in fiscal 2019.
MDHHS described five initiatives included in the governor’s…
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