State of Mississippi Judiciary

Court Improvement

Each year, the state of Mississippi participates in the Court Improvement Program and the attached federal grant. The highest court of each State and territory participating in the Court Improvement Program (CIP) receives a grant from the Children's Bureau to complete a detailed self-assessment and develop and implement recommendations to enhance the court's role in achieving stable, permanent homes for children in foster care. Strategies include, for example, improving timeliness and quality of hearings, reducing attorney and judicial caseloads, enhancing quality of legal representation, and using computer technology and management information systems.

• Continuing work by the Mississippi Commission on Children's Justice;
• Efforts to provide quality legal representation by expanding the number of counties offering parent representation;
• Emphasizing timeliness and permanency safely expedited for child welfare cases;
• Data-Informed Processes
• Indian Child Welfare Act training and collaboration between the Mississippi Judiciary, the tribal courts of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services;
• Judicial Training.

Children and Family Resource Center, Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic, Fostering Results, & National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues (2017) Provides data and resources for dependency courts and child welfare agencies to use to make informed decisions, manage operations, monitor performance, and make systemic changes to improve outcomes for children and families. More information on this resource is available here.