Children & Families

The package, signed Thursday by Gov. Whitmer, contains a range of changes to child care law, from minor procedural fixes to major changes in the state’s method of supporting private providers.

Performers who normally love the spotlight find themselves mighty uncomfortable being thrust into a debate about school-aged children, following remarks by Attorney General Dana Nessel.

A recall at a Michigan formula factory along with supply chain issues and other factors have created a serious national shortage. Follow these tips to find supplies when your store’s shelves are empty, and to avoid endangering your child.

After Pastor Rusty Chatfield refused to cooperate with Michigan State Police investigators, officers obtained a warrant to seize “any and all” documents related to Lee Chatfield’s employment at the church and school.

Individuals and companies across the globe are looking for ways to help Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. Follow these recommendations (and cautions) to ensure your donation is well spent.

Michigan adds 6,000 students in the past year, but statewide enrollment remains down 3.7 percent since fall of 2019.

Michigan law requires educators to immediately report suspected abuse. But when a 13-year-old told Northern Michigan Christian Academy officials her teacher sexually assaulted her in 2004, they didn’t call police or child protection workers.

Roughly one-third of children in Michigan under age 5 qualified for child care subsidies, but only 5 percent received those credits. Meanwhile, an estimated 44 percent of Michiganders live in “child care deserts” — places with a lack of licensed child care providers.

Lawyers for Rebekah Chatfield are racing to ensure that no records relating to her claim that Lee Chatfield sexually assaulted her are destroyed as her legal team gathers evidence for a possible lawsuit against the former Michigan House speaker.

“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.