OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – Lawmakers are expected to introduce a bill this week to address the gap in the state’s school code that allowed for the abandonment of three Oakland County kids to go unnoticed for years.
House and Senate legislators from Oakland County are expected to introduce the bill that would amend the school code “as soon as next week,” according to a release from the sheriff’s office.
Rep. Tom Kuhn (R-Troy) and Rep. Brenda Carter (D-Pontiac) are expected to introduce a bill to the House, while Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) is expected to introduce the bill in the Senate.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard proposed a change to Michigan’s state code after officials discovered that three children had allegedly been abandoned by their mother and left to live alone in Pontiac for years.
The kids' absence was never noticed by teachers or classmates due to a gap in the school code, according to Bouchard.
A school in Pontiac had requested the kids' transcripts, but they never actually moved to that new school.
The school they had been attending dropped them from the enrollment list, presuming that they children were attending the new school.
“This wasn’t a crack these children slipped through, but a deep cavern from which they did not emerge for years,” Bouchard said. “We must find a process to ensure that any potential handoff between schools is verified with written confirmation to ensure no children are lost in the future. I greatly appreciate the bipartisan legislative effort to change the school code to prevent such a tragedy going forward.”
The legislation being proposed would require a school to confirm the enrollment of a student before the previous school can remove them from their unenrollment list.
The mother of the children, Kelli Bryant, 34, of Pontiac, has been charged with first-degree child abuse and is being held on a $250 million bond.
Her three children, a 15-year-old boy, a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl, had allegedly been living alone in deplorable conditions since sometime in 2020. Child Protective Services placed them in the custody of the family members.
More coverage on Pontiac child abandonment case
