LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Jim Runestad held a press conference Wednesday morning again calling for accountability from Child Protective Services workers in response to the agency’s repeated failures that led to a number of tragedies in recent years, including the deaths of Ethan Belcher, Monica Cannady and her two sons, and 9-year-olds Owen Roserio and Zemar King, among other reported cases of significant abuse under the agency’s watch.
“Again and again over the last three years, I have been calling for accountability for these monumental failures,” said Runestad, R-White Lake. “If these people can’t even do their due diligence when it comes to saving the lives of children — a goal you would think is a top priority at an agency called Child Protective Services — then they have no business serving the public, and they certainly should not be allowed to skate the consequences and continue in roles they have proven to have such disregard for.”
Runestad has routinely called for increased transparency and oversight of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and for a formal state audit of CPS due to significant mismanagement. Evidence of these bureaucratic failures includes the fact that the department has remained under federal oversight since 2008, and U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds recently denied the department’s request to end court oversight due to concerns that satisfactory reforms within MDHHS have not been made. Edmunds cited a recent study showing Michigan remains significantly above the national average for children who have been abused or neglected while in the state’s care.
Runestad was joined by Ethan’s aunt, Ashley Belcher, at the press conference, renewing calls for department oversight, reforms to improve CPS effectiveness and action to be taken against the caseworkers involved in Ethan’s case and other tragedies.
“Ethan’s death was the result of pure negligence on behalf of CPS, and to this day, no disciplinary action has been taken against the CPS workers involved in his case,” Runestad said. “If these caseworkers couldn’t be troubled to get up out of their chairs to save the life of a child who is being severely abused, then they ought to be held accountable. Period.”
The senator also advocated for legislation he has introduced multiple times in recent years that would help prevent future tragedies by enabling constituents to bring their CPS case to their state legislator for oversight. The legislation would allow lawmakers to review and document cases to ensure all proper steps and processes are followed and would allow credentialed members of the media to request and access CPS files to expose agency failures.
“People tend to do a better job when someone is looking,” Runestad said.
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