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Mississippi’s youth court proceedings could grind to a halt and federal child welfare funding could be jeopardized come July if the Legislature does not revive one of the state laws dealing with the confidentiality of records involving children, state officials are warning Gov. Tate Reeves.

In Mississippi, records involving juvenile delinquency or child abuse and neglect allegations are confidential. This law is not in jeopardy.

However, the state has another law that permits those records to be shared between the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, youth courts, parents of the child, a child’s legal representative, law enforcement and other parties providing care and resources to children. This law needs to be renewed every few years – and if legislators don’t do that by July 1 of this year, this law will disappear.

The law set to repeal provides the crucial exemptions to confidentiality that allow parties involved in these sensitive cases to communicate the facts and make decisions involving a child’s placement and care. 

A bill introduced in the Legislature this year would have reduced youth court confidentiality altogether as part of a proposal of sweeping reforms that led to intense debate among lawmakers. The bill died, leaving the confidentiality in place but allowing the law containing the exemptions to lapse.

CPS Commissioner Andrea Sanders asked Reeves in a letter April 30 to call a special legislative session to prevent the law’s repeal. 

She explained that if the exemption disappears, chancery court judges hearing custody cases may not be able to see any youth court or Department of Child Protection Services records that would inform their decisions. Parents with children before a youth court would not have access to court orders that spell out what action they must take, such as requirements they must meet to retrieve their children from CPS custody. CPS could not disclose records involving its investigations to the court, the letter warned. The judge holds the sole power to decide when to remove a child from their home and when to return them.

“Essentially, all legal proceedings involving children under MDCPS’s supervision and care would grind to a halt,” she wrote.

CPS would also be prevented from sharing information with Medicaid, children’s advocacy centers, hospitals, doctors, mental health providers, schools, foster parents and relatives offering support. 

Sanders expressed concerns in the letter that the agency’s inability to disclose information could impact the state’s ability to demonstrate compliance with federal regulations in order to draw down federal foster care funding. The law’s repeal would have significant and detrimental consequences, she wrote.

Reeves has already called a special session for legislators to conduct judicial district redistricting later this month following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which many believe will make it easier to change electoral boundaries that were drawn to ensure Black representation. Reeves would need to add the youth court matter to a special session’s agenda for lawmakers to consider it.

State Public Defender André de Gruy also asked Reeves for a special session, saying the repeal of the law would harm his office’s ability to represent children in juvenile delinquency cases and parents in child welfare matters.

“It really defeats the whole purpose of youth court, which is to provide services to help children and families,” said Jennifer Morgan, the parent defense program manager for the public defender’s office. “The inability of CPS to connect children and families with services leaves families stuck.”

Four other laws are set to repeal July 1 as a result of the reform bill’s death, which could create additional issues for youth court operations, according to consultants working with the Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts. 

Among the laws going away are requirements that youth court case details be entered into the state’s case management system, a prohibition on sex offenders accessing information through that database, state funding requirements for local youth courts, and the ability for parents, such as those in the military, to grant temporary power of attorney.

Reeves’ office did not respond to emails requesting comment for this story.

Attorney Ty Pinkins is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate this year, facing incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic candidate Scott Colom. Pinkins says partisan politics and big-money influence are causing government to fail Mississippians and the system has become ‘a self-licking ice cream.’

A perception exists that Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is often outflanked and defeated in policy disputes at the Mississippi Capitol.

But is that perception a reality? And will it matter should Hosemann, who cannot seek a third consecutive term as the Senate’s presiding officer, opt to run for governor in 2027?

In 2002 Gov. Ronnie Musgrove’s vetoes of dozens of bills funding state government were summarily overridden by the Mississippi Legislature. It was a striking defeat for Musgrove within the ornate House and Senate chambers of the Mississippi Capitol.

“You don’t want to lose too often in this building,” veteran state Rep. Billy McCoy, a Rienzi Democrat, said when asked at the time how the veto overrides might impact Musgrove’s political career.

On that fateful day, Musgrove lost – lost a lot. Were those defeats the reason that Musgrove would lose in his reelection bid to Republican Haley Barbour the following year?

Those veto overrides were not the only reason for his defeat. But it is reasonable to assume that they were part of a narrative – a negative narrative for the incumbent governor.

