LANSING (AP) — Michigan put thousands of lower-income children at risk by authorizing sex offenders and other criminals to provide day care between 2003 and 2006, according to a state audit released Tuesday.

Auditor General Thomas McTavish said the Department of Human Services licensed, registered or enrolled about 1,900 ‘‘unsuitable’’ day care providers, including child abusers and 31 people listed on the public sex offender registry.

A vast majority of the providers were relatives of the children or aides caring for them in the children’s’ own homes, not licensed homes or facilities. The state pays the providers if their lower-income parents are working or going to school.

In response to the audit’s findings, the state stopped paying some providers and began running additional criminal background checks on workers in April 2007 after being informed that its primary background check program wasn’t flagging all offenders.