Michelle Lane Smithwick

Michelle Lane is a former Maryland public official whose findings in 2003 led to better protection of foster children under state care. She is a registered nurse, business owner, and former university professor.

Michelle Lane
Born
Harford County, Maryland[1]
OccupationNurse
Known forDiscovering and reporting foster care social worker assignment issues
Political partyDemocratic, by 2008;[1]
Republican, at least into 2004[2]
Spouse(s)Roger Smithwick

Maryland state government

Lane worked in Robert Ehrlich's congressional office, his 2002 gubernatorial campaign, and then his transition team before being appointed to his administration. She was placed at the Maryland Department of Human Resources (DHR) then moved to the Governor's Office of Children, Youth and Families (GOCYF) where she continued overseeing the Fostercare Consent Decree and other issues concerning the problematic Maryland Child Welfare System.[2]

In 2003 she discovered, along with that agency's statistician, that the department assigned children to foster care social workers who no longer worked for the State of Maryland. This resulted in children not getting monthly visits from a social worker, clearly led to children's injuries, and probably contributed to preventable child deaths. Lane was fired in June 2004.[2][3]

Governor Ehrlich, a Republican, said in 2005 that as a fired former employee, Lane was working with Democrats in a smear campaign against him. Lane's attorney and the Maryland Democratic Party director denied the allegations.[4]

In 2006, Maryland Legislature auditors reported that they had found that caseworker staffing numbers had been improperly reported. The auditors also reported failures to investigate child abuse complaints. Legislators said that they would investigate 11 foster child deaths that occurred in 2004. At least hundreds of foster children's whereabouts were never accounted for.[5] Lane was honored by the Nurses Association with a display on the Faces of Nursing Calendar for her work on behalf of children at DHR and GOCYF.

Lane was the Maryland state director for the Edwards presidential campaign in 2008.[1]

Written work
  • Lane Smithwick, Michelle; Smithwick, Alfred Rogers (2013). Get Your Child Horseback Riding: Without Spending a Fortune. CreateSpace. ASIN B00DGWIHC2. ISBN 978-1-4848-6752-5.

Personal life

Lane has served in a professorship appointment at Towson University[4] and has owned a home healthcare company for two decades.[6]

References
  1. Lane-Smithwick, Michelle (January 31, 2013). "Letter writer laments state of Harford County's delegation to the General Assembly". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  2. Mosk, Matthew (March 26, 2005). "Md. Foster Care Draws Scrutiny". Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  3. Snyder, David (April 5, 2005). "Md. Foster Care Study Lists Problems". Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  4. Green, Andrew A. (March 27, 2005). "Ehrlich says ex-employee working with Democrats". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  5. Anderson, Lynn (January 10, 2006). "Child welfare system assailed". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
  6. "Middleburg Homecare LLC". Health Providers Data. Retrieved December 16, 2019.


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