Mississippi’s foster care system continues to endanger children under its care at higher rates than a federal court order permits, according to a new report for a federal lawsuit the state seeks to dismiss.
The Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services met 22 of 107 applicable safety measures related to the agency’s care of foster children throughout most of 2025, a court monitor found. The measures are agreed upon by the department and plaintiff lawyers in the Olivia Y. v. Barbour federal lawsuit, a decades-old case that alleged Mississippi frequently endangers those in the state’s child welfare system.
The report, published on July 29, says that children in the state’s care experienced abuse or neglect at more than twice an acceptable rate, were frequently placed in unlicensed facilities or with relatives before the department finished background checks and often went without required visits from caseworkers.
The department also undercounted how many foster children experienced abuse and didn’t provide enough information for the monitor to determine whether some requirements were being met, according to the report. The monitor did find that caseworkers more frequently had appropriate caseloads and foster children were less often placed in overcrowded homes compared to previous years.
The latest assessment is the first full court monitor report published since 2021, when lawyers for both sides agreed that Mississippi’s child protection department doesn’t “have the capacity to comply” with the settlement.
In an affidavit filed in May, Department Commissioner Andrea Sanders said through policy and organizational efforts, the state has since made positive changes to its foster care system that “have been far reaching, covering the work of the Agency across many areas” like staffing improvements and technology upgrades.
Sanders is the fourth commissioner of Mississippi’s child protection department, an agency created in 2015 as a result of the Olivia Y. lawsuit.
Gov. Tate Reeves and the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, represented by Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office and the national law firm Baker Donelson, are trying to dismiss the lawsuit. Their lawyers said earlier this year that Mississippi has made sufficient progress in keeping children safe.
Reeves and the state’s child welfare department did not respond to emails from Mississippi Today. MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Fitch’s office, said the office does not comment on active litigation and would speak through its court responses.
Chief U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden, who’s overseeing the lawsuit, said lawyers representing Mississippi foster children could wait until the court monitor submitted its 2025 report to file a response to the state’s motion to dismiss. Marcia Lowry, the lead lawyer for the foster children, told Mississippi Today the report contradicts the state’s position on the case.
“It’s one thing to make grand statements,” Lowry said. “‘We’re going to keep all children safe. We’re going to give all children whatever they need.’ But then you have to find out whether you’re really doing that, and they’re not doing it in Mississippi.”
Lawyers for Reeves and Mississippi’s child welfare agency asked Ozerden to require a response from Lowry about their motion to dismiss the case before the report was published, saying it “has no bearing” on their argument. Lowry disagreed in a filing, saying that the report would contain core elements related to the motion.
Underreported abuse and insufficient investigations
Many of the dozens of required safety measures Mississippi’s child welfare agency didn’t meet have direct implications on foster children’s wellbeing.
For example, lawyers for both sides agreed that except in certain circumstances, no foster child under the age of 10 should be placed in group housing — where abuse and mistreatment can be a high risk. But the monitor found 22 children under the age of 10 living in these facilities who shouldn’t have been placed there. Additionally, the department only completed reports on mistreatment in a timely manner about half the time, far below the court’s 90% standard.
Case workers make in-person visits to assess the physical and mental wellbeing of foster children, but the report says they are doing so at much lower rates than the standard. It found that the child welfare agency self-reported its workers attending less than half of their required meetings with children, foster parents and biological families.
The report also highlighted specific examples of alleged abuse from last year that Mississippi’s child welfare department may have mishandled. In one investigation the monitoring team reviewed, three teenage children alleged a range of abuse from their foster parent, from encouraging fights between the children to leaving one child so traumatized that the teenager needed acute care for suicidal thoughts. The state’s investigation found insufficient evidence for the allegations, but the monitor report says the state did not look into several of them.
In another, different children had reported a foster mother of being physically and verbally abusive four times within a year and a half, including restricting how frequently they could use the bathroom. Mississippi’s child protection department said all the allegations were unsubstantiated, but the report says caseworkers documented enough evidence at least once to suggest that professionals should address the concerns. It was unclear to the monitor if the department ever provided that intervention.
Marcia Lowry, founder and executive director of A Better Childhood. Credit: Courtesy of A Better ChildhoodLowry blamed Sanders, who has led the agency since 2020, for many of the issues the report identified. She said the changes Sanders cited in her May affidavit haven’t resulted in tangible results for Mississippi foster children.
“She’s gotten the overall number of workers to be within a reasonable limit, but I don’t know what else she’s been doing,” Lowry said. “Because there are so many issues here that are so important to kids and to their safety.”
Lack of data makes some measures unknown
Data collection and reporting issues made it difficult for the monitor to determine whether the state’s child welfare agency was meeting certain lawsuit safety standards, according to the report. For a dozen measures, the monitor said the Mississippi agency didn’t provide enough information to make a reliable assessment.
The report also says the child protection services department miscalculated some safety measures. The agency identified 25 to 30 incidents of foster child maltreatment during the monitoring period, but the monitor found at least 18 more that should’ve been included. Out of a random sample of mistreatment investigations, the report found that only 82% of the department’s conclusions were backed by available evidence.
While certain measures, including the rates of foster child mistreatment, have improved since the last full report in 2020, the number of measures Mississippi’s child welfare agency met decreased in 2025. Many of the safety measures that have improved still do not meet agreed-upon safety standards.
Lowry said she plans to incorporate this report into her team’s response to Mississippi’s motion to dismiss the Olivia Y. lawsuit, which it has to file by late August. Whether the lack of data or actual violations led to Mississippi not meeting the agreed-upon safety measures, she said, the number of unfulfilled requirements is unacceptable.
“That’s ridiculous,” she said. “The differences are not one or two kids. The differences are significant.”
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