The agency must prepare a case service plan and make it available to the court and all parties involved before the dispositional hearing. MCL 712A.18f(2). Before a court enters an order of disposition, it must consider the case service plan. MCL 712A.18f(4); MCR 3.973(F)(2).
Note: The “agency” may be the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) or another agency supervising a child’s placement. See MCL 712A.13a(1)(a).
A “‘[c]ase service plan’ [is] the plan developed by an agency and prepared under [MCL 712A.18f] that includes services to be provided by and responsibilities and obligations of the agency and activities, responsibilities, and obligations of the parent.” MCL 712A.13a(1)(d). “[T]he required [case] service plan should be a forward-looking blueprint for facilitating the return of the child to the parent.” In re MJC, ___ Mich App ___, ___ (2023). A case service plan may also be “referred to using different names than case service plan including, but not limited to, a parent/agency agreement or a parent/agency treatment plan and service agreement.”1 MCL 712A.13a(1)(d).
If placement was ordered following the preliminary hearing, services may have already been provided to the parent and child.2 See MCL 712A.13a(10); MCR 3.965(D). On a party’s motion, the court must review the initial service plan and may modify the plan if it is in the child’s best interests. MCR 3.965(D)(4).
Because a putative father is not considered a parent under MCR 3.903(A), he is not entitled to an agency’s services until he perfects paternity. In re LE, 278 Mich App 1, 18-19 (2008). However, an agency is not required to provide services to a putative father who perfected paternity 17 months after he was first ordered to do so. In re LE, supra at 19-21. In In re LE, supra at 21, the respondent was considered a putative father until he perfected paternity, and thus, the goal of reunification with the child never existed. The Court stated that “[s]ervices need not be provided where reunification is not intended.” Id. at 21.
A.Case Service Plan Requirements
If a child is removed from his or her home, the child must “be placed in care as nearly as possible equivalent to the care that should have been given to the [child] by his or her parents.” MCL 712A.1(3). The case service plan must provide placement for the child “in the most family-like setting available and in as close proximity to the child’s parents’ home as is consistent with the child’s best interests and special needs.” MCL 712A.18f(3).
The case service plan must include, but not be limited to, the following:
“(a) The type of home or institution in which the child is to be placed and the reasons for the selected placement.
(b) Efforts to be made by the child’s parent to enable the child to return to his or her home.
(c) Efforts to be made by the agency to return the child to his or her home.
(d) Schedule of services to be provided to the parent, child, and if the child is to be placed in foster care, the foster parent, to facilitate the child’s return to his or her home or to facilitate the child’s permanent placement.
(e) Except as otherwise provided in this subdivision, unless parenting time, even if supervised, would be harmful to the child as determined by the court under [MCL 712A.13a] or otherwise, a schedule for regular and frequent parenting time between the child and his or her parent, which shall not be less than once every 7 days.
(f) Efforts to be made by the supervising agency to provide frequent in-person visitation or other ongoing interaction between siblings unless the court determines under [MCL 712A.13a] that sibling visitation or contact will not be beneficial to 1 or more of the siblings.[3]
(g) Conditions that would limit or preclude placement or parenting time with a parent who is required by court order to register under the [S]ex [O]ffenders [R]egistration [A]ct.”4 MCL 712A.18f(3).5
B.Court-Ordered Participation in Case Service Plan
If a child is found to be within the court’s jurisdiction, the court may order participation in all or part of the case service plan. MCL 712A.18f(4); MCR 3.973(F)(2).
“‘While the [petitioner] has a responsibility to expend reasonable efforts to provide services to secure reunification, there exists a commensurate responsibility on the part of respondents to participate in the services that are offered.’” In re A Atchley, ___ Mich App ___, ___ (2022) (alteration in original), quoting In re Frey, 297 Mich App 242, 248 (2012).
Substantial failure to comply with a case service plan is evidence supporting a termination of parental rights. See MCR 3.976(E)(2).
A nonparent adult may also be required to participate in the development of and comply with a case service plan. MCL 712A.6b(1)(a)-(b).6
C.Objection to the Adequacy of Case Service Plan
A respondent claiming that the petitioner failed to make reasonable efforts at reunifying the respondent with his or her child must object to the case service plan or otherwise indicate that the services available through the case service plan were inadequate.7 In re A Atchley, ___ Mich App ___, ___ (2022). “[T]he constantly changing dynamic in a child protective case [means] a respondent has multiple opportunities to, as the circumstances change, object to the adequacy of the services being provided.” Id. at ___. “[C]ommon sense dictates [that] services that are adequate at the beginning of the case may become inadequate as the case proceeds.” Id. at ___.
The DHHS’s failure to create and update a case service plan as part of the reasonable efforts toward reunification the DHHS is required to provide is reversible error, but reversal is not required if the respondent did not preserve the issue and cannot show how the absence of a case service plan affected respondent’s substantial rights. In re MJC, ___ Mich App ___, ___ (2023).
If a child’s placement continues outside the home, the case service plan must be updated and revised every 90 days. MCL 712A.18f(5). The updated and revised case service plan must be made available to the court and all parties involved. Id.
When revising and updating the case service plan, the DHHS must consult with the foster parent(s) and attach a summary of the information received from the foster parent(s) to the revised case service plan. MCL 712A.18f(5).
1 See the DHHS’s Children’s Foster Care Manual (FOM), Foster Care - Parent-Agency Treatment Plan & Service Agreement FOM 722-08C. Note: The link to this resource was created using Perma.cc and directs the reader to an archived record of the page
2 See Chapter 7 for information on placements.
3 Reasonable efforts must be made to place siblings together. MCL 712A.13a(14); MCL 722.954a(6). If siblings are not placed together or not all of the siblings were removed, reasonable efforts must be made to provide “at least monthly visitation or other ongoing contact” between the siblings, unless statutory requirements dictate otherwise. MCL 712A.13a(14); MCL 722.954a(6); MCL 722.954a(7). See Section 8.2(C) for a discussion on sibling placement and maintenance of sibling relationship.
4 “‘Sex [O]ffenders [R]egistration [A]ct’ means the [S]ex [O]ffenders [R]egistration [A]ct, . . . MCL 28.721 to [MCL] 28.736.” MCL 712A.13a(1)(k).
5 See Section 8.8 for additional information on parenting time.
6 See Section 7.6(E) for more information on nonparent adults as they relate to child protective proceedings.
7 At the earliest, a respondent may object to the case service plan at the time the plan is adopted; “an objection or challenge [to the adequacy of services] may also be timely if raised later during the proceedings.” Atchley, ___ Mich App at ___.