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Child Welfare Task Force Cites Progress, Announces New Focus
Michigan has made significant progress in keeping more vulnerable children with family members rather than with non-relative foster parents, the Michigan Child Welfare Improvement Task Force says.
And there have been dramatic reductions in children living in congregate care institutions, a placement of last resort that the task force says has been overused to the detriment of children.
Those were two of the task force’s key goals after the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) established it in 2020. The task force announced it has revised its charge statement and is now turning its attention to supporting a “Two-Generation Approach” designed to holistically help both children and families thrive.
“I am proud of the committee’s work, and everyone’s excited about the direction we’re going, and the two-generation approach,” said Wayne County Circuit Judge Karen Braxton, who chairs the task force. “I’m excited about the impact that we can have not just in Michigan, but also becoming national leaders.”
The task force discussed progress, challenges and next steps at its Oct. 31 meeting at the MPHI offices in Okemos. MPHI is partnering with the MDHHS to lead the project.
Keeping kids with Kin
Much of the task force’s early work focused on strategies to expand kinship care, which places vulnerable children with family members or close family friends when the children need to be removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect. Research shows children fare better when they stay within their families.
Between June 2021 and June 2025, the percent of children in the child welfare system who were placed with family members rose from 53% to 63%, said Demetrius Starling, senior deputy director for the Children’s Services Administration of MDHHS.
Some of the improvement is the result of task force recommendations that were implemented by the state, including greater efforts to identify more family members who are potential caregivers and providing financial assistance.
Starling said his goal is to increase the family placements to 75%. One strategy will be working harder to reach out to fathers’ and their relatives and remove biases that work against paternal placements.
Alternatives to Congregate Care
For more than a year, the task force has worked to improve the congregate care system. Experts say too many children are placed in these residential treatment centers – and often for far too long – when less restrictive settings are more appropriate. The task force has recommended more prevention services, intensified efforts to identify kin caregivers, and prompt placements after treatment programs have concluded.
The number of children in congregate care has dropped from 1,285 in 2018 to 385, Starling said. The reductions are partly the result of the response to COVID and the closure of large facilities, but also to the policies and practices recommended by the task force. DHHS has created a Transition of Care team that facilitates timely discharges from congregate settings, coordinates support to youth and caregivers, and tracks outcomes.
The task force has created a new online dashboard with data about children in congregate care as well as child welfare over the past several years. The dashboard provides information by county and among demographic groups. It will be available to the public.
The workgroup was led by Patricia Neitman, director of the Bureau of Children’s Coordinated Health, Policy, and Supports in MDHHS, and Sandra Lindsey, CEO of the Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority.
Multi-generational strategy
The task force’s new 2Gen work group will help the state develop a two-generation or multi-generational approach to child welfare that recognizes the interconnection of the needs of children with parents and other caregivers. The work group will be led by Janet Reynolds Snyder, president/ceo of the Michigan Federation of Children and Families and a member of the task force.
Snyder said 2Gen gives “attention to the needs of both the child and the caregiver for the child as a whole picture, a whole family. It is about bringing the voices of those families as experts into the design and implementation of what services are most helpful for their families, promoting increased family wellbeing and prosperity of each family member.”
For the past year, the Federation has partnered with MDHHS, a Lived Experience Advisory Council and representatives from community-based organizations who work directly with families in launching MiFamily Together pilots in 25 counties. MiFamily Together reduces the number of different family preservation programs families need to navigate and integrates services to children with those for caregivers. It recognizes that children do better when their parents or other caregivers are doing better.
In MiFamily Together’s first year, nearly 1,000 families were enrolled for services. Of those enrollments, 95% of children remained safely at home as of October 2025, Snyder said. She said Michigan’s 2Gen work is drawing attention across the country. The task force work will assist MDHHS in expanding MiFamily Together statewide in 2026.
Changing membership
The task force added new members: Esther Flowers, director of Legal Services for the New Foster Care: Desiree Jennings, president and CEO of the Children’s Center; James White, CEO of the Detroit Integrated Health Network; youth representative Pura Strong; Supreme Court Justice Kimberly Thomas; Mario Johnson and Womazetta Robinson of Casey Family Programs; and parent representatives Hilary Griffith and Carl Harris.
