Mississippi asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss a decades-long lawsuit alleging neglect in the state’s foster care system, Gov. Tate Reeves and Child Protective Services Commissioner Andrea Sanders said in court filings.
The state’s motion was accompanied by a 35-page affidavit from Sanders in which she said CPS has improved services for children through new state laws, increased funding, more agency staff and technology upgrades, the filing shows. Alex Gibert, the agency’s communications director, declined to comment on the motion, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesman said.
Mississippi’s motion says the most recent settlement update from 2018 is outdated. Court filings show that in 2021 plaintiff and defendant lawyers agreed the state lacked the capacity to meet the agreement’s requirements, and U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden paused parts of the obligations to give Mississippi about two years to comply. Independent reports from a court-ordered monitor found that children in state custody continued to experience high rates of abuse and neglect during the rebuilding period.
Marcia Lowry, executive director of the legal nonprofit A Better Childhood and the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer, told Mississippi Today she was surprised by the motion. She said plaintiffs and state lawyers have a meeting scheduled in the coming weeks but that state attorneys had not warned them about the filing. “We had no warning about it,” Lowry said. She said plaintiffs will respond to the state’s motion in the next few weeks and expected the neutral monitor’s 2025 report to influence their next steps.
Court records show the litigation began in 2004 when six children in foster care sued the state, citing inadequate care; one child identified in court documents as Olivia Y. was a 3-year-old who weighed 22 pounds when the state intervened. In 2008, U.S. District Judge Tom Lee approved a plan requiring major reforms to the child welfare system. The state later signed two agreements with the plaintiffs and shifted foster care responsibilities to CPS, but monitoring reports have frequently found the terms unmet, filings and reports show. State Sen. Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, told Mississippi Today he was not surprised by the motion and said he would welcome a dismissal while urging continued legislative work on the youth court and foster care systems.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
