Children & Families

“You can’t believe everything you read in a newspaper,” pastor Rusty Chatfield told congregants at his northern Michigan church, two days after Bridge Michigan published a report in which Lee Chatfield was accused of sexually assaulting a teen at the affiliated Christian school.

She said Chatfield groomed and then assaulted her when she was a 15- or 16-year-old student at a Chatfield family-run Christian school in northern Michigan where he taught. She said the assaults continued for years before she filed a police report in December.

Child welfare experts and foster care advocates say the measure will protect adults improperly flagged by the state for abuse and neglect

The package is intended to add safeguards to the Central Registry, a listing kept by the state child welfare program to identify adults who pose a threat to children. Critics say too many innocent adults get placed on the registry.

Some child-welfare and foster care advocates say the state too often ensnares innocent adults in its Central Registry listings of people flagged for child abuse or neglect. But others warn against tilting too far against vulnerable children.

Oxford High students gathered in groups throughout Tuesday, first to escape a deadly shooting rampage and later to find comfort in faith and friendships.

Housing officials say they are on track to meet a Sept. 30 deadline to allocate most of the pandemic CERA funds intended to help struggling tenants. It’s part of more than $1 billion earmarked for Michigan, and may help limit evictions after a national eviction ban was struck down.

The funding is unique among Michigan’s resettlement efforts, but activists hope other counties will soon follow. There is a humanitarian and economic motivation to attract new refugees to the region.

Agencies say communities are welcoming refugees, but warn that it could be a struggle for many of them.

Washington stepped in again this week to extend a ban on evictions during COVID. But the latest extension is confined to areas with “high or substantial” infection, a status that is likely to shift week to week, from one geographic area to another.

A year after Grace’s story drew national attention when she was jailed for not doing her online schoolwork, outcry over the shackling of young people in court has resulted in a ban on the practice unless there’s a risk of physical harm or flight.

The pandemic moratorium is slated to end Saturday, which could exacerbate housing problems in a state that already has a shortage of affordable homes.

Starting this summer, eligible families are expected to get monthly payments, through expansions in child tax credits, to support the cost of raising kids.

Changes to tax policy buried in the American Rescue Plan could dramatically help the working poor, pushing a quarter of Michigan’s poor children out of poverty.

Child protection advocates warn that declining numbers of reported child abuse cases are in fact a red flag for widespread undetected abuse. With fewer children in schools or visiting their doctors, there are fewer opportunities for trusted adults outside the family to detect potential abuse.

As the new school year ramps up and the economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic continues, parents are having to make tough financial decisions. Nonprofits and social service agencies say they see families struggling to purchase materials for school, access child care and put food on the table.

The 15-year-old is now free from the court system. In a hearing, an Oakland County judge released her from probation after a caseworker said, “It is best for the family to move forward.”

Following an outbreak at a camp, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday issued another executive order requiring masks for those older than 2. Child care officials say most already were taking similar precautions.

Although earlier this year prosecutors pushed for the detention of a Michigan high schooler during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have now repeatedly said they support sending her home to her mother.

At a hearing Monday, Judge Mary Ellen Brennan denied a motion to release a 15-year-old from a juvenile facility. “I think you are exactly where you are supposed to be,” Brennan said. “You are blooming there, but there is more work to be done.”