Braxton expressed gratitude to the members leaving the task force: Anita Shannon and Dr. Zeinab Chahine of Casey Family Programs; state Rep. Luke Meerman; and Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Megan Cavanagh.
Growing Challenges
Starling, the DHHS senior deputy director, said the challenges for families as well as state government are growing, especially with cuts in SNAP food assistance and Medicaid. The state’s 2026 budget also includes reductions in some funding for children’s services. Starling said it is incumbent on leaders to make best use of resources and be innovative in finding other funding sources, such as philanthropic institutions.
Racial disparities persist and must be addressed, he said. For instance, about 29% of children in the child welfare system are black, while 16 percent of Michigan children are black.
The task force’s role in building an equitable and effective system will continue to be important, Starling said.
“If anything can be taking from this event, we have an obligation to listen to our community, to move our systems from a child welfare system to a family well-being system. And not only honoring the data, but using that data to make well-informed decisions.”
The Michigan Public Health Institute staffs the child welfare improvement task force. For more information, contact Dr. Paul Elam, chief strategy officer at pelam@mphi.org or visit www.michigancwtf.org.
Child Welfare Task Force Cites Progress, Challenges
Fewer Michigan children are living in foster care or residential treatment centers, a sign that prevention and other services are helping children stay in or return to their homes, or live in less restrictive settings. But while the data show improvements for children of color, the progress is coming at a slower pace than for their White peers.
Overall, the number of children in the child welfare system (primarily foster care) dropped from 11,479 in September 2020 to 9,480 this September. The number of children of color dipped from 5,888 to 5,525. While 32% of children in Michigan are children of color, they make up 58% of the child welfare cases. That is up from 52% in 2020.
The findings were reported at the semi-annual meeting of the Michigan Child Welfare Improvement Task Force. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) created the task force in 2020 to improve services, keep more children with their families and reduce racial disparities in the child welfare system.
In Michigan and nationwide, children of color are more likely to be placed in foster care, stay in foster care longer and age out of the foster care system without a family. They are also more likely to be placed in institutional settings, a last resort for young people with complex behavioral or mental health needs. All of these experiences have negative health, social and economic effects that can last a lifetime.
Wayne County Circuit Judge Karen Braxton, one of the new co-chairs of the task force, said she was pleased with the progress, but added that much is left to be done.
“We do want to celebrate the win, which is there are fewer children in care across the board,” said Braxton, who works with children and families in the Family Division Juvenile Section of the 3rd Circuit Court. “When you see that the disparities are increasing, it demonstrates the need for additional work to be done for our black and brown children. We need to look at why they are coming into care, why they are staying in care and why they are more likely to go into our institutions.”
The task force’s other co-chair, Demetrius Starling, MDHHS’s senior deputy director, Children’s Services Administration, said significant progress is being made. The percentage of Child Protective Services complaints that are assigned for investigation has declined in the past year, an indication that more families are being directed to prevention services rather than CPS intervention. On the other hand, about 250 children are being removed from their homes each month, a number Starling thinks can be reduced significantly by improving access to prevention and other community services.
Congregate Care Challenge
Much of the discussion at Friday’s task force meeting focused on residential treatment centers, often called congregate care institutions. State officials are seeking to change the language to emphasize the therapeutic goals of the placements.
A task force work group has spent nearly a year zeroing in on problems within the congregate care system and possible solutions. The group has found that children and youth too often are placed in centers far away from the homes and often bounce from one institution to another without receiving the treatment or without effective aftercare planning to successfully return to families. At times, they languish in residential settings because there is no family placement. The task force believes children and families need greater access to effective prevention and community services, as well as early, effective transition plans.
There are 341 foster children in the treatment centers, according to data presented. Starling said that represents 3.6% of children in the child welfare system. Both the number and the percentage has declined in the past year. Starling said he believes further reductions are possible as the state develops innovative alternatives, although there will aways be a need for them. He said there are currently about 100 youths on wait lists for residential treatment placements. The state is working to finalize contracts with partners to expand capacity to meet those needs.
