Central Registry Reviews for Expungement

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) maintains a statewide database of all adults with substantiated allegations of child maltreatment called the Central Registry (CR). These records are accessible to aid Child Protective Services (CPS) in the investigation of subsequent allegations of child maltreatment, to determine eligibility for foster care or adoption applicants, for research, and as additional screening tool for positions that involve the care or supervision of children. After 10 years of being on the CR, the case may be reviewed to determine removal of the perpetrator of child maltreatment from the list. If preponderance of evidence was found to support that the perpetrator committed an serious abuse (prior to November 2022, an “egregious act”) as defined by CPS policy they must remain on the CR.

For this project the Child and Adolescent Data Lab (Data Lab) is contracted to manually review Central Registry investigation summaries to determine whether the investigator found a preponderance of evidence to substantiate serious abuse committed by the perpetrator under review for expungement.