Michigan
What Michigan reported to the federal government about the children in its custody and the children it investigated. Where a year says not reported, that is the record.
The funnel, FFY 2024
Michigan vs. national
What happened to reports of child maltreatment in Michigan in federal fiscal year 2024, at each decision point. Rates are what make states comparable; raw counts mostly measure population.
| Stage | Michigan | Rate | National |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referrals to CPSCounts: referrals | 176,002 | 83.4per 1,000 children | 59.3 |
| Screened in (became reports)Counts: referrals | 72,13741.0% of referrals | — | 47.1% |
| Screened outCounts: referrals | 103,86559.0% of referrals | — | 52.9% |
| Children investigated or given an alternative responseCounts: children | 145,107 | 68.8per 1,000 children | 40.6 |
| Child victims (substantiated or indicated)Counts: children | 22,634 | 10.7per 1,000 children | 7.2 |
| Child fatalitiesCounts: children | 54 | 2.56per 100,000 children | 2.41 |
Referrals, reports, children, and victims are four different denominators and are not interchangeable. A referral may concern more than one child; a child may appear in more than one referral; a victim is a child with a substantiated or indicated disposition. National figures are the Children's Bureau's own estimates, not sums of the state rows.
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS), Tables 2-3, 3-1, 3-3, 4-1
What Michigan does not report
For the measures on this page, Michigan reported a figure in every year covered. That is not the same as the figures being complete or comparable — see the methodology for what the federal record does not measure at all.
Maltreatment and fatalities over time (NCANDS)
Child fatalities reported to NCANDS, Michigan, FFY2020 to FFY2024
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)
KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: child fatalities
Child maltreatment victims, Michigan, FFY2020 to FFY2024
Source: Child Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)
KARA VerifiedChild Maltreatment 2024 (NCANDS)FFY 2024Counts: child victims (substantiated or indicated)
Foster care (AFCARS)
| Measure | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adopted with public agency involvement | 2,374 | 2,184 | 1,772 | 2,078 | 1,970 | 1,991 | 2,161 | 1,851 | 1,689 | 1,654 |
| Entered foster care | 7,716 | 7,793 | 6,217 | 6,512 | 6,854 | 6,208 | 5,770 | 4,386 | 3,837 | 3,625 |
| Exited foster care | 7,646 | 7,666 | 7,427 | 6,595 | 6,312 | 5,984 | 6,169 | 5,360 | 4,945 | 4,242 |
| In foster care on September 30 | 14,615 | 13,512 | 11,977 | 11,599 | 11,918 | 12,121 | 11,676 | 10,661 | 9,529 | 8,940 |
| Children served in foster care | 22,261 | 21,176 | 19,402 | 18,194 | 18,230 | 18,105 | 17,845 | 16,021 | 14,474 | 13,182 |
| Termination of parental rights | 2,819 | 3,058 | 3,119 | 3,083 | 3,220 | 3,389 | 3,374 | 2,880 | 2,890 | 2,832 |
| Waiting for adoption | 3,337 | 3,457 | 3,408 | 3,416 | 3,646 | 3,898 | 3,821 | 3,660 | 3,321 | 3,167 |
Source: AFCARS state tables, FY2013 to FY2022
AFCARS 2020 rule, FFY2023 to FFY2025 (preliminary)
Collected under the AFCARS 2020 final rule, first effective FFY 2023. Counts include ages 0 to 23. Figures are preliminary estimates from submissions received by February 27, 2026, and states may still revise them. This series is not comparable with the FY 2013 to FY 2022 series, which was collected under the 1993 rule and counted a narrower population; this site does not join the two. Wyoming first submitted under the new rule for FFY 2024 and Washington for FFY 2025; earlier years for those states are shown as not reported.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entered foster care | 3,871 | 3,806 | 3,684 |
| In foster care on September 30 | 9,507 | 9,599 | 9,558 |
| Exited foster care | 3,933 | 3,580 | 3,568 |
Counts: children (ages 0 to 23)
Source: AFCARS Dashboard, preliminary FFY2025 estimates (No. 33)
Michigan in the archive
What the numbers above cost, in KARA's own reporting.
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- Cash vs. CPS: What $14 Million Really Buys
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- America’s Child Protection Crisis: Last Week’s Most Alarming CPS Cases and Reforms
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- In Texas 2024, only 10 Children Died of Abuse (248 died of neglect)
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Texas child neglect fatalities 2024: The Most Common Cause of Child Death in Texas Isn't defined as Abuse. The Center for disease control defines child abuse with clarity as any act of physical, sexual, or emotional harm including neglect, ...
- Trump's Child Protection Order & "NEGLECT"
KARA reportingMike TikkanenNovember 25, 2025
President Trump’s new framing—that most child neglect cases “don’t belong” in CPS because they are “only poverty”—ignores a very large body of evidence that (1) poverty and neglect are tightly intertwined but not identical, and (2) chronic ...
- School Counselors & Why We Need Them
KARA reportingMike TikkanenNovember 3, 2025
If we are to save the growing numbers of children facing serious problems we need many more skilled counselors and mental health workers in our schools. In this time of unregulated digital chaos, social, and political upheaval, children and...