Events that have fueled a perception

A few weeks ago on a day set aside for legislators to return to the Capitol if they wanted to try to override any of Gov. Tate Reeves’ last minute vetoes of the 2026 session, the perception did not look too good for Hosemann.

As it turned out, Hosemann called the Senate back but would not allow his chamber to vote on the main bill that many believed legislators were returning to Jackson to take up. The ill-fated bill would have given the Legislature a modicum of oversight of federal rural healthcare funds that the governor had commandeered.

After Hosemann refused to allow a vote to override the veto of that bill, angry Senate Democrats refused to help his efforts to override other bills vetoed by the governor.

In other words, Hosemann called the senators back to the Capitol for a day where they accomplished nothing. It was not a good look for the lieutenant governor and arguably fueled that negative perception.

That perception also was enhanced in the 2025 session when Hosemann’s attempt to limit the efforts of House Speaker Jason White and the governor to phase out the income tax (roughly one-third of state general fund revenue) was unsuccessful. And it did not help that perception when a typo in the bill the Senate sent to the House appeared to enhance the probability that the income tax would be phased out.

And let’s be honest. Hosemann’s perception was not aided by a health scare when he passed out momentarily while presiding over the Senate. Hosemann, an avid runner, said medical providers attributed the episode to dehydration.

Hosemann has victories that counter the perception

It is fair to say Hosemann is dealing with some perception issues. But sometimes perception is not reality.

It also is fair to say Hosemann has had his share of legislative victories – and on some of the most high-profile issues facing the state.

Despite the powerful tag teaming of the governor and the speaker, thus far Hosemann has blocked the enactment of a widespread voucher program that would send public funds to private schools. While vouchers are viewed as popular with some Republican primary participants, in a crowded field Hosemann’s position on the combustible issue might be supported by enough voters to boost his chances should he run for governor.

And while many will not admit it, Hosemann also won on his effort to block the rewrite of the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The MAEP formula provided funding for the basic needs of the local school districts.

Again the powerful duo of White and Reeves were working against Hosemann. They wanted to scrap the program. Many Republicans had long opposed the Adequate Education Program because they said it provided too much money to the local school districts.

But Hosemann prevailed on his position that any new program should include an objective formula to determine how much money the school districts would receive. In the end, the new formula that legislators adopted in 2024, called the Mississippi Student Funding Formula, is much like the old formula, but White and Reeves can at least say they got rid of the name, “Adequate Education Program.” 

But much more than half of the money going to the schools still is determined by the objective formula just as it was under the MAEP.

That was a huge victory for public schools provided by Hosemann’s dogged persistence.

Should he run for governor, the trick for Hosemann will be whether he can shape the way voters perceive him.

To boost that perception, he probably doesn’t need to lose many more legislative battles in the Mississippi Capitol during his final days as lieutenant governor.

A Trump administration panel tasked with reviewing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s portfolio has unveiled its full plan to shift the brunt of the responsibility for disaster response to state and local governments.

In its plan, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Review Council called for a major overhaul of disaster response: making it more difficult for states to qualify for federal aid, consolidating federal assistance for individuals into one payment program, and emphasizing that state and local authorities should be taking the lead role after natural disasters. Several of the changes it calls for would require Congress to act.

The FEMA Review Council’s final report comes after months of delay: It was initially expected to release its report in December before the council’s meeting was abruptly canceled.

The public’s instinct during a national disaster is to “rely on or expect the federal government to complete a whole-of-government national response,” the report reads, calling this a “misconception.”

Instead, the report calls for creating a national standard for state disaster response and transforming FEMA to “reinvigorate a national system to ensure” state, local, and private and nonprofit entities can work together.

One of the council’s recommendations to hold states more accountable is to make the threshold higher for states to receive federal funding. The report says that the current process “does not adequately account” for local governments’ ability to respond to a disaster and “disincentivizes” local disaster-preparedness efforts.

The report also criticizes the red tape involved in FEMA’s current Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, saying it “is hampered by administrative burdens that delay funding distribution until well after rebuilding begins.” To fix this, the agency recommends a state-led system in which “project priorities are nationally set and environmental reviews are handled locally.”