Work group co-chair Patricia Neitman, bureau director for the Bureau of Children’s Coordinated Health, Policy, and Supports at MDHHS, laid out proposals from the department designed to support smooth, prompt transitions. One would create a Community Transitions Support Team that would bring together groups that could include families, treatment center staff, school officials, community mental health to support transition and aftercare. They would collaboratively assess needs and barriers to timely, successful discharges.
DHHS also wants to expand its Parent Support Partners and Youth Peer Supports programs across the state. These programs connect guardians and youth with guidance from those who have the same lived experiences.
Paul Elam, chief strategy officer for the Michigan Public Health Institute and lead staff for the task force, said there is a need to design a child protection system with strategies for assisting those with a multitude of adverse childhood experiences. “It is very clear we need a broader continuum of care to address concerns that kids are languishing in the system,” he said. “We have a growing number of kids with severe and persistent needs, and this task force is going to have to work with the department (MDHHS) to identify what the new continuum looks like.”
Change in Leadership
Braxton and Starling succeed Task Force co-chairs Muskegon Chief Circuit Court Judge Gregory C. Pittman and Michael Williams, president of Orchards Children’s Services, who served for two years. Much of their focus was on improving opportunities for placing children in kinship care. Research shows these placements are usually more stable, preserve ties with siblings and other family members, and improve behavioral outcomes. Some of the task force’s recommendations have been implemented by the state.
Prior to that, the task force was co-chaired by Dr. David Sanders, executive vice president of systems improvement at Casey Family Programs, and Tommy Stallworth, then director of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. Under their leadership, the Task Force made recommendations aimed at preventing children from being removed from homes or keeping them within their families rather than placing them in non-relative foster homes.
Judge Braxton brings a wealth of experience with vulnerable children and the child welfare system. As an attorney, she represented children and parents. As a judge for the past 12 years, she presides over juvenile delinquency, abuse and neglect cases, juvenile guardianships, and child custody matters. She adjudicates a specialty docket for youths that are truant from school and is presiding judge for a juvenile drug treatment court program for youth that are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. She is also certified as a Child Welfare Law Specialist.
Braxton, a parent of two children, said the task force needs to listen to the voices of children within the system. She said she requires them to appear at court hearings, and they know better than anyone the failings of the system.
“When I started talking to the youth in the community, they were telling us what we can do better, and we need to take some of their suggestions,” she said.
Starling said the task force has a refined focus on “making sure that services and supports are offered to our youth at a more expedited rate.” He said task force members are influential thought leaders who can be effective in communicating needs and solutions to legislators, whose support is needed for funding.
Starling said he believes the racial disparities remain concerning and said it will require community engagement to address them. “It is going to take a lot of external stakeholders playing a role in accountability and leaning into the social determinants of health, food insecurity, lack of access to mental and behavioral health services. That is where we will really start to see some progress.”
Braxton said she won’t be satisfied with reducing disparities for children of color. “I don’t think there’s any level of disparity that is appropriate in any way, shape or form,” she said.
For information, contact Dr. Paul Elam, chief strategy officer for the Michigan Public Health Institute, at pelam@mphi.org or 517-388-7651.
Child Welfare Improvement Task Force Cites Progress in Kinship Care
Michigan has made significant progress in keeping vulnerable children connected to their families through kinship care, rather than in non-relative foster care, leaders of the Michigan Child Welfare Improvement Task Force said today.
The Task Force praised steps taken by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and by the Legislature to adopt and support key recommendations to expand kinship care placements. Kinship care enables children removed from their homes because of abuse or neglect to live with other family members or close family friends, rather than with unrelated foster parents.
The Task Force noted progress on two of its recommendations to expand and improve kinship care:
- Establishing a Family Finding pilot program to locate relatives willing and able to care for children entering the child welfare system.
- Supporting the work of the Kinship Advisory Council, which guides the MDHHS on the needs of kinship care givers and children in their care.
“I think we have established a real foundation for moving forward and have an opportunity to really bring Michigan back to being a best practice state,” said Task Force Co-chair Michael E. Williams. “We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. In the meantime, children are being hurt.”
