Michigan Limits Its Child Abuse Registry

The Michigan legislature enacted a common-sense bill that goes against recent trends by taking people off the state’s child abuse registry. Like many other states, Michigan’s legislature created the registry with good intentions, but then expanded its reach in ways that actually harm children. As this article points out, the registry included parents who voluntarily gave up custody of adoptive children as the only way to get help for them, parents whose children slipped outside, and a parent who left her children with an adult child who fell asleep. The end result, according to advocates, is a system that makes recruiting foster families, already a daunting task, even more difficult. As Emily Schwab from Bethany Christian Services explained:

there’s an ongoing need for foster care homes for Michigan children with significant behavioral issues ─ often the most difficult children to place.

But families that take on those challenges can become unfairly entangled with the CPS system, which deters other adults from becoming foster care parents. For example, she said, biological parents of kids who have been placed in foster care may recklessly accuse the foster parents of harming the child when the child came to visits with bruises that were the result of normal play.

“I was a licensed foster parent and I distinctly remember during my training being told, ‘It’s not if CPS is called on you, it’s when.’ she said.

“The decision to open your home up to CPS involvement can be extremely scary when the result could put your career at risk.” 

We need systems that protect children from adults who pose a true risk of harm.  Slapping the “neglect” label on anyone who momentarily falls below society’s elevated standards, however, simply deprives children of valuable resources. It also creates unacceptable risks for people who work in education, childcare or youth-serving organizations — in other words, people who have the very skill sets that we need in foster care. Let’s hope that Michigan’s legislature starts a nationwide trend toward common-sense child protection registries.