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Mississippi Today, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom, is seeking a reporter to join our Politics Team. Regarded across Mississippi and the South as a vital investigative watchdog and champion of government accountability and transparency, the Politics Team at Mississippi Today goes beyond covering public meetings and legislative committees, digging deep to examine the systems of power in our state. 

The Politics and Government Reporter will be a member of this award-winning team, which serves Mississippians with engaging reporting that leaves readers better informed on critical issues facing our state. 

The ideal journalist will be someone who understands the complexity and history of Mississippi politics; challenges and threats to democratic values; and the concerns of Mississippians of all walks of life. This reporter will focus on daily/breaking news stories with a special focus on investigative projects that involve data, fact finding and in-depth explainer political journalism. 

Mississippi is a gold mine for eager journalists. In this position, you’ll travel the state and meet a diverse range of residents. As a member of Mississippi Today’s Politics Team, you will have an opportunity to work with some of the best reporters in the South and play an important role in fulfilling accountability journalism that will impact the way policy is debated and passed in Mississippi.

Expectations:

• Work with a small team of journalists who are focused on politics and government in Mississippi.
• Develop story ideas as well as collaborate closely with journalists and editors across the newsroom.
• Get people to talk, find willing sources and protect them while telling sensitive and timely stories.
• Build trust. Many Mississippians have for generations been victims of predatory actions from other journalists or media outlets. Mississippi Today seeks to rebuild trust with people across this state, which requires empathy, patience and savvy from our reporters.
• Work with our Audience Team and data and visual journalists to create compelling story presentations.

It’s a plus if you have:

• At least four years of reporting experience — and it’s a plus if you have Mississippi and political reporting experience
• Proficiency with public records requests.
• Experience writing a combination of both longform stories and investigations.
• A demonstrated ability to work quickly under tight deadlines.
• A knowledge and understanding of nonprofit journalism.
• Experience working in a collaborative newsroom setting.

What you’ll get:

• The opportunity to work alongside award-winning journalists and make significant contributions to Mississippi’s only fully staffed, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news and information source.
• Highly competitive salary with medical insurance, and options for vision and dental insurance.
• 29 days paid time off.
• Up to 12 weeks of parental family leave, with return-to-work flexibility.
• Simple IRA with 3 percent company matching. Group-term life insurance provided to employees ($15,000 policy).
• Support for professional training and attending industry conferences.

How to Apply:

We’re committed to building an inclusive newsroom that represents the people and communities we serve. We especially encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply for this position, including women, people of color, LGBTQ people and people who are differently abled.

Please click this link to apply.

The post Job opening: Politics and Government Reporter appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today poverty reporter Anna Wolfe has been named to the 2024 TIME100 Next list.

According to Time, the list aims to recognize “rising leaders in health, climate, business, sports, and more—and by doing so, not just show the stories that are capturing headlines in 2024, but also introduce you to the people who we believe will play an important role in leading the future.”

A majority of this year’s honorees are people of color; more than half are women.

“Mississippians have come to know and respect Anna as a champion for people whose voices are overlooked or ignored, and as someone who is not afraid to speak truth to power,” says Adam Ganuchaeu, editor-in-chief at Mississippi Today. “It’s awesome for her to get even more national recognition for just that. This is so deserving a recognition for a true Mississippi legend, and all of us are so lucky to have her here.”

Wolfe won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for her remarkable investigation “The Backchannel,” which uncovered the depth of the sprawling $77 million welfare scandal, the largest embezzlement of federal funds in the state’s history.

In her profile of Wolfe for 2024 TIME100 Next, PBS senior correspondent Judy Woodruff writes, “at a time when journalism is struggling to survive, Anna reminds us why it matters.”

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OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — It’s hard to miss the overflowing bowl of condoms at the entrance of the gym.

Some University of Mississippi students walking past after their workout snicker and point, and the few who step forward to consider grabbing a condom rethink it when their friends catch up, laughter trailing behind them. Almost no one actually reaches in to take one.