The Task Force will continue to monitor progress on kinship care. Members will also begin focusing on two other priorities: congregate care (institutional settings) and mental health services.
Kinship Care progress
The Michigan Child Welfare Improvement Task Force was established by MDHHS in 2020 to develop recommendations to improve the lives and futures of children by supporting safe, fair and equitable treatment of all children and families. The work includes addressing the disparate treatment of and outcomes for children and families of color. Those children are more likely to enter the child welfare system, more likely to stay in it longer, and less likely to be placed with relatives through kinship care. The Task Force is reviewing the adequacy and effectiveness of strategies and monitoring results.
Research shows that children entering the foster care system face many obstacles, not the least of which is being abruptly moved into a new family. They are much less likely to graduate from high school or college. Kinship care puts children in the care of relatives or in some cases close family friends, rather than with strangers through traditional foster care. Research shows that such placements are likely to be more stable, improve behavioral outcomes and preserve ties with siblings and other family members.
About 53% of those were placed with family members, with smaller percentages among children of color. The Task Force wants to improve those numbers and has made a series of recommendations. These include:
Establishing a Family Finding pilot project. One barrier to keeping children within their own families is identifying and licensing appropriate family members to take children in. It can be especially difficult to find fathers and relatives on the father’s side.
The Legislature funded Family Finding projects in southeast Michigan with dedicated staff for identifying family members that might become kinship caregivers. It did not fund a pilot project that the Task Force requested in Muskegon. MDHHS has also assigned kinship support workers in 16 counties. These workers assist with family finding and support kinship families in the critical first 30 days of placement. MDHHS officials are exploring the possibility of expanding the effort statewide.
MDHHS has also made available to counties a free software tool that gathers and analyzes publicly available information to find family members quicker and more efficiently.
Enhancing the Kinship Advisory Council: The council, created in 2021, includes members with lived experience in the child welfare system as well as experts from across the state. The council advises MDHHS on issues related to identifying and licensing relative caregivers and supporting the caregivers and the children. The Council also works to expand awareness of kinship care.
The commission is up and running. But Task Force members were disappointed that the Legislature did not approve $293,000 to fund a staff position, a kinship awareness conference and other support the Task Force recommended.
“Somebody didn’t understand the difference that a small amount of money can make,” said Lara Bouse, a member of the task force and executive director of Fostering Forward Michigan, a foster, adoptive and kinship parent coalition.
New Areas of Focus
While pleased with progress, the Task Force emphasized that more work is needed to improve the system and fully enact the Task Force’s recommendations on kinship care. Leaders also announced plans to focus attention on congregate care and mental health.
Children of color are more likely to be placed in congregate settings, and the Task Force has made recommendations to reduce those disparities. It will also be focusing on shortening the time children stay in institutions and promoting strategies for emphasizing least restrictive placements.
The Task Force is creating a new a new workgroup that will be led by Patricia Neitman, division director in the office of the Advocate for Children, Youth and Families; and Sandra Lindsey, chief executive officer of the Saginaw County Community Mental Health Authority.
The Task Force also plans to take a deep dive into the mental health needs of children in the child welfare system as well as the services they are receiving.
The Task Force recognized the outstanding work of its co-chairs, Williams, retiring president/CEO of Orchards Children’s Services, and Muskegon County Chief Circuit Court Judge Gregory C. Pittman. Both are completing one-year terms as co-chairs.
Judge Pittman called the Task Force’s work a rewarding and eye-opening experience.
“This work is so incredibly important. The condition of children and families is probably our most important responsibility as a government,” he said. “If our families are not doing well, if our children are not having opportunities to thrive, what does it do for that neighborhood, for that city, for that state and ultimately for our entire country?”
For information, contact Dr. Paul Elam, chief strategy officer for the Michigan Public Health Institute at pelam@mphi.org or 517-388-7651.
LANSING, Mich. – Efforts to place Michigan foster youth in the homes of their relatives could expand under two proposals unveiled today by the state’s Child Welfare Improvement Task Force.
