Mississippi’s child-protection department is exposing foster children to abuse and asking the federal court to stop noticing.
That is what the court monitor’s report published July 29 documents. The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services met 22 of 107 applicable safety measures during most of 2025. The report found that children in the state’s care experienced abuse or neglect at more than twice the acceptable rate. A department that satisfies 22 of 107 has not completed a compliance program. It has failed the governing safety arrangement.
The department’s legal position is that the decades-old federal case, Olivia Y. v. Barbour, should be dismissed. The strongest version of that position is institutional: a consent agreement with 107 measures may be demanding, implementation may be uneven, and a court should not supervise a state agency forever. That argument deserves recognition before the audit begins.
The audit begins with the children. The report says Mississippi placed children in unlicensed facilities or with relatives before completing background checks. It says children often went without required caseworker visits. Background checks and licensing determine whether the adults and facilities receiving children have met the state’s safety requirements. Caseworker visits are the agreed mechanism for determining whether a placement remains safe. Without the visit, the state has no current information about what is happening to the child.
The 107 measures exist because Olivia Y. v. Barbour alleged that Mississippi frequently endangers children in its foster-care system. The monitor’s findings document why court supervision continues.
This is how institutional failure becomes administrative language. A child enters state custody because the state has determined that private care is unsafe or unavailable. The child, now in the state’s care, is placed before the state completes background checks on the adults receiving them. Required visits do not happen. The department then seeks to end the federal case that measures whether any of this has changed. The child has no meaningful exit from that arrangement. The department controls the placement, the records, and the visits.
Mississippi is seeking to dismiss the case at a time when the monitor’s report documents the department meeting 22 of 107 agreed safety standards, children in state custody experiencing abuse or neglect at more than twice the acceptable rate, and children placed in unlicensed settings without completed background checks. The 107 measures were negotiated between the department and the plaintiffs. The monitor was appointed to measure compliance. The measurement shows non-compliance.
The children placed in unlicensed or unchecked settings have no lawyers of their own and no mechanism to compel the state to complete the checks the agreement requires. Federal oversight of child welfare exists because the alternative is trusting the same agency the monitor has found failing. When a state removes a child from her parents, the state assumes the duty to keep her safe. The monitor’s report shows Mississippi has not discharged that duty. Whether the court should continue supervising depends on whether 22 of 107 represents progress or proof of continued failure. The report documents the answer.