Though officials say they refill the bowl multiple times a day, and condoms are available at multiple places on campus, Ole Miss students say the disinterest is indicative of changing attitudes.

Fewer young people are having sex, but the teens and young adults who are sexually active aren’t using condoms as regularly, if at all. And people ages 15 to 24 made up half of new chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases in 2022.

The downward trend in condom usage is due to a few things: medical advancements like long-term birth control options and drugs that prevent sexually transmitted infections; a fading fear of contracting HIV; and widely varying degrees of sex education in high schools.

Is this the end of condoms? Not exactly. But it does have some public health experts thinking about how to help younger generations have safe sex, be aware of their options — condoms included — and get tested for STIs regularly.

“Old condom ads were meant to scare you, and all of us were scared for the longest time,” said Dr. Joseph Cherabie, medical director of the St. Louis HIV Prevention Training Center. “Now we’re trying to move away from that and focus more on what works for you.”

A shift in attitudes

Downtown Oxford was thrumming the day before the first football game of the season. The fall semester had just started.

Lines of college students with tequila-soda breath waited to be let in dim bars with loud music. Hands wandered, drifting into back pockets of jeans, and they leaned on one another.

It’s likely that many of those students didn’t use a condom, said Magan Perry, president of the college’s Public Health Student Association.

“Using a condom is just a big, ‘uh, no,’” the senior said.

Young women often have to initiate using condoms with men, she said, adding that she’s heard of men who tell a sexual partner they’ll just buy emergency contraception the next day instead.

“I’ve had friends who go home with a guy and say they’re not having sex unless they use a condom, and immediately the reaction is either a reluctant, ‘OK, fine,’ or ‘If you don’t trust me, then I shouldn’t even be here,’” Perry said. “They’re like, ‘Well, I’m not dirty, so why would I use them?’”

Women have long had the onus of preventing pregnancy or STIs, Cherabie said, and buying condoms or emergency contraceptives — which are often in a locked cabinet or behind a counter — can be an uncomfortable experience and “inserts a certain amount of shame,” Cherabie said.

If pregnancy risk has been the driving factor for condom usage among heterosexual couples, the fear of contracting HIV was the motivation for condom use among men who have sex with men.

But as that fear has subsided, so has condom use, according to a recent study that focused on a population of HIV-negative men who have sex with men.

Grindr, a popular gay dating app, even lists condom use under “kinks” instead of “health.” Things like that make Steven Goodreau, an HIV expert at the University of Washington who led the study, worry that the change in attitudes toward condoms is trickling down to younger generations.

Goodreau believes the promotion of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug that prevents HIV, is overshadowing condoms as a prevention strategy. A strategic plan for federal HIV research through 2025 doesn’t mention condoms, and neither does the national Ending the HIV Epidemic plan.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that condoms are still an effective tool that can be used “alongside newer prevention strategies.”

“We know that condom use has declined among some groups, but they still have an important role to play in STI prevention,” said Dr. Bradley Stoner, director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. “Condoms can be accessed without navigating the health care system, can be used on-demand, are generally affordable and most importantly – they are effective at preventing HIV and STIs when used consistently and correctly.”

Medical advances allow for more options

Pleasure — for both men and women — has long been an undeniable factor for the lack of condom use, according to Dr. Cynthia Graham, a member of the Kinsey Institute team that studies condoms.

But more so, advances in medicine have expanded the options for both STI and pregnancy prevention.

Young cisgender women have been turning to contraceptive implants like intrauterine devices and birth control pills to keep from getting pregnant. And researchers say that once women are in committed relationships or have one sexual partner for a significant amount of time, they often switch to longer-term birth control methods.

Ole Miss junior Madeline Webb said she and her partner seem like outliers — they have been seeing each other for four years, but still use condoms. They also share the responsibility of buying condoms.