And to help with the agency’s “confusing” and “inefficient” individual assistance program, the council recommends making temporary emergency shelters the responsibility of states.

“Number one, return leadership of emergency response and recovery to the states and to the tribes and to the territories,” former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a member of the council, said in a meeting Thursday morning with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “I’ve said that several times, but nothing can be more important than empowering the states to take on this responsibility.”

Michael Coen, a former FEMA chief of staff in the Biden administration, doesn’t think these changes will be easily implemented.

“The final meeting illuminates the significant risks the nation faces and the necessity of emergency management,” Coen said in a statement to NOTUS. “The next step should be collaboration between the Executive branch and Congress. The goals of these recommendations can’t fully be implemented without legislative statutory changes.”

“FEMA has been changing and improving since 1979 and the work continues,” he said. “As a nation we should be judged by how we support communities and disaster survivors during challenging times.”

In addition to giving states more responsibility, the report recommends that FEMA review the number of employees it has working in the field versus at headquarters every two to three years, in an effort to reduce “the agency’s bureaucratic bloat.”

Ahead of the meeting, disaster advocates were skeptical that the council’s findings would reflect the issues at the agency. The disaster-recovery advocacy group Sabotaging Our Safety gave FEMA failing grades for its leadership, hurricane preparedness and workforce in its own report card ahead of the meeting.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For 21 years, Steve Fowler and Sam Wilson have performed together in a band on Memphis’ renowned Beale Street. And for the past decade, the men have been neighbors on a quiet, leafy avenue.

But as of Thursday, they will no longer cast the same ballot despite living across the street from each other.

That’s because Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature redrew the congressional district of Memphis, which has long enjoyed its own Democratic-leaning U.S. House seat. Now, the city is split into three Republican-leaning districts, its majority-Black population sliced up and bound to mostly white, rural and conservative communities along lines that branch away from Fowler and Wilson’s East Memphis neighborhood.

A line runs down the middle of the street, placing Fowler in the 8th Congressional District, which runs hundreds of miles to central Tennessee across a dozen counties. Wilson is zoned for the 9th District, which extends across most of the state’s southern border before curving up to encompass the largely white and affluent Nashville suburbs.

“I think it’s horrible,” said Fowler, who is white. “This isn’t just going to be bad for Black folks in Memphis, but poor whites in these new districts also aren’t going to get services. How are any of these congressmen going to serve all these different counties?”

Part of a national redistricting competition

The redraw was sparked by a ruling from the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court that may be a death knell for congressional representation of majority-Black Southern communities such as Memphis.

For 60 years, a provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act required mapmakers to prove they were not discriminating against racial minorities in how they drew districts, often leading to political boundaries that allowed some minority communities to vote for their preferred representative rather than having their vote diluted by white majorities surrounding them.

The rule had the greatest effect in Southern states, where neighboring Black and white communities remain highly polarized in partisan politics.

On April 29, the justices court severely weakened that requirement, ruling that the way courts had handled it improperly injected racial matters into redistricting in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Republicans across the South immediately leaped at the chance to redraw their maps before the November elections to eliminate as many Democratic-held, majority-minority congressional seats as possible.

Tennessee’s legislature was the first in a GOP-controlled state to finalize a new map. But it is one of several Southern states — Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina among them — engaged in a broader partisan redistricting competition sweeping the country.

Republicans have long complained that the Voting Rights Act prevented them from doing to Democratic, majority-Black districts what Democrats in states they control do to conservative-leaning, white and rural areas — scatter their voters for partisan gain. That is what Tennessee Republicans did in their initial congressional map in 2021 to the state’s other large reservoir of Democrats in Nashville, where they did not have to step gingerly because that city is majority white.

“Tennessee is a conservative state and our congressional delegation should reflect that,” said Republican state Sen. John Stevens, who shepherded the bill for a new map that made all nine congressional districts solidly Republican.

A ‘central place’ in pursuit of racial justice

Wilson, the Memphis musician who is Black, was less distraught by the carving up of his neighborhood for partisan purposes. He saw the move as just another trial facing the city after a surge of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to combat crime and amid narratives about Memphis’ safety from neighboring suburbs and Republican state lawmakers.

