- Attorney General Lynn Fitch was among advocates speaking at a recent state Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families meeting.
Providing assistance to families in need is a necessary service that should be expanded in the state of Mississippi, advocates told lawmakers recently.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Chief Executive Officer of Child Advocacy Centers for Mississippi Karla Steckler Tye shared that message with the state Senate Study Group on Women, Children and Families.
Helping mothers receive child support, providing avenues for those in crisis
Attorney General Fitch told the Senate Study Group how her office’s Empowerment Project and Mississippi Access to Maternal Assistance (MAMA) website are helping women, children and families find resources.
Fitch said there are five pillars to the Empowerment Project: making quality childcare affordable and accessible, promoting workplace flexibility, improving the state’s child support enforcement, fixing the broken foster care and adoption systems, and providing women with opportunities to upscale, educate and gain access to resources.
The MAMA website, which has been in operation for a year, provides a list of those resources to help fill gaps in access to food, clothing, shelter, infant essentials and more.
Fitch also touted the passage of the state’s Safe Haven Law during the 2023 legislative session under HB 1318 that allowed new mothers who may be in crisis to safely surrender their newborn. She said there are now four baby boxes in Mississippi, with more ready to come online soon.
HB 1318 allows a parent to surrender a child to the state who is 45 days old or younger without repercussions. The baby boxes provide a safe place to surrender a child anonymously. Typically installed on the exterior of a public building that is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the boxes are equipped with alarms to notify the staff inside that a baby has been surrendered.
Attorney General Fitch also thanked the Legislature for passing a law that allows the state to collect on a person’s winnings at a casino if they owe back child support. Previous legislation already allowed for the same collection of applicable lottery winnings. She said on average, four out of five custodial parents are women and 90 percent of parents ordered to pay child support are men.
“The bottom line is, for far too long women have borne the financial obligation of their children,” Fitch said.
Of the 6 million parents in the state that are owed child support, not even half have received full payment, Fitch added.
“So, those mothers, primarily, did not receive full payment for their children from the fathers, from the non-custodian. That in itself is a very heavy lift,” Fitch elaborated. “To put it in reality, that’s the difference from a child who might have a good dinner at night or a child that goes to bed hungry.”
The Attorney General called on legislators to find a way to prevent “gaming of the system” used by parents who regularly switch jobs and avoid paying child support.
Another hurdle for many families in the state is the high cost of childcare, a necessary expense Fitch said has become alarming.
“Right now, in the state of Mississippi, it costs more to put a toddler and an infant into day care for a year than it does to put a student for one year in one of our fine colleges and universities,” Fitch described. “That is a true impediment for a woman who has to work to support her family.”
Fitch said Mississippi families making the state’s median family income will need to devote 12 percent to provide care for an infant child.
One way she believes Mississippi can aid in ensuring families can afford childcare is by allowing for the expungement of non-violent misdemeanor crimes. Fitch said that when a person has to check that box on a job application, it makes it harder for them to find a job, and subsequently pay child support.
Fitch also asked members of the Senate Study Group to consider providing state employees with maternity leave to make employment within her office more competitive with the private sector. When State Senator Nicole Boyd (R) asked if the lack of that benefit is hindering Fitch’s recruitment efforts, the Attorney General said it is an impediment for young mothers considering public service.
Child Advocacy Centers connecting abused children to justice, recovery
Across Mississippi, Children’s Advocacy Centers tie services together that can help an abused child find justice while providing pathways to various assistance on their road to recovery.
Chief Executive Officer Karla Steckler Tye described to the Senate Study Group how the centers work with law enforcement, child protective services, medical professionals and court personnel to streamline the process of abuse investigations and then treatment.
By streamlining the process to bring the agencies together, the child only has to tell their story once. Tye said before her organization became involved, it was a bit different.
“We had kids that were being interviewed dozens of times, sometimes upwards of 30 different times, about something that might be the most horrific thing that’s happened to them in their lives,” Tye stated. “So, our Child Advocacy Centers and multidisciplinary teams were initially created by our partner agencies who saw the need for us to improve the system.”
Forensic interviews conducted at the centers are performed by specially trained personnel. Tye said law enforcement officers and representatives from Child Protective Services are in attendance on the day of the interview and are able to provide questions to the forensic interviewer who asks them in a non-leading manner.
Since the interviews are conducted by trained personnel, she said they hold up in court.
The centers continue to provide assistance after the interview in the form of case coordination, court date accompaniment, and connecting the child to professionals such as mental health services, among others.
Last year, the centers saw 8,271 children who were victims of felony level child abuse. Of that number:
- 52 percent were for sexual abuse
- 24 percent were for physical abuse
- 7 percent of the cases were for neglect
- A combined 16 percent of the cases included incidents of drug endangerment, witnessing a violent act, child fatality or child sexual abuse material, also known as child porn
- 1 percent of the cases were for human trafficking
“So, we’re talking about the children who have experienced some of the worst imaginable abuse,” Tye described. “These are some of the toughest cases that come through the doors of child protective services.”
During the same period, the centers conducted 4,107 interviews, provided specialized mental health services to 3,797 children, helped with 25,843 case reviews/coordination with CPS, law enforcement and other agencies to ensure services were not duplicated. The centers also provided emotional support or safety services to 6,389 children.
Tye added that those services are a cost saving to their respective communities.
“That may not sound like a lot in an individual case but last year that saved Mississippi nearly $13 million, so it is considerably more costly to the state when a Child Advocacy Center does not exist,” Tye said.
There are 14 such centers spread throughout Mississippi that serve a total of 55 counties, leaving 27 counties without access to n Child Advocacy Center. When Senator Boyd asked about the lack of centers in those counties and how the investigations are handled, Tye said those areas typically rely on law enforcement officers, saying that they are not always trained in the area of forensic interviewing to conduct the initial interviews with the victim.
Tye thanked the Senate Study Group for the additional appropriation of $2 million in last year’s legislative session. She said the funds were used to establish additional centers in Lee and Jones counties.
However, due to the effects of inflation on their operations, Tye asked lawmakers to consider an additional $1 million in funding to help the centers keep their doors open and close gaps in the existing service areas.
She added that federal funding for the centers has been on decline, down 42 percent from a few years ago. Tye is anticipating another 5 percent cut this year. That drop in funding, Tye said, led to cuts in mental health professionals at the centers which she would like to fill.
