Child Education Support in Mississippi

More than a third of Mississippi children are stranded in poverty — higher than during the Great Recession.

“Recovery from the recession is extremely hard for families that were on the verge of economic collapse before

the recession,. “Children in poverty live in families whose incomes are below some $22,000 a year for a family of four,

with those in extreme poverty with incomes at half of that in today’s world.”. Mississippi’s foster care system,

like those in other states, is designed to protect children who have been removed from their homes

by a court order after a social worker’s investigation into the conditions there. Ideally, children are

placed with licensed foster families, who receive between $684.90 and $1,546.50 per month per child,

depending on the age and needs of the child. But, according to data provided by the state agency,

Mississippi had just 1,486 licensed foster homes for 5,142 children in its custody as of December.

This means that many children are placed with relatives, few of them licensed and many of them with

problems similar to those in the homes the children were removed from.

The suit in 2004 claimed that the system was underfunded and chaotic with abuses not being properly

investigated and children often placed in dangerous homes.Parents need better jobs, and their children

“need access to quality education systems so they can escape their parents’ reliance on low-wage, low-benefit jobs

when they do exist,” she said. “Families need help with child care so they can stay at work and food assistance

when their earnings won’t allow them enough to feed their children.”

Many children “are being locked out of opportunities to thrive, exposed and hurt by all the negative consequences

of being poor — hunger, under-education, poor health and mental health, poor housing. Time has come to stood up and lets

begin a change.