“People see condoms as an inconvenience … but they do serve a purpose even if you’re on birth control because there is always a chance of an STD,” Webb said.

A new drug on the market could mean even more STI prevention options for men and possibly women.

Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, or doxy PEP, can be taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex and can help prevent chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. It has to be prescribed by a doctor. Trials are still being conducted for women, but the drug is gaining traction among men who have sex with men and transgender women.

With widespread uptake, the drug has the potential to make a significant impact in STI prevention strategies.

“When PrEP came out, everyone was excited because it was one less thing to worry about in terms of HIV acquisition,” Cherabie said. “With another thing on board that can help decrease our likelihood of getting other STIs, on top of not having to worry about HIV, it gives our community and patients a little less anxiety about their sex lives.”

And in just a decade, PrEP has become a main preventive measure against HIV and other STIs for men who have sex with men – though it is disproportionately used by white men.

Condom use now is “pretty much a thing of the past” for men who have sex with men compared to the 1980s and early 1990s during the AIDS epidemic, said Andres Acosta Ardilla, a community outreach director at an Orlando-based nonprofit primary care clinic that focuses on Latinos with HIV.

“Part of what we have to talk about is that there is something enticing about having condomless sex,” Acosta Ardilla said. “And we have to, as people who are working in public health, plan for the fact that people will choose to have condomless sex.”

The fight over sex ed

Despite the relentless Southern sun, a handful of people representing various student organizations sat at tables in the heart of Ole Miss’ campus. Students walked past and grabbed buttons, wristbands and fidget toys. One table offered gold-packaged condoms – for cups to prevent drinks from being spiked.

Actual condoms are noticeably absent. They’re also absent in the state’s public schools.

Condom demonstrations are banned in Mississippi classrooms, and school districts can provide abstinence-only or “abstinence-plus” sexual education — both of which can involve discussing condoms and contraceptives.

Focus on the Family, an Christian organization that advocates for teaching abstinence until marriage, is concerned that comprehensive sex education “exposes students to explicit materials.” Abstinence-centered education is “age-appropriate” and keeps students safe and healthy, Focus on the Family analyst Jeff Johnston said in an emailed statement.

But Josh McCawley, deputy director of Teen Health Mississippi, an organization that works with youth to increase access to health resources, said the effects are clear.

“The obvious consequence is the rise of sexually transmitted infections, which is what we’re seeing right now, which can be a burden on the health care system,” he said, “but also there could be long-term consequences for young people in terms of thinking about what it means to be healthy and how to protect themselves, and that goes beyond a person’s sexual health.”

The latest CDC data from 2022 shows Mississippi has the highest teen birth rate in the country.

Scott Clements, who oversees health information for the state education department, was hesitant to criticize Mississippi’s sex education standards because they’re “legislatively mandated.”

“If the legislature wants to make changes to this, we will certainly follow their lead,” he added — though attempts to pass more advanced sexual education standards have died repeatedly in the Mississippi statehouse over the past eight years.

Nationally, there is no set standard for sex education, according to Michelle Slaybaugh, policy and advocacy director for the Sexuality Information and Education Council for the United States, which advocates for comprehensive sex ed.

Not every state mandates sex education. Some states emphasize abstinence. Less than half of states require information on contraception.

“There is no definitive way to describe what sex ed looks like from classroom to classroom, even in the same state, even in the same district,” Slaybaugh said, “because it will really be determined by who teaches it.”

Compare Mississippi to Oregon, which has extensive state standards that require all public school districts to teach medically accurate and comprehensive sexual education. Students in Portland are shown how to put on a condom starting in middle school and have access to free condoms at most high schools.

Lori Kuykendall of Dallas, who helped write abstinence-focused standards, said condom demonstrations like those in Portland “normalize sexual activity in a classroom full of young people who the majority of are not sexually active.” She also points to increasingly easy access to pornography — in which people typically do not wear condoms — is a contributing factor to the decline in condom use among young people.

