Parents tell House panel state lacks beds and resources for children with severe behavioral health needs

Molly Dixon, an adoptive mother who testified before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Child Welfare System, described years of efforts to secure treatment and safe placements for two adopted children with severe behavioral and mental-health needs. Dixon said state and local agencies repeatedly failed to find appropriate placements in Michigan and that, in practice, families sometimes must relinquish parental rights to access residential services.

Dixon told the committee her family adopted two children after fostering them at ages 2 and 4; the adoption was finalized in February 2017. She said the children were later diagnosed with conditions including fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, reactive attachment disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, disruptive mood disorder and autism. She said her son’s behavior escalated to repeated violent incidents and frequent emergency…