http://www.childrensrights.org Children's Rights is a national watchdog organization advocating on behalf of abused and neglected children in the U.S. Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:45:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en ChildrensRightsMississippioliviaYVBarbourhttp://feedburner.google.com JACKSON, MISS. – Citing the well-documented and consistent failure of Mississippi’s Division of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) to improve its deeply dysfunctional foster care system as required by the settlement of a federal class action lawsuit, the national advocacy group Children’s Rights today filed a motion for contempt calling ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/mississippi-foster-children-continue-to-be-harmed-advocates-ask-court-to-act/ JACKSON, MS — Nearly three years into a massive court-ordered effort to reform the failing Mississippi child welfare system, a new report by an independent monitor shows that the Mississippi Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) has made little to no progress in improving its care and treatment of ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/mississippi-still-unable-to-track-foster-kids-safety-nearly-three-years-into-reform-effort/ JACKSON, MS — The Mississippi Department of Family and Children’s Services ended the first period of a massive court-ordered effort to reform its child welfare system having reached few of the required first-year benchmarks for improvement, according to a new report issued late Friday by a court-appointed monitor — but ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/after-slow-start-court-ordered-child-welfare-reforms-underway-in-mississippi/ NEW YORK, NY — A settlement agreement mandating top-to-bottom reform of Mississippi’s long-failing child welfare system has been reached in the federal class action brought against the state by the national advocacy group Children’s Rights and a team of attorneys from Mississippi and across the country. The settlement, submitted ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/mississippi-settles-lawsuit-agrees-to-comprehensive-reform-of-child-welfare-system/ Counsel for the approximately 3,500 foster children in Mississippi will present a settlement agreement for approval today at a hearing before Federal District Court Judge Tom S. Lee, in the child welfare reform lawsuit known as Olivia Y. v. Barbour. Faced with a liability trial scheduled for this month, ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/scores-of-mississippians-report-urgent-need-for-foster-care-overhaul/ Children’s Rights, a national advocacy organization, and local Mississippi counsel, along with lawyers for the state of Mississippi, are submitting today for preliminary court approval a settlement agreement reached to reform the state’s child welfare system and resolve a federal class action lawsuit, which was scheduled for trial beginning May ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/mississippi-does-not-contest-foster-care-failures-settles-federal-class-action-with-childrens-rights/ JACKSON, MS — A federal court in Mississippi ruled today that Children’s Rights, a national children’s advocacy watchdog group, can proceed to trial against the state of Mississippi on behalf of the approximately 3,500 abused and neglected children in foster care who have sued the state for violations of ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/childrens-rights-wins-right-to-trial-on-behalf-of-mississippis-foster-children/ Children’s Rights and Mississippi co-counsel filed for summary judgment this week on behalf of plaintiff children in the case of Olivia Y. v. Barbour, asserting that the facts admitted to by the state demonstrate that Mississippi has unconstitutionally failed to protect children that depend on the state for their basic ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/immediate-judgment-called-for-in-mississippi-foster-care-reform-lawsuit/ The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) has issued a report for Mississippi that finds the state’s Child Welfare program has been chronically starved of resources. Major findings of this review of the Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS) include: “DFCS is under-staffed ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/states-own-study-blasts-mississippi-child-welfare/ A Mississippi Department of Human Services (DHS) document obtained as part of the ongoing child welfare reform lawsuit, Olivia Y. v. Barbour, identifies 168 children in emergency shelters statewide who, as of December 2004, had been left there an average of 124 days (over 4 months) each during their current ... http://www.childrensrights.org/news-events/press/understaffed-mississippi-department-of-human-services-abandons-children-in-emergency-shelters-for-over-a-year/