“It’s a hustling community. We’re going to make ends meet for our families,” Wilson said. “The legacy of Memphis is music and our civil rights history,” he said, adding the two were intertwined. “Hard times mean you’re going to try and find your gift. That’s what we do here; music in Memphis is a way of life.”

The Memphis district predates the Voting Rights Act. For at least a century, well before Congress acted to protect minority voting rights, Tennessee has believed it made sense for its metropolis on the Mississippi River to have its own U.S. House district. But since that law was passed in 1965, anyone who tried to split up the district for partisan gain could be sued and have the maps thrown out. Now, legal experts say that is not much of a risk.

Nonetheless, Democrats and civil rights groups are suing to block the map. The symbolism is especially sharp as the city is home to the National Civil Rights Museum, built around the motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. When the legislature passed the new maps, Democrats and protesters shouted “hands off Memphis!” and waved signs accusing Republicans of bringing back Jim Crow.

“Memphis is not just any city; it holds a central place in the national story of our quest for racial justice in this country and how, over time, we have increasingly achieved civil, voting, and economic rights for all Americans,” said Eric Holder, a former U.S. attorney general who chairs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “Black citizens protested, marched and died there for the right to vote.”

Contentious relations with the rest of Tennessee

Memphis has faced dual stories in recent years. Billions of dollars in private investment and federal dollars have flooded into the area in recent years, but many local businesses still express concerns about a lagging regional economy.

Residents who spoke with The Associated Press expressed concerns about safety and public services but bristled at stereotypes about rampant crime. The twin stories are often on display in the river city, where pothole-filled streets run from empty storefronts to ornate mansion-filled neighborhoods and leafy college campuses only blocks away.

The city has long had a contentious relationship with the rest of the state, which voted for Trump in 2024 by a roughly 2-1 margin.

The conservative legislature in Nashville has clashed repeatedly with Memphis and accused its leaders of broad mismanagement. The legislature passed a law blocking many police overhaul efforts in Memphis that were put in place after the death of Tyre Nichols, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of city officers in 2023. It passed another measure seizing control of Memphis’ airport board and those of other cities across the state, and gave the state attorney general, also a Republican, the power to remove Memphis’ elected district attorney.

“The state legislature is trying to take it over,” said U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, the white Democrat who still represents the city in Congress until the new lines kick in after the midterms. “And that’s absurd. It was all partially because it’s a majority Black city.”

Black Tennesseans deprived of fair representation, expert says

Thomas Goodman, a politics and law professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, notes that the new congressional districts may lead to greater friction over who receives attention — and funding — from lawmakers. Memphis residents will soon share districts with Republican towns with starkly different economies, geographies and demographics. Whoever holds those congressional seats will have an incentive to pay attention to those voters and not to Memphis’ population.

“It would not only deprive Black Tennesseans of proper representation,” Goodman said. “These changes also break up the city of Memphis as an entity into multiple districts, thereby removing a dedicated agent in government who knows the people, who understands their concerns and can speak for them and deliver on behalf of their interests and desires.”

Chris Wiley’s house sits in what was, before this week, a quiet street in Midtown Memphis dotted with duplexes, tidy lawns and sports fields. Now his neighborhood is carved apart at the intersection of three congressional districts. That is not surprising, he said, because “Tennessee is all about the dollar” rather than residents.

“Memphis is majority Black, so if you mess with that, what’s the point of even voting in Tennessee?” said Wiley, a 29-year-old sports stadium worker who is Black. “Whatever the congressional numbers, whatever that is, we don’t count on the scale as high, anyway.”

____

Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and AP videojournalist Sophie Bates contributed to this report.

KILN — Mississippi is preparing to launch a new Rare Disease Task Force as families across the state continue to make difficult decisions about where to find care, how far to travel and how to pay for treatment when specialists are not close to home. 

For families dealing with rare diseases, those decisions can mean leaving Mississippi for appointments, missing work, paying for travel or waiting for referrals to specialists trained to diagnose and treat uncommon conditions. 

To offset those burdens, Gov. Tate Reeves approved Senate Bill 2474 on April 8, creating the seven-member task force within the Mississippi Rare Disease Advisory Council. The group is expected to study gaps in care access, insurance coverage, funding and treatment options, then advise state leaders on ways to improve rare disease care in Mississippi. 