Jenny Withycombe, the assistant director for health and physical education at Portland Public Schools, acknowledged the standards see pushback in the more conservative and rural parts of Oregon. But the idea is to prepare students for future interactions.

“Our job is to hopefully build the skills so that even if it’s been a while since the (condom) demo … the person has the skills to go seek out that information, whether it’s from the health center or other reliable and reputable resources,” Withycombe said.

Those standards seem to contribute to a more progressive view of condoms and sex in young adults, said Gavin Leonard, a senior at Reed College in Portland and a former peer advocate for the school’s sexual health and relationship program.

Leonard, who grew up in Memphis – not far from Oxford, Mississippi, said his peers at Reed may not consistently use condoms, but, in his experience, better understand the consequences of not doing so. They know their options, and they know how to access them.

Slaybaugh wants that level of education for Mississippi students — and the rest of the country.

“We would never send a soldier into war without training or the resources they need to keep themselves safe,” she said. “We would not send them into a battle without a helmet or a bulletproof vest. So why is it OK for us to send young people off to college without the information that they need to protect themselves?”

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Schools, community organizations and hospitality groups now have access to free bulk naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, thanks to recent state legislation and federal funding.

In the first two months since the new law went into effect, the Mississippi Department of Health has distributed 3,470 boxes of bulk naloxone. That’s more than it distributed in the prior 10 months combined. 

The Legislature passed House Bill 1137, authored by Rep. Fabian Nelson, D-Jackson, and a freshman legislator, in the spring. Nelson said the impetus for the bill, which expands what types of groups can receive the overdose reversal drug, was a conversation with a local advocate who showed him the need for more access across the state. 

Nelson worked closely with Department of Mental Health Executive Director Wendy Bailey to draft the legislation. 

The Department of Mental Health also distributes naloxone through a program called Stand Up Mississippi. The focus of that program has been on law enforcement and first responders, Bailey said. 

“There was a core group that was missing there – nonprofits, recovery support groups that really needed to have access to more than just one dose,” said Bailey. 

Nelson teamed up with House Public Health and Human Services Chair Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, and Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, to shepherd the legislation – which allows community organizations, educational groups and any other “high-risk opioid overdose touchpoint” to receive the drug – through the process. The bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously. 

“If we can save one person, we’ve done our job,” said Nelson.

As the father of teenagers, Nelson said he believes schools in particular need access to the drug. 

“I’m telling my district, and Hinds County School District, we need this in the school. Because what’s happening is kids are bringing edibles to school and some are laced with fentanyl,” he said. “If a child overdoses at school and there’s no Narcan, by the time EMT gets there, the child could’ve passed away.”

READ MORE: Millions in opioid settlement dollars are coming to Mississippi. Here’s what you need to know.

He said he also keeps Narcan at his home.

“I have three sons – three teenagers – I know what my kids are doing, I don’t think my kids are doing drugs, but I have Narcan at home because you never know what they may get from a friend.” 

Hundreds of Mississippians die every year from opioid overdoses, and the epidemic has claimed the lives of tens of thousands more nationwide.

Ocean Springs School District placed an order for naloxone thanks to the new state law.

Jessie Galloway, the chief of the district’s campus police, said after an incident involving a near overdose at a neighboring school district, he thought it was important the district be prepared in case something similar occurred.

“Due to the amount of vapes, drugs, and drug paraphernalia becoming increasingly available to the youth, we felt we should be proactive and prepared in the event of an accidental overdose of a student or other individual," he said in a statement to Mississippi Today.  "In addition to our campus duties, we come in contact with many outside individuals attending various school events and having a medication like naloxone on-hand can make the difference in saving a life …”

The Gulf Coast is the hardest hit region of Mississippi in the opioid crisis and represents an outsize portion of Mississippi’s suspected overdose deaths, emergency medical services naloxone administrations and drug-related arrests. 

