There have been numerous stories about State and Federal lawsuits, sheriffs’ concerned about children and the role of Child Protection Services in Mississippi.
The shortest version is as follows (these are my personal words/opinion…)
All of Youth Court is confidential, by law. An Order is required in many instances for details to be disclosed to others involved and almost all disclosures were subject to a specific statute, MCA 43-21-261. (There are a few exceptions for emergencies, mandatory reporting and the like). However, most disclosures had to either be ordered or allowed, by the language of 261.
On July 1, 2026, MCA 43-21-261 was repealed. That means it no longer existed and, legally, as if it never did. This repeal was passed by the legislature over 2 years ago with a deadline of July 1 of this year. The legislature intended to address it in a later session and attempted to this session with 11 different proposals addressing Youth Court, but all died without any new provisions being passed.
The problem was that it left Youth Court Judges, CPS, and other entities without a means to legally disclose the information it had about children, with a few exceptions for mandatory reports.
The Office of the State Public Defender sought to have this matter addressed in Federal Court and brought in the Administrative Office of the Courts. But, all the essential players were not named in the Federal action…
Youth Court Judges sought to fix it by ordering blanket/standing Orders providing for some disclosures, but every Order was different. They did not cut and paste 261, instead picking out the parts that particular Youth Court wanted and deleting parts they did not want. This, essentially, had the Youth Court judges legislating what the law is…
CPS sought relief of the Mississippi Supreme Court, knowing it would be impossible to comply with 82 different Orders from 82 counties, and that it needed legal means to disclose its findings to help protect children.
Don’t fret, however. The problems has been fixed, first by an Order of the MS Supreme Court amending the Rules of Youth Court procedure and later by an extraordinary session of the Mississippi Legislature.
Was it messy? Yes. Scary/stressful? Very. Over? Yes, for now, but not forever. The new law repeals in 2029….
However, the system is working in the means it was supposed to with an Executive branch (CPS) doing its part, the Judicial branch (MS Supreme Court) doing its part and the Legislative branch (MS Legislature) addressing all of these concerns.
SENATE BILL NO. 2001
AN ACT TO ENACT THE MISSISSIPPI YOUTH COURT REFORM ACT OF 2026 (you can read the new law(s) here.)
Matthew Thompson is Child Welfare attorney in Mississippi and supported Youth Court reform.