The task force concluded that children are too often placed in non-relative foster homes, despite the positive effects of them being with family members – including enhanced placement stability, positive identity formation, improved behavior and preserving ties with siblings.
Children who enter foster care are better-served when we can find an appropriate relative placement,” said Michael Williams, co-chairman of the task force and president and CEO of Orchard’s Children’s Services of Wayne County. “We need to do better at finding kinship placements – especially for children of color, who are less likely to be placed with relatives.”
To address this challenge, the task force is asking the Michigan Legislature to support funding for two projects.
Our communities are stronger and healthier when the families of those communities are strong and healthy,” said Judge Gregory C. Pittman, co-chairman of the task force and chief judge of the 14th Circuit and 61st Probate courts of Muskegon County. “As a Michigan Family Court judge, I am committed to this as a guiding principle for the work I am entrusted to do. To that end, the purposeful effort to identify, secure and support kinship placement is vitally important, and it is, without question, an absolute positive step toward the improvement of children’s welfare in our state.”
A second project seeks to provide additional staffing and financial resources to the Kinship Advisory Council who advises the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) on matters related to kinship care, including identifying and licensing relative foster caregivers and supporting the needs of kinship caregivers and the children place with them. This project would allow the Council to initiate a statewide media campaign and provide other educational opportunities to potential kindship families.
MDHHS formed the Child Welfare Improvement Task Force, and independent and advisory body, to identify ways in which the state could prevent and eliminate systemic racism in the state’s child protection system.
As of January, 53 percent of Michigan children in foster care were placed with family members. The percentage placed with relatives was 47 percent in the more urban counties of Genesee, Kent, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne – and only 40 percent for Black children in those counties were placed with family members.
As of January, 53 percent of Michigan children in foster care were placed with family members. The percentage placed with relatives was 47 percent in the more urban counties of Genesee, Kent, Macomb, Oakland and Wayne – and only 40 percent for Black children in those counties were placed with family members.
On Friday August 19, the task force formally adopted its recommendations for the two projects.
The Child Welfare Improvement Task Force in March made recommendations to MDHHS for preventing and eliminating systemic racism in the state’s child protection system. Those recommendations address issues such as children going into foster care because of the effects of poverty, youth who could live with family members instead being placed in non-relative foster homes, and children of color being a disproportionate percentage of those in congregate care facilities.
Visit michigancwtf.org to read the task force report.
LANSING, Mich. – The Child Welfare Improvement Task Force today made recommendations to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) for preventing and eliminating systemic racism in the state’s child protection system.
Recommendations address issues such as children going into foster care because of the effects of poverty, youth who could live with family members instead being placed in non-relative foster homes, and children of color being a disproportionate percentage of those in congregate care facilities.
Visit michigancwtf.org to read the task force report.
“MDHHS believes the overrepresentation of children of color in the child welfare system requires fundamental systems change,” said Demetrius Starling, executive director of the department’s Children’s Services Agency. “Children of color enter foster care at higher rates and stay in care longer than their white peers. Children of color are also more likely to age out of care without finding a forever family. We must take action to address these challenges.”
MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel charged the task force with working with Starling and his Children’s Services Agency team in developing recommendations to the department. While 31% of Michigan’s children are people of color, they make up 51% of its foster care population. The task force is chaired by Thomas Stallworth, senior advisor to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and director of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, and co-chaired by David Sanders, executive vice president of Systems Improvement at Casey Family Programs, which is nationally renowned for its work to improve outcomes for youth involved in the child welfare system.
Six key recommendations are being presented to the task force today to address six problem statements identified as being related to over-representation of children of color in the foster care system in Michigan. The problem statements and recommendations for addressing them are:
1. Problem Statement:
Families who have contact with child welfare and whose children are placed in care overwhelmingly experience poverty, housing instability and associated challenges. There is ample evidence that judgments of neglect are confounded with the effects of poverty.
Recommendation:
Redefine abuse and neglect/physical neglect.
2. Problem Statement:
There are disproportionalities in the extent to which communities of color are reported to and engaged with child welfare systems, placed in care and placed in more restrictive forms of care.