For 6-year-old Ava Maie’s family in Kiln, those barriers are already part of daily life. 

Ava Maie was diagnosed in mid-April with retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer that begins in the retina and most often affects young children.  

The diagnosis followed what first appeared to be an eye injury. Ava Maie’s mother, Crysta Bacon, said grease splashed into Ava Maie’s eye in November 2025, leading to urgent care, an eye exam and the discovery of a large mass behind her right eye. 

“As a parent, that’s some hard news to get, especially when it runs in your family and you’ve had family that has died from it, and it’s always spread for them,” Bacon said. “It’s just one of your worries.” 

They now travel from Hancock County to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, for urgent care and appointments since Mississippi’s rare disease care is limited by the small number of specialists trained to diagnose and manage uncommon conditions. 

Dr. Paulo Borjas, a metabolic geneticist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said most rare disease referrals in Mississippi go through the center. 

“We are also aware that many of these primary care providers might be unaware or might not see these conditions very often, so there is an important need for education so they can recognize them and refer patients to the proper specialist,” Borjas said. 

Because rare disease diagnoses often depend on referrals to specialists, Borjas said many patients are forced out of state for care.

“Some of these diseases are so rare and uncommon that there truly is one or two or a handful of people who are actually experts,” said Laura Hendon, a genetic counselor at UMMC. 

For Bacon, getting care also means finding ways to pay for travel, appointments and missed work. 

“Being a single parent, I’ve had to let jobs go because of it,” Bacon said. “Even when she was diagnosed with heart failure. It’s hard to find stuff to work around your job when stuff like this is going on.” 

Borjas said transportation and financial barriers are common for rare disease patients in Mississippi, especially in rural areas. 

Insurance coverage can also determine how quickly patients get evaluations, testing and specialty care, Borjas said. Medicaid has helped some patients access laboratory testing, genetic testing and other evaluations, but not all patients qualify. 

Those are the kinds of barriers the new Rare Disease Task Force is expected to study. 

The task force is designed to bring health care workers, researchers, patients, caregivers and other experts together to examine rare disease care in Mississippi. Under the law, the group will advise policymakers and submit annual reports to state leaders. 

Health care workers said Mississippi also faces broader workforce challenges, including recruiting and retaining specialists trained in rare diseases. 

Hendon said the task force could help connect medical experts, researchers, patients and policymakers who do not always work in the same space. 

For families like Bacon’s, the issue is already urgent. Ava Maie’s care now depends on treatment outside Mississippi and continued community support at home. 

Jackson State University alum Tramell Tillman, an Emmy Award winner, is joining the cast of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”

It is not yet clear what role he will play. The film is set for release on July 31.

The Maryland native got his bachelor’s in mass communications from JSU, where he was involved in the MADDRAMA Performance Troupe, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the Student Government Association and the National Association of Black Journalists.

Tillman spoke to Mississippi Today in 2020 after making his Broadway debut in “The Great Society.”

After graduating from college, he was unhappily working at a nonprofit when a conversation with Mark Henderson, founding director of MADDRAMA and chair of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre at JSU, inspired him to pursue acting as a full-time career.

“For me, it’s been a love affair since I walked away from it, and then jumped back into it, and then walked away from it because I was scared again, or it’s hurtful,” he said back in 2020.

“But, I love what I do, and I love that I’m able to present a story for people, and they’re changed when they leave.

In a news release, Henderson praised Tramell, saying “his achievements inspire current students and validate our program’s ability to prepare artists for the highest levels of performance.”

JSU President Denise Jones Gregory said, “We are incredibly proud to see one of our own step into a role of this scale, continuing to bring his work to a global audience.” 

“From his time with MADDRAMA to this moment on the big screen, his journey demonstrates what is possible when talent is paired with the training he received here and the opportunity to grow as an artist,” the Jackson State president added.

Tillman spoke at JSU’s recent spring 2026 undergraduate commencement ceremony.

Tillman is best known for his role as Seth Milchick on the television drama “Severance.” He earned a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actor for the role in 2025, becoming the first Black and first openly gay actor to win in that category. He also played Captain Jack Bledsoe in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.”

GREENVILLE — Greenville Public School District has until Tuesday to return roughly $4 million in pandemic relief money if leaders can’t account for how it was spent. 