To request naloxone kits for an individual or organization, visit the Department of Health's site here.

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The Sanderson Farms Championship returns to Country Club of Jackson, and Randy Watkins, who played in the tournament and later was the executive director, returns to the Crooked Letter Podcast. We also discuss Ole Miss’s first loss and perhaps Mississippi State’s best showing of the football season.

Stream all episodes here.

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A new facility for Mississippians with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system will open early next year. 

The 83-bed maximum-security building at Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield should open in January, Department of Mental Health Executive Director Wendy Bailey told Mississippi Today. 

Once staffed, the new building will bring the state’s forensic bed count to 123, up from 65 current beds.

Officials are hopeful the new building will cut down on wait times for mental health treatment for people in prison. Mississippi has the second-longest wait time for such treatment in the country, according to a study by the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center. 

“We are proud to be able to offer this service to Mississipians and to offer this environment to the people that we’re serving and to our staff as well,” she said.  

Forensic services are for people with criminal charges who need mental health treatment before facing trial and people who have been deemed not guilty by reason of insanity.

Agency spokesperson Adam Moore said at the end of August, 68 people were waiting for inpatient evaluation or competency restoration services, he said. Fifty-five of those people were awaiting services from jail. 

The Department of Mental Health plans to permanently close 25 maximum security forensic beds in a 70-year-old facility.

The current maximum security unit has notable deficiencies, including “rampant” plumbing issues, blind corners, no centralized fire suppression system and padlocks on the door, said Dr. Tom Recore, medical director at the Department of Mental Health. It also requires high numbers of personnel to staff. 

The building’s closure has been long awaited. 

“We could have used a new forensic unit 20 years ago,” Bailey said.

In comparison, the new building will be a safe, “therapeutic” environment, she said. 

“If you create a space that folks feel is something worth taking care of, then patients, staff and everyone alike ends up behaving in ways that end up being more prosocial,” Recore said.  

Construction on the new building should be completed in November, said Bailey. The Department of Mental Health will begin a “heavy recruiting effort” to staff the unit this fall.

The Legislature awarded $4 million for six months’ staffing of the new building, given the facility’s mid-fiscal year opening. 

Plans for the new 83-bed building have been in the works for years now, said Bailey. 

In 2016, the department’s forensic services unit was composed of just 35 maximum security beds, she said. 

The Department of Mental Health first put out a bid for preplanning of renovation or replacement of the building in 2018, but the project stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency was forced to reissue a call for bids, with bids coming back “significantly higher” than before, Bailey said. 

Construction costs for the building totalled $36.5 million. The state legislature allocated funding for the project in 2018, 2023 and 2024.

The new facility is a crucial part of building out a “continuum of care” within the state’s forensic system, said Recore. 

The maximum security facility will provide an entry point for people receiving forensic services, but placement in a medium-security unit, group homes and work programs will be options for patients based on a clinical review team’s evaluation. 

The group homes at Central Mississippi Residential Center in Newton have not been staffed yet, but are the next step to creating a more robust continuum of services, said Recore. 

Twenty-four beds will eventually be staffed at Central Mississippi Residential Center, and Recore envisions an outpatient supervision system as the next horizon. 

“And then, you have an actually functioning forensic system in a state that hasn’t had one before,” he said.

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Tupelo — The Northeast Mississippi Addiction and Recovery Summit drew community members and professionals to the Cadence Bank Conference Center on Sept. 17. Organized by Terry Baber, director of the Northeast Mississippi Health Alliance, and hosted in collaboration with the United Way of Northeast Mississippi and Mississippi State University’s Department of Psychology, the event aimed to empower attendees with tools for tackling addiction.

The day began with registration and networking, leading to a welcome lunch that highlighted the critical role of community support in recovery efforts.

