Michigan officials outline kinship expansion, proposed FY2026 foster-care investments

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) officials told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Human Services that the department is prioritizing kinship care and proposed a $24 million increase in the Fiscal Year 2026 executive budget to expand kinship supports, professional foster placements and other foster-care services.

Demetrius Starling, senior deputy director for the Children’s Services Administration, told the committee the department receives roughly 175,000 child protective services complaints a year and currently has about 10,000 children in foster care, with roughly half placed in kinship settings. “We have around 175,000 CPS complaints on a yearly basis,” Starling said, adding that kinship placements now account for about 50% of foster placements in Michigan.

The proposed FY2026 investments described by Amy Eppke, senior deputy director over financial operations, include a $24 million increase for kinship-focused work; a pilot for 30 paid professional foster parents to serve children with complex needs; expanded behavioral and physical health services for adopted children and families; a proposal to redirect Social Security benefits for children in foster care into the child’s account while replacing those services with general fund dollars; and statewide expansion of Family Impact Teams from 23 counties to all 83 counties, a shift MDHHS says will be cost-neutral by moving staff currently on the Pathways to Potential program.

Why it matters: state officials, private providers and kinship caregivers all told the committee that keeping children with relatives or trusted “fictive kin” when safe is linked to greater placement stability, fewer missing-child incidents and faster permanency. Private providers warned, however, that higher clinical acuity among the children who remain in foster care strains workforce capacity and agency budgets.

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