The death of five-year-old Ethan Belcher, a Detroit boy who was abused and tortured, is tragic evidence that Michigan’s foster and welfare system needs more accountability and oversight.

Belcher was repeatedly removed from and then reunited with his parents. Children’s Protective Services was called more than a dozen times on complaints of abuse. And yet the state agency did nothing to save him.

The Legislature passed a bill to establish an independent board to watchdog the state’s foster and child welfare systems, but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer refused to sign the legislation. Ethan’s death should be the impetus to finally put such oversight in place.

Thousands of Michigan kids are at the mercy of a system that has for decades failed in its duty to protect them.

Whitmer inherited a state child welfare and foster system in dysfunction. The Department of Health and Human Services was sued in 2006 under former Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Progress made early in former Gov. Rick Snyder’s term was lost with personnel disruptions in the department and the distraction of the Flint water crisis.

Whitmer installed a new team to lead child welfare when she took office in 2018, but children such as Ethan continue to suffer.

Bipartisan legislation was introduced in past two sessions that would establish an independent citizen’s oversight commission of children’s welfare in the state. The bill passed both the House and Senate last year with broad support, and current House Speaker Joe Tate, D-Detroit, was a sponsor.

Whitmer did not sign the legislation, writing in an Oct. 7 letter to the House, “I am returning Enrolled House Bills 5801 without my signature because it would violate the Constitution’s separation of powers.”

She prefers an advisory body made up of child welfare experts that would not be empowered to hold those in charge of the agencies accountable.

At the same time, she touted a bipartisan bill package she signed to protect foster kids. It contains some good provisions, such as requiring a trauma-informed lawyer to act on behalf of a child in court, but it does little to lift the veil of secrecy that shields the agency from public scrutiny.

The Foster Care Improvement Commission proposed in the unsigned legislation would be an 11-person board that includes appointees from the Legislature and executive branch, as well as the chief justice of the state Supreme Court and two other members of the judiciary.

The makeup, according to the text of the bill, is designed to “ensure progress and improvement efforts are not hindered by changes in leadership in any branch.”

The commission would review current data, laws and processes for children and youth in the state, as well as research and recommend best practices in other states that have made improvements to their child welfare systems.

It would identify current gaps, problems and barriers for children and youth services in this state with a focus on primary prevention and early intervention across systems of care, including behavioral health services, early childhood development and public health.

It would also identify and address racial and ethnic gaps in the child welfare system.

The state’s system needs all of that — and more.

State Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, introduced a new bill following Ethan’s death in January to allow sitting lawmakers and credentialed news media more access to the operations of Children’s Protective Services.

It is better than the status quo, but no substitute for an oversight board independent of the administration with the authority to finally get to the bottom of what’s wrong in Michigan’s child welfare system.

— Detroit News