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Children & Families
About 1 in 5 children in Michigan live in poverty. Bridge will explore the reasons behind this disturbing result and the ideas to address it.
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan enrollment ticks up, but still down since before pandemic
Michigan adds 6,000 students in the past year, but statewide enrollment remains down 3.7 percent since fall of 2019.
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan school run by Lee Chatfield’s family didn’t report past abuse claim
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.
Posted inChildren & Families
Report: Fraction of Michigan kids who qualify for child care subsidies use them
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.
Posted inChildren & Families
Citing likely suit, Lee Chatfield accuser demands church, school save info
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.
Posted inChildren & Families
From pulpit, Lee Chatfield’s father declares ‘the truth will come forward’
“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.
Posted inChildren & Families
Sister-in-law: Ex-MI House Speaker Lee Chatfield sexually assaulted me as teen
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.
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan House unanimously approves changes to system that tracks child abuse
Child welfare experts and foster care advocates say the measure will protect adults improperly flagged by the state for abuse and neglect
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan House panel approves changes to state child abuse and neglect list
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.
Posted inChildren & Families
Michigan House weighs bills to protect families from unfair abuse claims
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.