Governor Rick Snyder has put together a team he says will help fix the state Child Protective Services program. This comes after a state audit revealed CPS failed to follow a plethora of state requirements.
CPS is responsible for investigating allegations of child abuse or neglect. But an audit found it has not consistently conducted criminal background checks, put child abusers on a statewide registry, or responded to victims and complaints in a timely manner.
The team Snyder has put together will conduct an operational review of CPS and find ways to improve.
Ari Adler is a spokesperson for Snyder.
“At the end of the day, the focus is protecting the children of Michigan and we’re not going to let this one go,” he says.
Adler says the governor wants to correct the problems in the audit. But he also wants to talk to employees to see what else can be done to improve the program.
“Maybe it’s something that rises to the level of a problem in an audit, but maybe it’s something much simpler and smaller than that, that still gets in their way during the work day. And we want to see what we can do to help them with that,” he says.
The team will include the Director of the Office of Children’s Ombudsman and a detective lieutenant from the Michigan State Police.
