Federal Lawsuit on Unfairness of Michigan Child Abuse Registry UPDATED

” A federal lawsuit alleges that Michigan Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect has created a “black list” of parents unfairly labeled as child abusers.

The state shares the information with employers and organizations for background checks.

“The listing procedure is subjective, one-sided and automated,” attorney Elizabeth Warner wrote in the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court.

“At the end of a CPS (child-protective services) investigation, the investigator becomes the judge and pronounces the accused to be guilty and unsafe to be around children (called a ‘substantiation’). The CPS worker then clicks a computer key to put an individual on the Central Registry – for life – with no neutral prior hearing to determine if the investigator’s accusation is true.”

While the law allows expungement, Warner said it isn’t adequate, and is a slow process.

“The only quick way to get off the registry is to die,” Warner said.

Warner is representing four clients in Kent, Calhoun and Jackson counties.

They were put on the registry, even though there was no finding any of them committed child abuse or neglect.

Among them is Deborah Turner, a wife, mother and grandmother who had worked as a secretary for the FBI in Detroit and Headstart in Jackson.

Earlier this year, she was fired from Headstart because she was on the registry.

It stemmed from a decision in 2010 to return their adopted daughter to the state.

“They did this to protect the family from this violent and emotionally disturbed teenager and to get her the mental health care that they could not afford, but that the state refused to provide,” Warner wrote.

A psychiatrist had recommended long-term hospitalization based on the child’s diagnosis and behavior, not a family setting.

A registry notice said Turner was put on the list for “physical neglect.”

Warner said in an interview that she has heard horror stories from parents across the state.

“It’s a huge problem,” she said. “The registry needs to go.”

Federal lawsuit says Michigan’s registry for child abuse and neglect is unfair, unconstitutional

[M Live 10/10/12 by John Agar]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 Some of our other posts on the need to disrupt a child to the state due to lack of access of mental health care and its consequences can be seen here, here, here, and in this Illinois case that links to two additional Illinois cases.

Update:“Deborah Turner of Jackson, a married mother and grandmother, had worked as a secretary for the FBI in Detroit and Head Start in Jackson.

Earlier this year, she was fired from Head Start because she was on the registry.

It stemmed from a family decision in 2010 to return an adopted daughter to the state.

“They did this to protect the family from this violent and emotionally disturbed teen-ager and to get her the mental health care that they could not afford, but that the state refused to provide,” Warner wrote.

A psychiatrist had recommended long-term hospitalization based on the child’s diagnosis and behavior, not a family setting.

Turner and her husband turned the child over to the state when she was 15.

Department of Human Services has since provided residential mental-health treatment, Warner said.

The lawsuit said that a child-protective services worker assessed Turner as a “moderate risk,” which would not qualify her for the registry. The worker then used a “discretionary override option on the risk assessment form,” Warner wrote.

It elevated Turner’s score, and put her on the registry.

Turner filed a written request to Department of Human Services in Jackson County be expunged from the registry. It was denied.

She later requested an expedited hearing because she could lose her job at Head Start. Her appeal papers were not sent to the state for a hearing for 14 months, the lawsuit said.

She lost her job of 17 years at Head Start in February.”

“Helen Miller was “one of the most respected foster parents in Calhoun County until she got put on the registry,” Warner said.

Miller and her husband had been foster parents to 100 children over 25 years. They adopted 11, and had an “extraordinary” record of caring for children, the Foster Care Review Board said.

Miller’s trouble came on July 27, 2011, when she allowed two young foster children to stay overnight at her adult daughter’s home.

She didn’t that her daughter’s ex-husband stayed there on occasion. The children were at the home when police conducted a drug raid, and found drugs hidden by the ex-husband, the lawsuit said.

The state removed all five of Miller’s foster children.

The Foster Care Review Board, in response to an investigator’s threat that Miller would be placed on the registry, wrote in a report: “The board has great difficulty in understanding how a self-admitted, one-time error in judgment by Mrs. Miller is deserving of a ‘life sentence’ on Michigan’s Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry.”

After a hearing in Calhoun County Family Court, the two foster children present at the drug raid were returned to Miller. She was cleared of any neglect. Requests to have her record expunged have been denied, however.

“Despite the registry listing, the Calhoun County judiciary has entrusted children to the plaintiff, but DHS will not place any more foster children with her,” Warner wrote.”

Learn stories behind 4 parents suing Michigan over placement on child abuse and neglect registry

[M Live 10/11/12 by John Agar]