This series of investigative stories into the Michigan Child Protective Services agency's record of protecting children is the result of The Detroit News poring over hundreds of pages of reports from the state and court records.
Though the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services rarely speaks about child deaths and almost never releases full reports, The News received a full, redacted copy of the investigations into Trinity Chandler's abuse in April after petitioning Director Elizabeth Hertel.
Other families' stories were pieced together from CPS records provided by family members, documents included in court files and autopsy reports obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The Office of the Child Ombudsman is required to investigate child welfare cases involving a child who has died. The office wrote reports on individual cases, including ones reviewed by The News, in which CPS failed to follow policy or procedures. It did not release these reports publicly prior until October 2020 after the Michigan Children's Ombudsman Act was amended to increase transparency.
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This came two years after annual CPS fatality reports that covered the whole system and often gave full-state data were discontinued. That's when the state decided to use a compliance review team to review CPS cases individually instead of producing the annual fatality reports, reducing public understanding of how the system was performing.