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The state admitted that it has not met court-order requirements in a 7-year-old lawsuit, Olivia Y v. Bryant, intended to change the state's foster care system. Gov. Bryant has agreed to hire an Executive Director of the Department of Family and Children's Services, which will soon become a cabinet-level position. Additionally, a group will be hired to consult with the state over the next four months and recommend changes necessary to protect Mississippi children going forward. Bryant has also agreed to call a special session of the legislature if the recommendations require legislative changes.

The press release from http://www.abetterchildhood.org/">A Better Childhood, an advocacy organization that works on behalf of abused and neglected children, has been re-printed below in full:

Facing an evidentiary hearing for contempt scheduled to begin in federal court on August 10, the state has conceded that it has not met court-ordered requirements in the 7-year-old lawsuit, Olivia Y v. Bryant, intended to reform the state’s foster care system.

In an Agreed Order submitted to Judge Tom Lee on July 21, the state agreed with factual charges made against it in reports submitted by the court-appointed monitor. In the Order, the parties also agreed on steps that will determine whether the plaintiffs will continue to seek a receivership, this time based on specific recommendations from a neutral consulting group, or whether the state can and will make the changes necessary to finally reform the Mississippi foster care system.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who are all of the children in foster care in the state, had asked the court to find the state in contempt of the court orders for reform, and to appoint a receiver to take over the administration of the state’s foster care system. The state’s admission of non-compliance resolves the first part of the contempt motion. The order submitted to the court today directs the employment of an expert group to make recommendations to achieve compliance, and leaves open the question whether a receiver will be required to administer the state’s foster care system.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004, asserting widespread violations of children’s constitutional rights in the foster care system. Although the case was settled in 2008, the state has never been in compliance with the terms of the settlement.

This is the second contempt motion filed in the case. After the first motion, a new settlement agreement was approved by the Court, but failed to produce necessary results.

“It was clear to us, given the state’s history in implementing these court orders, that the state simply lacks the capacity or the will to run a child welfare system that protects the children of Mississippi,” said Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of A Better Childhood, a national advocacy organization that works on behalf of abused and neglected children. “We have asked the federal court to appoint a receiver to take over the system. However, we think the appointment of a well-qualified expert group to make specific recommendations is an important step forward, and we welcome the governor’s recognition of the depth of the problems.”

The governor has agreed to hire an executive director of the Department of Family and Children’s Services, waive state salary requirements for the director and for members of a senior management team. The state has also agreed to hire a national child welfare consulting group, the Public Catalyst Group, to conduct an organizational analysis of the state’s foster care system and recommend whether it should be a free-standing agency, how it should be structured and what the state needs to do to remedy all of its violations of the court-ordered reform plan. The expert group will also recommend qualified applicants for the head of the new agency, from which the governor will select the agency’s new director.

The governor has also agreed to call a special session of the legislature, if necessary, to support the reorganization of the child welfare system and provide additional appropriations to act on the expert group’s recommendations, if the state agrees to adopt them.

The expert group will complete its work in four months, and after that time the state will decide whether to accept its recommendations and negotiate an additional court order to implement the recommendations with the plaintiffs. If the state fails to accept the expert group’s recommendations, the plaintiff children will immediately ask the court to reinstate the hearing on the contempt motion. In that case, with the state already having admitted to non-compliance, plaintiffs will ask the Court to appoint a receiver to implement the changes that the expert group will have recommended.

Plaintiffs are also represented by Wayne Drinkwater and Michael Bentley, of the Jackson, Mississippi, office of the law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, and by Christian Carbone and Dan Friedman, of the law firm of Loeb and Loeb.

“We filed the contempt motion reluctantly,” Drinkwater said, “but we believe that without prompt and significant action by the court, the welfare of the children in Mississippi’s child welfare system is in serious jeopardy.”