Court Monitor Finds Decline In Mississippi Progress On Child Welfare Improvements Required By Olivia Y Settlement

The latest report from the court monitor’s overseeing Mississippi's child welfare system indicates that the state’s performance declined on meeting the 19 benchmark standards for the Olivia Y settlement agreement. Performance declined in all but one of 13 regions of the state, and none of the regions even met half the 19 standards. A key problem affecting performance was a 10% increase in the number of children in foster care between July 2014, when 4,500 children were in care, and July 2015, when about 5,000 were in care. This increase stressed the system due to . . .