V Michigan » Systems integration

Agency integration, 2016

• Child welfare

  Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Children's Services Agency

  Centralizes child welfare administration services at the state level.

• Integration level

  Umbrella agency integration (separate division/offices)

• Juvenile corrections

  Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Services Agency, Division of Juvenile Justice

  Does not centralize administration of delinquency services at the state level.

Coordination, 2014

• Uses for coordination
• Does not use for coordination

• Data sharing

  Facilitated through the use of statewide information systems allowing for consistent data sharing between systems.

• Committees or advisory groups

  Multidisciplinary groups that often have regularly scheduled meetings to brainstorm ways to improve systems integration.

• Formal interagency MOUs

  Collaborative agreements to guide systems integration efforts

• Informal interagency agreements

  Commonly based on historical practice, mutual trust, and recognition of the need to collaborate in order to serve dual-status youth.

• Statute and/or rules

  Rules that mandate systems integration efforts

Summary

In Michigan, there is no formal data sharing regarding dual status youth between the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the courts at the state level. Michigan does not have a centralized system for juvenile justice or abuse and neglect. Thus practice varies by county on how juvenile justice and the dual status cases are handled. However, DHS recently convened a state-level, dual-status youth problem solving workgroup to discuss systems integration between juvenile justice and the child welfare system.

The Michigan Title II 3 Year State Plan for 2012, includes plans to coordinate child abuse and neglect and delinquency programs. Further, the Department of Human Services and the State Courts Administrative Office partnered with a private vendor to develop and establish a statewide data collection strategy that will make it possible to identify children who move from the child welfare system to the juvenile justice system. This strategy is designed to ensure that each juvenile court will have access to and be aware of public child welfare records generated within its jurisdiction for each juvenile before the court.

Examples of systems integration efforts exist at the local level as well. For example, in 2011 the Family Division of the Tenth Circuit Court (Saginaw County's juvenile court) established policies and systems to incorporate relevant child protective service records into juvenile justice records.

Additionally, in December 2012, DHS released policy requirements for case managers of an open foster care or juvenile justice case to coordinate cases that have had a petition filed in the court. A copy of the policy is available on the DHS public web site (CFF 722-6D Case Management of Dual Wards). There are plans to expand this model in 2014 with technical assistance from the Casey Family Programs to Berrien, Genesee, and Midland Counties. Each county will develop their own specific local protocols to follow when a youth becomes dually-involved in order to meet the crossover youth practice model and state policy requirements.

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