Michigan Adoption Proceedings Benchbook And Its History of Neglect

Michigan has recently implemented a series of legislative initiatives to address the wave of young adults aging out the foster care system and the fact that these young adults have been severely traumatized, medically and educationally neglected facing a life of uncertainty.

What is going on is this.  It was in 1996 when the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was signed.  Social assistance programs were drastically cut to promote people entering educational studies or the workforce.  It worked, literally.  Jobs were abundant.  College tuition was affordable.  Money was flowing.  Opportunities for property ownership were available to individuals who never before dreamed they could own a home.  Prosperity was in the air.  It was the end of welfare as we knew it, for the moment.

Then one day reality hit.

When PRWORA was authorized, the funding of social assistance programs did not magically disappear and reappear in the pockets of taxpayers.  Welfare funding was shifted from the public to privatized corporations that were immune under federal law for any form of wrongdoing as they functioned under the magical spell of "the best interests of children".

Child Placing Agencies began to manage the disbursement of personal assistance through a maniacal scheme of revenue maximization.  Federal funding for child welfare programs are reimbursed for costs after the appropriated budget.  With a two year reporting delay, coupled with a neophyte informational technological grid, no one would ever think a non-profit, contracted by a state would ever engage in questionable activities.

These Child Placing Agencies began to launch massive child protection campaigns, all funded with the social assistance funding that was stripped from the social safety net to promote electoral campaigns and lobby aggressively for more legislation to create even more powerful policies to enrich the revenue maximization schemes.

PRWORA later joined forces with the Faith Based Initiatives and the perfect formula was derived for fraud.

As religious organizations and Child Placing Agencies are exempt and excluded from external audits and reviews, there was a newfound lust for removing children in need of social assistance to place in the privately contracted care of a state.  The longer the contract, the more the money.  The more the fictitious billing, the more the profit.  Even though non-profits are not suppose to profit, hiring expansion, lobbying and financial campaign endorsements justified the windfall.  It was at this point a massive wave of children entering foster care began.

Once the benchmarks were set, the pattern of removals had to be maintained in order to maintain the federal funding and justify the questionable billing practices of Medicaid.

Conditions in the foster care system were so horrific in Michigan, an outside advocacy group, even though I discussed the case with Children's Rights prior to their filing, I am personally saddened with the limited scope of litigation as it did not include the Michigan Children's Institute and its Superintendent, Bill Johnson, the sole legal guardian, at one point in time, more than 13,000 children.

Now these 13,000 who were not adopted are aging out to a life on the streets.

As Michigan severed all ties with the legacies of these young adults, at the age of 18 they are faced with walking out the door with a garbage bag of possessions to hopefully make it to a homeless shelter to experience severe withdraw of the cocktail of psychotropic medication that was only prescribed for the purposes of billing Medicaid.

Michigan, under the tutelage of Madame Maura Corrigan, Director of Department of Human Services and Former Supreme Court Justice who admiraled legislation from the bench, social assistance eligibility has been drastically slashed and redirected to Child Welfare Institutions.  This means the last hope of survival for these youth aging out of foster care has been ripped from their hands, like candy from a baby, literally.

For many of the aging out population, all they know is what their State of Michigan parents taught them.  There parents were Maura Corrigan and Bill Johnson.  They taught institutional reliance of welfare or prison because it sustained the jobs of the most powerful industry of Michigan, Human Services.

Not exclusive to Michigan, the rest of the States are experiencing the same challenges with aging out populations but Michigan, or moreso Detroit Metropolitan area is standing worse with unemployment over 50%, high illiteracy rates, foreclosures, crime, representing the highest levels of infant mortality in North America.  This area is where there were the highest rates of removal of children around PRWORA.  The area experienced injections of Faith Based funding with the crops of mega churches to legitimize the revenue maximization schemes of the Child Placing Agencies.

Aging out is becoming to be such a visible problem in public, Michigan is going to keep these young adults in care even longer.  The state cannot provide social assistance to these youth because it would mean the reweaving of the social safety net for everyone.

Michigan has bought some time but has done nothing to remedy the ills of its social policies or become accountable to abusing and neglecting children in its care.

Here are the legislative highlights:


Effective May 1, 2012, 2012 PA 115 amended MCL 712A.17d(1)
to expand a lawyer‐guardian ad litem’s duties to include
participating in training in early childhood, child, and
adolescent development.


On April 5, 2012, the SCAO issued SCAO Administrative
Memorandum 2012‐04 to help courts with the implementation
of the Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Act and other
recently signed acts that extend adoption support subsidy
agreements and medical subsidy agreements to children who
were adopted between the ages of 16 and 18, and who meet the
eligibility requirements set out in the Young Adult Voluntary
Foster Care Act, MCL 400.641 et seq.


On April 5, 2012, the SCAO issued SCAO Administrative
Memorandum 2012‐04 to help courts with the implementation
of the Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care Act and other
recently signed acts that extend guardianship assistance to
children reaching 21 years of age if the child meets the
requirements set out in the Young Adult Voluntary Foster Care
Act, MCL 400.641 et seq.


The following is the Michigan Adoption Proceedings Judicial Benchbook Revised Edition 2012.  This is your opportunity to participate in the development of adoption law in the state by sending in your feedback.

You can either send an email to the Michigan Judicial Institute or contact your State Representative and have them deliver it for you.

Lastly, you can also send your comments to me and I will publish with commentary.  Feel free to redact if you desire.




Michigan Adoption Proceedings Judicial Benchbook Revised Edition 2012 Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©