Disposition and Structured Decision Making

The Child Protection Law requires MDHHS to use structured decision making (SDM) tools to determine safety of children, risk of future harm to a child, and the needs of the family. SDM promotes consistent, reliable, valid decisions from worker to worker and office to office. SDM focuses on a relatively small number of factors related to child abuse and neglect which research has shown correlate significantly with immediate danger (safety), future recurrence (risk), significant family characteristics (needs and strengths) and ameliorating action (treatment).

child assessment of needs and strengths.  and a family needs and strengths assessment, a risk assessment and reassessment, a safety assessmentSDM comprises a

assesses imminent danger, determines whether or not to initiate protective interventions when danger is identified and addresses reasonable efforts to keep families in tact. The safety assessment results can be:safety assessmentThe

• -Child is safe; no safety factors exist.  Safe
• -At least one safety factor is identified and protecting interventions are in place to help the child remain safely at home.Safe with services
• Unsafe-At least one safety factor is identified and the only possible protecting intervention is the removal of the child from the home.   

determines the risk of future abuse or neglect in the family and the frequency of services to be provided. Risk levels are intensive, high, moderate or low. The greater the risk level, the more likely there will be subsequent harm to a child without intervention by Children's Protective Services (CPS). risk assessmentThe

at specific intervals during a family's involvement with CPS. The risk reassessment determines the risk of future abuse or neglect taking into account the family's response to CPS intervention and determines the level of service for each family considering their current circumstances.risk reassessmentThere is a

identifies needs contributing to child abuse and neglect; identifies strengths already present in the family, and focuses services to improve family functioning to ensure the safety and well-being of the children.family and child assessments of needs and strengthsThe

. Children's Protective Services Manual  page for more information on service provision. For detailed information about the assessment tools and the policies and procedures for CPS in Michigan, see theServices section for more information on the different dispositions of CPS investigations and the Investigation ProcessSee the