The motion prevailed.
Senator Moss’ statement is as follows:
I wanted to share the circumstances by which this bill was brought before us. This bill was developed in response to a horrific tragedy that played out in my district that was uncovered last year, when Oakland County Sheriff’s Deputies discovered three children, ages 15, 13, and 12, left abandoned in a Pontiac home. They were found living in squalor, they were in soiled clothes, they were sleeping on pizza boxes, and likely hadn’t left that house in years. There were numerous failures along the way that led up to this situation, from a mother who is now being charged with abuse by our Oakland County Prosecutor, Karen McDonald, to a residence that should never have been occupied to begin with.
One crack through which these children fell that we can solve here today was identified by our Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, establishing clear lines of communication during the process of students transferring between schools. The mother of these children told their former school that they’d be enrolling in another school. The former school sent the permanent school records of those students to the school the mother indicated they would be attending, and then that school unenrolled those students. But the students were never actually 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 seen, some five years ago. Had the students been enrolled in the transfer school and then not shown up, law enforcement would have been dispatched to check on the welfare of their students.
Under current law, it is possible—and it has happened—that a student could be unenrolled from a school before they have actually been enrolled in another school. As a result, we have this bill before us today to make a simple but necessary change to the Revised School Code, closing this loophole and requiring that a school shall not provide a copy of the student’s permanent record nor unenroll them unless it has received written confirmation from the receiving school that the student has been enrolled. This way, one school retains responsibility for the student and their welfare during the transfer process. These awful scenes played out of Pontiac, played out really across the country, and we don’t want any other child in Michigan to fall through this crack and be lost in the system. I urge a “yes” vote.
Senator Runestad’s statement is as follows:
I do support this bill because I believe that the story just referenced is one I have brought before the chamber time and time again to try and stop these kinds of tragedies. In addition to this, something else that would have happened in that case if it’s one I’m thinking of—where there was a mother who was schizophrenic in Pontiac and took her kids walking without almost no clothes through the snow and bedded them down in a field where three of them froze to death, the mom froze to death, and the 12-year-old daughter got to a house and survived—is the bill that I asked to be passed in this chamber to allow us to be able to look at these cases. There was extensive CPS involvement. We can’t get any information. I hope that this case will induce this chamber to pass that bill and save these kids here in the state of Michigan.
The following bill was read a third time:
House Bill No. 4077, entitled
A bill to amend 1978 PA 368, entitled “Public health code,” by amending sections 2804, 2843, 2843b, 2844, and 16221 (MCL 333.2804, 333.2843, 333.2843b, 333.2844, and 333.16221), section 2804 as amended by 2012 PA 499, section 2843 as amended by 2013 PA 79, section 2843b as added by 1986 PA 185, and section 16221 as amended by 2023 PA 209.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: