Child abandonment case spurs call to prove when Michigan students transfer schools

Michigan lawmakers are considering changes to school enrollment practice
The proposed changes come after the discovery of three children allegedly abandoned by their mother in Pontiac
The Oakland County sheriff says those students didn’t fall through a crack but ‘fell through a cavern.‘

The discovery of three Pontiac children living alone in a house filled with trash and feces is prompting a Michigan lawmaker to propose changes to school enrollment procedures.

Sen. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, is sponsoring Senate Bill 492, which would prohibit a school from transferring a student’s records to another school unless it has received written notice that the student has been enrolled in the new school.

The bill comes after officials arrested a Pontiac woman in February, alleging that she had abandoned her three children and left them to live alone for years. The children were found living in squalor and the mother is now facing three charges of first degree child abuse, officials said.

Moss testified in support of the bill Wednesday during a Senate Education Committee meeting.

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Moss said the mother had told the children’s former school years ago that they would be enrolling in a different school. That school sent the records to the new school and then disenrolled them from their system.

“But the students were never enrolled in the new school, and thus no school or school district maintained responsibility for them showing up after that point. And that’s the last time they were heard from, and that was about five years ago, Moss said.

“Had the students been enrolled in the transfer school and then just not show up, law enforcement would have been dispatched to check on the welfare of those students,” Moss said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald also testified in support of the bill.

“It could have been prevented when these children’s mother withdrew them from the school or asked for the transcripts to be sent, there was no follow up or safeguards in place to ensure they were actually enrolled elsewhere,” said Bouchard. “They simply vanished from the system and didn’t fall through a crack. They fell through a cavern. And were lost for almost two years.”

The committee did not vote on the bill. No school groups submitted cards to the committee in support of or against the bill.

“We do not do a great job in Michigan of keeping track of our kids,” said committee chair Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia.

She said until the state can count students in public, private and homeschool settings and compare that to live births, “my concern is we would hear more stories like this.”

Michigan has data on public school enrollment and private school enrollment. But there is no official count of homeschoolers in the state. Parents can notify their local district that they intend to homeschool their child but they are not required by law to do that.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel had pushed for the state to count students in public, private and homeschool settings. But the idea faced strong pushback from homeschool advocates.

Nessel said in a recent interview that she still supports the idea of counting homeschoolers, but she sees a “0% chance of that getting through the House while Matt Hall is the speaker and while the Republicans have the majority.”