State Rep. John Roth is demanding accountability within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) after a new state audit found that serious problems with child-welfare caseload tracking remain unresolved five years after they were first identified. 

The nonpartisan Michigan Office of the Auditor General found cases without properly documented primary workers, including two cases in a sample of 10 that lacked a primary worker in the state system for extended periods. One case went 172 days without a listed worker, while another went 1,117 days — more than three years. 

Auditors also found that all five MDHHS regional Business Service Centers had improperly assigned cases. Approximately 31% of 87 private child-welfare agencies reviewed had at least one case without a primary worker listed. 

“This is not a new problem,” said Roth (R-Interlochen). “MDHHS was specifically warned about these failures five years ago, and the latest audit reveals, unsurprisingly, that the department has refused to act. Five years is more than enough time to address these concerns, and yet the department continues to place Michigan’s children in jeopardy. We need to know why these failures were tolerated for so long and who will finally be held accountable.” 

The audit also found that MDHHS does not require local offices and agencies to formally report the corrective actions they take when problems are identified. Auditors concluded that the department’s existing approach has not consistently ensured that identified problems are corrected promptly. 

The report further found that nearly half of workers with primary cases also had secondary or courtesy assignments that were not included in primary caseload calculations, raising questions about whether official caseload figures fully capture the workload being handled by child-welfare workers. 

“Caseworkers cannot be expected to carry workloads that the state’s own accounting system doesn’t accurately capture,” Roth said. “This is a basic, fundamental responsibility of the MDHHS, and it has failed. We cannot wait for another audit to find out whether problems concerning the safety of children are corrected. This needs to be fixed now.” 

MDHHS has stated that it is developing a replacement for its existing child-welfare information system, with completion expected by the end of 2028, but Roth emphasized that the department should not use a future technology project as a reason to delay addressing the glaring problems that auditors have already identified. 

“Waiting until 2028 is not a legitimate answer to a problem that we have known about since 2021,” Roth said. “Michigan families deserve accountability, and hardworking caseworkers need to have a system that accurately reflects the work they are doing. These blatant failures cannot be allowed to continue. MDHHS needs to act, and it needs to act now.”