The Mississippi Department of Education says it needs additional documentation to ensure the federal grant was spent the way it was intended. The school district can request an extension as it gathers paperwork.

The district faces a similar demand from the Internal Revenue Service for $500,000. Regulators found that information on taxes withheld from employee salaries was not submitted properly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

District leaders discussed both demand letters, as well as current and future financial challenges, at an April 30 school board meeting. While the district has over $6 million dedicated to diminishing short-term debt, Superintendent llean Richards expressed a desire to keep that money available for disasters.

The demand letters come as district leaders are also addressing a $1.5 million deficit as of April 30, two months before the end of the budget year. Board President Antoinette Williams said she expects tax collections due in May and June to cover that shortfall. 

“We’ve got to stay afloat financially,” Richards said. “I’m presenting this to the board for them to understand why I’m asking you to do certain things.”

“It’s my understanding they asked for that before I came here, but they never received that. So now they’ve given us the second chance,” said Richards, who was appointed superintendent in January 2025. 

Richards said she’s also concerned that the district regularly gets notices about debt the district owes — large amounts.

“They’re not talking about $500, all these millions of dollars,” Richards said. “And we’ve got to get this stuff cleaned up, hopefully by the new year.”

The district faces challenges that could impact future budgets, such as declining enrollment that could decrease its state funding allocation and inflation that has increased the cost of fuel for buses 

Board members also discussed rising costs for school construction projects, which were jump-started with pandemic relief funding. Work on the Greenville Technical Center is over 452 days late and possibly $200,000 more expensive.

Bad weather days and supply shortages for materials are driving up the costs, said Greg Durrell, the architect overseeing those projects. Aging infrastructure at district buildings required more extensive rewiring, he said.

The district struggled to account for its construction-related purchases, according to its 2024 financial audit. Former district leaders struggled to keep track of what the district owed construction teams. Also, the district’s ledger did not always accurately reflect purchases.

“We’ve got to look at the fact that there was poor leadership and some things were not done well, and that is why we’re in the situation that we may be facing,” said Allison Washington, secretary of the school board.

Despite many challenges that lie ahead for the district, school board members, contractors and alumni say they are optimistic. Richards has expressed an interest in solving each issue with meticulous research, they say.

“I’m inheriting this, and I’m trying to justify to you why we need to make a change to stay afloat financially,” Richards said during a recent meeting ahead of a June budget hearing. “I’m not saying that you all haven’t discussed it, but you didn’t discuss it with me.”

Richards was hired in part because of her experience working in other Mississippi Delta school districts in school districts in Leflore, Leland and Coahoma County.

Richards cited poor prior fiscal management and higher-than-expected health insurance costs as some reasons district spending exceeded the budget this school year. 

Staff absences are another problem, she said, with the district spending roughly $136,000 on substitute teachers since August. About 900 staff absences have occurred so far this school year, with roughly 12 at Greenville High School on one day. Richard tied those absences to the district’s academic performance.

“We are not going to be a C or a B or an A if teachers are not here to teach,” Richards said. “On any given day at our high school, they can’t even have class when 10 or 12 people are out there because they don’t have anybody to keep the children, and that’s unacceptable.” 

A budget hearing is scheduled for June 17 at the Manning Curriculum Complex. Board member Drew Newsom said staff cuts and school consolidations could be solutions to balance a future budget.

Correction 5/11/26: This story has been updated with the correct name of the Manning Curriculum Complex.

Gov. Tate Reeves and Child Protection Services Commissioner Andrea Sanders on Monday asked a federal judge to dismiss a decades-long lawsuit against the state over its historically neglectful foster care system. 

If the state is successful in its effort to finally rid itself of the litigation, it would be an end to the Olivia Y. v. Barbour lawsuit that has spanned three governors and multiple CPS commissioners and cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. 

The state’s motion was accompanied by a 35-page affidavit from Sanders, who said CPS has improved services for children through a series of new state laws, increased state funding, more agency staffing and technology upgrades. 

Alex Gibert, the agency’s communications director, declined to comment on the latest motion, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. 

In its motion to dismiss, Mississippi said the most recent update to the settlement agreement from 2018 is outdated. In 2021, plaintiff and defendant lawyers agreed that the state didn’t have the capacity to meet the agreement’s requirements, and U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden paused parts of the requirements to give Mississippi about two years to do so. 