Recommendation:
Implement new structured decision-making tools. These tools use clearly defined and consistently applied decision-making criteria.
3. Problem Statement:
Children are entering foster care when they could be placed safely with relatives or fictive kin, which are nonrelatives such as family friends who have a significant relationship with children.
Recommendation:
Increase specialized services and supports for relative and kinship caregivers.
4. Problem Statement:
The disproportionate placement of children of color in care and in congregate care facilities known as child-caring institutions reflects a cross-systems phenomenon in which they experience more restrictive placements.
Recommendation:
There is a need for early identification and appropriate intervention to avert crisis and placement. Increase access to mental health services for children and families.
5. Problem Statement:
Children of color are disproportionately placed in child-caring institutions and have longer lengths of stay.
Recommendation:
Implement appropriate services to reduce placements in child- caring institutions and length of stay.
6. Problem Statement:
The Children’s Services Agency budget does not provide adequate resources to advance these two recommendations – increasing specialized services and supports for relative and kinship caregivers and implementing appropriate services to reduce placements in child- caring institutions and length of stay.
Recommendation:
Secure funding to implement the recommendations.
MDHHS has acknowledged the disparate treatment of Black children and families as barriers to achieving that goal and has identified specific strategies to address this challenge.
After listening to youth, families, staff and key stakeholders, the task force identified the six recommendations to address problems that are contributing to racial and ethnic disparities:
The task force is developing an implementation plan for each of the main recommendations to help meet their goals of supporting MDHHS to improve the child protection system to provide safe, fair and equitable treatment of all Michigan’s children and families.
The task force is being staffed by Paul Elam, chief strategy officer at the Michigan Public Health Institute, a Michigan-based, nonprofit public health institute leading public health efforts across the country.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has created a Task Force to prevent and eliminate systemic racism in the state’s child protection system and transform it to make family well-being and preventing abuse, neglect, and trauma the top priority of the department’s Children’s Services Agency. MDHHS is partnering with the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI), a non-profit public-private partnership created to support MDHHS, to establish the Child Welfare Improvement Task Force to address racial disparities in child welfare. The action is an acknowledgement of the beliefs of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and MDHHS that systemic racism is a public health threat.
The independent Task Force will be co-chaired by David Sanders, Ph.D., executive vice president of systems improvement at Casey Family Programs, and Tommy Stallworth, director of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. MPHI will convene the Task Force led by Dr. Paul Elam, chief strategic officer.
MDHHS believes overrepresentation of children of color in the child protection system requires a fundamental system change. Children of color enter foster care at higher rates and stay in care longer than their white peers. They are more likely to be placed in institutional facilities, rather than family homes, remain there for long periods, and leave the foster care system without a family.
While 16% of children in Michigan are Black, children who are Black make up 29% of the state’s foster care population. While 31% of children in Michigan are children of color, they make up 51% of the foster care population.
As a result of these experiences, Black and Brown children and their families are at a greater risk for adverse health, social, and economic effects that can last a lifetime.
As well-intentioned as we are, our current system perpetuates injustices and keeps us from meeting our core values,” said Joo Yeun Chang, executive director of MDHHS’s Children’s Services Agency. “This is primarily driven by systemic issues and we must therefore acknowledge and then address systemic racism and bias wherever it exists. This Task Force provides an opportunity to set a path for the future where racial and ethnic equity and justice is assured. This will transform our child protection system into a family well-being system that prevents harm to children by supporting their families and communities before abuse or neglect occurs.”
MDHHS has acknowledged the disparate treatment of Black children and families as a barrier to achieving that goal and has identified specific strategies to address this challenge.
We recognize that deep systemic racial biases exist in this country and that the child welfare and juvenile justice systems have an important role in dismantling underlying injustices and setting a path for a future where racial and ethnic equity and justice is assured,” Sanders said.
Stallworth agreed. “The over-representation of children of color in foster care in Michigan is unacceptable and demands a fundamental change in our system,” he said.
The Child Welfare Improvement Task Force’s goals are to support MDHHS to improve the child protection system to provide safe, fair, and equitable treatment of all Michigan’s children and families.
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