When we look at systems that navigate the tangled workings of families, we often find snarls. No surprise there — anyone with a family knows how complicated those relationships can be, even when things are going well. But things typically aren’t going well for kids in child welfare.

According to Michigan’s Child Maltreatment Data (National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System), the state had 129,271 alleged cases of maltreatment in 2020; 26,932 maltreatment victims; and 43 child fatalities. The vast majority of the 26,932 kids were victims of neglect (92.3%); physical abuse (15.2%); sexual abuse (4.5%); medical abuse (2.2%); and emotional abuse (0.6%). The largest age group (12.7%) is babies younger than a year old.

At the time of the data collection, 10,661 of the kids were in foster care and 1,851 had been adopted.

But, in no way, by reciting these statistics are we gaining understanding of what it’s like to be one.

And so we are glad to see Michigan will focus on better engaging and empowering kids in the system on decisions that affect them. As one of eight test sites, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will partner on the Quality Improvement Center on Engaging Youth in Finding Permanency — a 2021 federal creation aimed at shifting mindsets in courts and child welfare, creating engagement models and making the systemic changes that will involve kids in every aspect of the decision process. Less than 5% of states now have programs that do this.

The agency’s guiding principles include cultivating equity and inclusion, and finding permanency that is “legal, relational and cultural.” Intervention sites are Mecosta, Monroe, Muskegon and Oakland counties — where outcomes for children will be compared with the rest of the state. We join sites in Hawaii, Montana, Nebraska and Rhode Island, Indiana, the Oklahoma Southern Plains Consortium and the Yakama Nation, each participating in the four-year program funded by the Children’s Bureau, Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

By the program’s conclusion, we should have an idea of its effectiveness in “finding permanency” for the children involved.

We also believe another crucial component will be for children to freely access the records and materials regarding their time in the system. Often, the privacy protections that allow agencies to operate in near darkness are founded on antiquated notions of shame, and are fundamentally structured to protect both biological and adoptive parents, not the child.

The adage that children are seen, not heard, goes double for those in a system bureaucratically constructed in their best interest. While those who serve this system do so with perhaps the best intentions and have experience to boot, the child’s voice must be included ­– loudly, clearly and with the ability to document their own destiny.