diff --git a/python/cuml/cuml/internals/validation.py b/python/cuml/cuml/internals/validation.py
index fe89807df6..2e00a2c623 100644
--- a/python/cuml/cuml/internals/validation.py
+++ b/python/cuml/cuml/internals/validation.py
@@ -683,14 +683,10 @@ def check_array(
                     array = array.to_numpy(dtype="object")
                 array = np.asarray(array, dtype=dtype, order=order)
             else:
-                # XXX: the dtype keyword to `to_cupy` is buggy, and also
-                # doesn't support all dtype coercions. For now we do a
-                # manual cast to handle any coercions.
-                # See https://github.com/rapidsai/cudf/issues/22136.
-                if dtype is not None:
-                    array = array.astype(dtype, copy=False)
                 array = cp.asarray(
-                    array.to_cupy(copy=copy), dtype=dtype, order=order
+                    array.to_cupy(copy=copy, dtype=dtype),
+                    dtype=dtype,
+                    order=order,
                 )
         elif isinstance(array, (pd.DataFrame, pd.Series)):
             # Handle pandas inputs
diff --git a/python/cuml/tests/test_validation.py b/python/cuml/tests/test_validation.py
index 029af195c9..7d67d1c603 100644
--- a/python/cuml/tests/test_validation.py
+++ b/python/cuml/tests/test_validation.py
@@ -1865,7 +1865,10 @@ def test_check_cudf(kind, ensure_ndim, coerce_ndim, dtype, shape):
                 data = data.ravel()
         else:
             assert isinstance(out, (cudf.Series, cudf.DataFrame))
-        res = out.to_numpy(dtype=data.dtype)
+
+        res = out.to_numpy(
+            dtype=("float32" if data.dtype == "float16" else data.dtype)
+        )
         np.testing.assert_array_equal(res, data)