Holland Reporter

After more than a decade of federal court oversight, things seem to be improving in the child protection wing of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), but two leaders who helped facilitate the improvement are now gone.

MDHHS Director Robert Gordon left  abruptly in January, and JooYeun Chang, head of the department's Child Services Agency, announced earlier this month that she will be leaving.

Robin Erb of Bridge Michigan wrote, "So it’s no small irony that the two people credited with transforming the troubled system have recently left state government, one under circumstances Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has repeatedly declined to clarify." Gordon and Chang "were central to the state’s progress on foster care, according to lawyers and advocates involved in the federal  oversight." 

The department has come far enough that U.S. District Court judge Nancy Edmunds, who oversees the case, said she still has questions about why it took so long for MDHHS "to get a handle" on its problems, but she could see the possibility that the department could soon be released from court oversight.

"I'm going to retire pretty soon," Edmunds said during a progress conference prior to release of the monitoring report. "So I’d like, before I retire, to have this wrapped up, if possible."

Troubles within the department were much worse about 15 years ago. Children who were supposed to be protected by MDHHS too often were neglected, being placed in one foster home after another, where they sometimes found themselves abused and neglected again. They often got lost in the department's bureaucracy, and some disappeared.

A 2008 evaluation found that 78 children had died in MDHHS custody between 2004 and 2008, reported Bridge Michigan. Thousands never found a permanent home, according to the lawsuit.

In late April of last year, 16-year-old Cornelius Frederick died after staff at a foster care and juvenile facility, Lakeside Academy in Kalamazoo, tackled and restrained him for 12 minutes, according to NBC News. Frederick is alleged to have thrown a sandwich. The state's medical examiner has since ruled Frederick's death a homicide, and Lakeside is now closed.

Elizabeth Gretter, an attorney with Children's Rights, a New York-based child advocacy group that filed the original lawsuit, acknowledged that MDHHS's progress is real. "We know that a lot of work is being done in this area right now," Gretter said during a status conference with Edmunds. "But we do struggle to understand why so many years into this work, the department continues to allow children in these settings to be placed in harm’s way. It concerns us."

Kevin Ryan, a court-appointed monitor in the case, specifically referred to Gordon and Chang as "deeply engaged in this work. They lead a strong management team that possesses the talent and the experience to address long-standing problems in the Michigan child welfare system," Ryan said, according to Bridge Michigan.

Now Gordon and Chang are gone. Gordon announced his sudden resignation in a vaguely worded tweet, while Chang accepted a child welfare job in the Biden administration.

Their departure was lamented by Children's Rights attorney Samantha Bartosz, who told Bridge Michigan, "We had, over time, really come to respect the job they were doing. We were beginning to feel a fair amount of momentum working with them."

Bartosz also told Bridge Michigan that she is hopeful progress will continue under new MDHHS director, Elizabeth Hertel, and Chang's interim replacement, Stacie Bladen, who is a longtime MDHHS employee, having worked in a number of child-welfare roles in the past.