Lansing, Mich. — One Michigan child welfare case went 1,117 days — more than three years — with no primary caseworker assigned, according to a follow-up audit of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) released Sept. 29, 2026. The Office of the Auditor General found MDHHS still has not fixed two of the three serious problems auditors flagged in 2021, and the department told auditors it disagrees with both findings.
The report, number 491-2785-18F and signed by Auditor General Doug Ringler, classifies both unresolved problems as “material conditions” that still exist.
Michigan MDHHS Child Welfare Cases With No One in Charge
Every child welfare case in Michigan — child protective services, foster care, adoption — is supposed to have a primary caseworker assigned in the state’s MiSACWIS computer system. That is the person accountable for the child and family. Auditors found the rule is routinely broken:
- All five of MDHHS’s regional Business Service Centers had improperly assigned cases in all four weeks of January 2026, each averaging 12 cases a week with no assigned primary worker.
- About 31% of Michigan’s 87 private child welfare agencies had at least one case without a primary worker at the end of January, averaging two cases each.
- In a sample of 10 cases flagged as potentially unassigned as of Jan. 31, 2026, two had no primary caseworker for 172 days and 1,117 days.
Michigan had about 36,000 active child welfare cases as of Jan. 31, 2026, according to the report.
MDHHS Refuses the Fix — Again
In 2021, auditors recommended a simple accountability step: require local offices and private agencies to report back to the central office on what they did to fix caseload problems flagged in weekly reports. MDHHS refused. Its 2022 corrective action plan said it disagreed and did not plan to act. Auditors wrote that MDHHS “disagreed with our June 2021 finding and implemented no corrective actions,” Metro Times reported.
Five years later, MDHHS still disagrees. In its response, the department said a case that shows as unassigned “reflects an administrative timing issue within MiSACWIS rather than a service gap,” and that local staff provide case management and assign cases manually.
MDHHS says a new Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System will address case assignment, but that system is not scheduled to roll out until the end of 2028. Auditors told the department to evaluate the impact on children and families of waiting that long. MDHHS said it started monthly executive-level caseload meetings in March 2026.
The Numbers the State Reports Leave Work Out
The second unresolved finding goes to the honesty of the state’s caseload numbers. MDHHS counts only primary assignments when it measures caseloads — the measure it reports for federal oversight. It excludes “secondary” and “courtesy” assignments, even though caseworkers do real work on those cases.
Auditors analyzed 36,000 case assignments for 2,220 caseworkers and found that nearly half of the roughly 1,800 caseworkers with primary cases also carried secondary or courtesy cases not counted in their workload. As of March 2026, MDHHS policy still excluded them. The department again disagreed, saying those assignments “do not have a significant impact” on workloads or service delivery.
MDHHS did get a passing grade on the third 2021 finding: auditors found little evidence that cases are shuffled between workers around federal “count days” to make numbers look better.
Why It Matters for Michigan Families
When the state takes custody of a child or opens a case on a family, someone is supposed to answer for that child — for visits, services, court reports and the path home. A case with no assigned worker for three years means a family with no one accountable. And when an agency refuses, twice, to require that problems be reported and fixed, the issue is not resources. It is accountability.
Families caught in Michigan’s system deserve to know who is responsible for their case. The Auditor General has now said twice that MDHHS can’t reliably show that. The department’s answer has been to disagree.
Key facts
- Agency: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Services Agency
- Report: Office of the Auditor General follow-up 491-2785-18F, dated Sept. 29, 2026
- Worst case: 1,117 days with no assigned primary caseworker
- Private agencies: about 31% of 87 had at least one unassigned case
- Status: two of three 2021 material conditions not complied with; MDHHS disagrees with both
- Fix date: new case system not expected until end of 2028
Sources
- Michigan Office of the Auditor General — Follow-Up Report on Prior Audit Recommendations: Monitoring of Selected Child Welfare Caseloads, MDHHS (491-2785-18F) (2026-09-29)
- Detroit Metro Times — Michigan still hasn’t fixed serious child welfare caseload problems, audit finds (2026-09-29)
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