That rebuilding period lasted two years longer than originally expected, until 2025. During that time, foster kids in the state’s custody continued to experience abuse and neglect at high rates, according to independent reports from a court-ordered monitor.

Marcia Lowry, executive director of the legal nonprofit A Better Childhood and the lawsuit’s lead plaintiff lawyer, told Mississippi Today it was a big surprise that CPS filed Monday’s motion. She said she and lawyers for the state have a meeting scheduled in the coming weeks to discuss the settlement agreement, but none of the defendant lawyers had brought up this action. 

“We had no warning about it,” Lowry said. 

She said she and the plaintiffs’ lawyers worked throughout the four-year rebuilding period to negotiate a new settlement agreement, but attorneys for Mississippi didn’t cooperate with them.

“It looks like this is going to be serious litigation,” she said. 

The lawsuit’s 2024 independent court monitoring report found that Mississippi had improved its caseload per CPS worker. But abuse rates for children in the state’s custody continued to be high, and CPS employees often misreported these cases. 

Lowrey said she expects the neutral monitor to publish its 2025 report soon, and that will inform what the plaintiff lawyers do next.

“Increasing the workload is an important thing to do,” she said. “They seem to have done that, good for them. But there are many, many other provisions in the settlement.”

The plaintiffs have not yet responded to the state’s motion, but Lowry said they would in the next few weeks. Afterward, Ozerden will decide whether to conduct a hearing or bench trial on the matter. 

The litigation started in 2004 when six children in foster care sued the state of Mississippi for failing to provide for children in state custody adequately. Olivia Y., a 3-year-old whose identity was protected, was so severely neglected by her foster family that by the time the state intervened, she weighed only 22 pounds.

In 2008, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee approved a plan that tried to address many of the plaintiffs’ concerns. He ordered Mississippi’s Department of Human Services, then the state agency responsible for foster care, to make major reforms to the child welfare system. 

Since then, the state has entered into two agreements with the plaintiffs and has designated foster care responsibilities to its own agency, CPS. But monitoring reports indicate that Mississippi has frequently not met either of the settlements’ terms. 

Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula who leads the Senate Judiciary A Committee, told Mississippi Today that he is not surprised by the motion, and he would be glad if the judge dismissed the lawsuit because the Legislature has worked to improve the state’s foster care system. 

“We’ll see what happens, but it sounds like CPS is being proactive by filing this in court,” Wiggins said. 

Wiggins has worked for years to improve the state’s youth court system and the foster care system. Even if the judge grants the state’s request, Wiggins stressed that the Legislature needs to continue improving the youth court. 

Seven tornadoes, including an EF3, landed in Mississippi’s Pine Belt region between May 6 and May 7, state officials reported on Friday.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in an update on Sunday said 26 people in the state suffered injuries from the storms. Most of those, 22, were in Lincoln County, with injuries in Lamar and Franklin counties, as well.

Over 1,000 people in the state were without power as of Sunday, down from a high of about 20,100, MEMA said. The agency is still assessing the number of properties damaged, and said there are no outstanding resource requests from local officials. Groups including The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Samaritan’s Purse, MS Baptist Relief and Temple Baptist are assisting recovery efforts.

Initially, Gov. Tate Reeves last week said the storm damaged 275 homes and 50 apartment units in Lamar County, as well as over 200 homes in Lincoln County. MEMA said its assessments are ongoing, but on Saturday provided a breakdown of residential damages so far: 18 homes were destroyed, 22 received major damage, 32 received minor damage and 29 were affected. Two businesses were also destroyed, and another six received major damage.

Eight roads in Lincoln County were still unpassable as of Sunday, MEMA added. A donation intake center opened at the Lincoln County School District Building at 702 Saints Trail NW in Brookhaven.

Shortly after the storm hit Mississippi, a Trump administration panel released a report recommending the federal government shift its role in disaster recovery from “leading to supporting” local and state efforts. Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is a vice chair of the FEMA Review Council, which authored the report.

In addition to recommending a more “lean” FEMA that “puts Americans first,” the council also called for accelerating and streamlining disaster assistance funding.