Keynote speaker Dr. Brent Boyett, an addiction medicine specialist and the former chief medical officer of Pathway Healthcare, addressed the opioid crisis. He discussed the $55 billion national opioid settlement, noting that the pharmaceutical industry is being held accountable for its role in fueling the epidemic. Boyett also challenged the rationale for continuing opioid prescriptions for chronic pain.

“Addiction isn’t a failure of willpower; it’s a disease that rewires the brain,” Boyett said. “You can’t place logical thought on addictive thinking.”

Mississippians who struggled with addiction spoke at the summit. 

“I just remember feeling that rejection and kind of abandonment at a small age,” Casey Wortman of Saltillo said. “I tried to commit suicide at age 11, and my drug use began. When I was using… I was a mess, and I hurt everybody around me.”

Patrick Davis of Tupelo reflected on how recovery impacted his relationships.

“I couldn’t really connect with anybody,” Davis said. “I had nothing to talk about unless we were using. I got clean, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a sister.’”

Breakout sessions focused on crisis intervention and substance use prevention, including Narcan training. Rep. Sam Creekmore, who chairs the House Public Health and Human Services committee, provided a legislative update on addiction initiatives, including a bill that allows the state Health Department to distribute naloxone to more groups. Community leaders explored collaborative recovery strategies.

“Our goal this year was to bring all the stakeholders in our region together, give them the resources to help empower, educate, and expand our recovery ecosystem. It was a collaborative effort among community stakeholders, professionals, and individuals in treatment,” Baber said. “We think our community is on board in helping us expand that recovery ecosystem. That’s our focus going forward.”

The attendance at the event indicates a community interest in addressing addiction and mental health services as local communities face challenges from the opioid crisis.

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All summer, Christopher Best II eagerly awaited his first day of kindergarten. But instead of joining his classmates at school in August, he stayed at home. 

Five-year-old Christopher depends on a mobile ventilator and a tracheostomy tube to breathe. His doctor recommends that a one-on-one nurse attend school with him to manage his care and respond in case of an emergency.

But two months into the school year, Madison County Schools has not hired a dedicated nurse to care for Christopher, a scenario disability rights advocates say is not uncommon for children with complex medical conditions. 

Emily Catazaro, Christopher’s mother, is frustrated by the delays that have inhibited her son from attending school. 

“He cries every day because he can’t go to school,” said Catazaro, who moved her family from Copiah County based on recommendations from Christopher’s doctors about the special education services in Madison County schools. 

A week before the school year began, district officials informed Catazaro they had assigned an interim nurse to care for Christopher at school. Concerned that the nurse did not have adequate tracheostomy experience, including practice completing an emergency tracheostomy tube change on Christopher, Catazaro, a registered nurse herself, requested that the nurse receive further training. 

But by the time school officials met with Catazaro and agreed to allow her to provide additional training to the nurse on Aug. 13, two weeks later, district staff said they would have to re-offer the position to the interim nurse. 

Since then, neither an interim nor permanent nurse has been assigned to Christopher. Without a nurse to care for him at school, Christopher receives a total of five hours of instruction at home each week. 

On Sept. 30, the district told Catazaro in a meeting it will contract with a private nursing company to provide one-on-one nursing care for Christopher at school. 

A school staff member contacted Catazaro to schedule the meeting Sep. 20, eight days after Mississippi Today reached out to Madison County Schools about Christopher’s case. 

Madison County Schools declined to answer questions about Christopher’s case. The district also declined to respond to inquiries about its special education, one-on-one nursing and homebound instruction policy and staffing, saying those responses could be construed to violate student privacy. 

“The teachers, staff, and administrators of Madison County Schools are committed to ensuring they meet the unique and individualized needs of all their students. The District is committed to following all state and federal laws, regulations, and policies with respect to providing services to its students,” district communications director Gene Graham told Mississippi Today in an email.  

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, first passed in 1975, children with disabilities are entitled to receive a “free appropriate public education” in the least restrictive setting possible. The federal law marked a growing effort to include all children in schools by providing support services to children with disabilities instead of educating them in self-contained classrooms. 

