Glad to see that you are thinking exactly the same as me, Rate This, as I find it laughable that people who don’t work there think they know more than those who do and who have done the job for decades.Rate This wrote: ↑Sat Aug 30, 2025 10:57 pmThis is like you criticizing a surgeon and explaining why he did it wrong. I know a guy who knew a guy who’s suing these guys…TC Talks wrote: ↑Sat Aug 30, 2025 10:31 pm Your claims are absolute bullshit.
I have a dozen teachers in Traverse City who not only disagree with you, but are working on a lawsuit against the state (along with teachers across Michigan) for failing to respond to dangerous situations when reported to CPS. Children burned, blatant signs of sexual abuse, neglect and emotional harm. One in three calls even gets a return call from CPS. My experience with APS is similar.
As for Foster Care; defend this:
Do you know how many DHHS agent positions are currently unfilled? Do some homework.Widespread Failures Plague Michigan Child Welfare System, New Independent Report Shows
DETROIT, MI — A court-ordered analysis of the cases of 460 abused and neglected children in the custody of Michigan’s Department of Human Services (DHS), released today, confirms allegations made by Children’s Rights in a federal class action accusing DHS of systemwide failure to provide children with stable foster care placements, vital services, and adequate protection from further maltreatment.
Issued by the independent nonprofit Children’s Research Center, the report cites serious problems with the agency’s planning for the needs of the children in its care, resulting in significant numbers of children being bounced from one unstable foster placement to another and languishing for unacceptably long periods in the child welfare system. According to the report, DHS also fails to ensure the safety of children placed with relatives, does not provide adequate health services to children in state custody, and exceeds the national norm for maltreatment of children in custody by 150 percent.
The Children’s Research Center was appointed by U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds to conduct the case record review in the federal class action, brought against Michigan by the national child welfare watchdog group Children’s Rights, the international firm McDermott Will & Emery, and local counsel Kienbaum Opperwall Hardy & Pelton. Known as Dwayne B. v. Granholm, the lawsuit charges the state with violating the constitutional rights of the approximately 19,000 children in its custody by failing to protect their safety and well-being and find them permanent homes.
“This report gives us a comprehensive, objective view of a system that has utterly failed to protect the children in its custody,” said Sara Bartosz, senior staff attorney for Children’s Rights. “We hope that it serves as a wake-up call toDHS that it is time to stop trying to paper over its problems and start making real improvements for the children whose constitutional rights it is trampling every day.”
I call complete and utter bullshit on your claims from the teachers. Centralized Intake looks at the risk of harm through a flowchart we have in policy. We know we are under a microscope since the Children’s Rights organization sued us in 2007, resulting in a settlement agreement that we have yet to get out of (that’s a while another story). The situations described in the second response by TCT would all be assigned for investigation. I’ve been there and I know as I’ve investigated these situations hundreds of times.
Sounds to me that your alleged teacher friends (BTW - going to sue us after only being back to school for a week? Hmmmm) need some major in service training from us. We’ve tried to prevent issues like this in our counties by meeting with school staff by advising them of what their legal responsibilities are under the Child Protection Law as mandated reporters. It prevents a lot of issues locally.
As for the drug allegations, the legalization of marijuana possession in small quantities severely changed our drug policy. For example, if a referral comes in that mom and dad are smoking pot every night after putting their kids to bed, there’s a real good chance that referral won’t be assigned. Why? Minimal risk of harm. Now if they’re doing it while the kids are awake and get so stoned they pass out, we are going to investigate.
I will further tell you our office, along with many others, employs a lot of ex mandated reporters (teachers, probation officers, school counselors, Head Start workers, etc) who used to call in referrals and wondered why we weren’t “doing anything” (or more like not doing what whatever they wanted us to do). I’ve had more than one that I helped trained remark to me that they never realized what our policy and the law says we can do.