School districts are required by law to provide a full-time nurse to students if their health condition necessitates it, said Lily Moens, Christopher’s attorney and a law fellow at the Mississippi Center for Justice who focuses on special education advocacy. 

Moens spoke to Mississippi Today about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and special education challenges in Mississippi, but did not answer questions about Christopher’s case. 

“There is an obligation for the school to provide an education that is in the least restrictive environment,” she said.

Given Christopher’s dependence on a ventilator, it is “recommended and preferred” that a specially trained, one-on-one nurse care for him during the school day, Christopher’s doctor wrote in a letter provided to the school district.  

Christopher faces severe health risks in the classroom, including low levels of oxygen, which can be difficult to detect without a trained eye, or equipment failure. Because Christopher is non-verbal and predominantly conveys ideas with sign language, it is crucial for him to have a dedicated nurse who can communicate with him and understands his complex health needs, said Catazaro. 

“Christopher is a bright and capable student who deserves the experience of learning in a classroom setting among his peers,” said Christopher’s doctor in the letter. 

Staffing challenges

Staffing shortages can challenge the ideals of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, said Diana Autin, the executive director of National PLACE, a nonprofit membership organization that advocates for families.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of teachers, speech and occupational therapists and nurses have caused difficulties for school districts aiming to provide adequate special education services to students, she said. 

Registered nurse vacancies at Mississippi hospitals reached their highest numbers in over a decade last year. 

Madison County Schools officials assured Catazaro in a meeting on July 25 that the district would provide a one-on-one nurse for Christopher. 

But there is no enforceable timeline for employing such staff if the school district is not able to hire for the position, said Moens. 

Catazaro herself interviewed for the job and received a rejection letter dated Aug. 21. 

“It is very difficult to get any kind of one-on-one assistance in our state,” said Pam Dollar, the executive director of the Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities and Christopher’s advocate through the Mississippi Parent Training and Information Center. “… If the support that a child needs is too costly, the school district is going to push back.” 

The Mississippi Parent Training and Information Center, a program of the Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities, educates parents of children with disabilities about their educational rights and supports them as they navigate the process of developing an individualized education plan with school districts. 

“Especially in regions of the state that are much more underfunded in terms of their local school systems, (staffing) presents a big challenge,” Moens said. 

Madison County School District has the fifth highest revenue of all school districts in the state. It received $189 million from local, state and federal sources during the 2022-2023 school year.

‘He’s getting left behind’

In late April, Christopher began attending Madison County’s public preschool with a one-on-one nurse hired by the school district and trained by Catazaro. 

But as the school year came to a close, Catazaro said she learned that Christopher’s one-on-one nurse would not continue working with him during Extended School Year, a program public schools are required to provide to qualifying students with disabilities. 

She was told a nurse would check on Christopher at 15-minute intervals, despite his doctor’s recommendation that he have a full-time nurse. 

“The nurse will be in Christopher’s ESY classroom to assess him every 15 minutes,” wrote Vicki Doty, the director of special education for Madison County Schools, in an email to Catazaro on June 3, the first day of extended year programming. 

Given his complex health needs, check-ins only every 15 minutes could have dire consequences for Christopher, said Catazaro. 

She opted to remove Christopher from extended school year programming until a one-on-one nurse could be hired, and requested a mediation with the school district to resolve the disagreement. 

Madison County later offered Christopher one additional hour of instruction each week at home to make up for lost extended school year classroom time. 

In mediation, the school requested a medical review from a medical doctor rather than Christopher’s usual nurse practitioner, said Catazaro. After reviewing Christopher’s doctor’s recommendation that he be assigned a one-on-one nurse, the county told Catazaro they would secure a nurse for Christopher while at school.

But two months later, the school still has not provided a nurse.

“What about no child left behind? He’s getting left behind,” Catazaro said.

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