Page 62 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2024

story by
Andrea Sanders
photo courtesy of
Children’s Advocacy Centers of Mississippi
Protecting Children
I have been the commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, or MDCPS, for a little over three years, and a lifelong resident of the state of Mississippi. I often refer to my job as the best and worst job I have ever had. Our work is messy, dangerous, and traumatic. We are often called at any time of the day or night into private space, a family space that we all hold sacred and dear in Mississippi.
Our mission is to protect children and strengthen families. One of the most reliable ways to do that is to prevent
child abuse before it happens by providing services and support to vulnerable families. Unfortunately, we cannot and should not go into homes without cause, and we do not have round-the-clock X-ray vision. Bad things happen behind closed doors, but we also know that no family
is perfect, and certainly not even mine. So, how do we 62 | April 2024
determine which families need support or intervention and which children need protection in their own homes? It is complicated.
In 2023, MDCPS received close to 34,000 reports of child abuse and neglect. Approximately 26,000 required an investigation by MDCPS, and based on the findings in the investigation, the presiding youth court judge substantiated almost 7,000 of the allegations. That means that the court found that, more likely than not, the child or children experienced some form of abuse or neglect.
Like most of the nation, approximately 77 percent of those cases are due to neglect and can often be traced back to conditions related to poverty, substance abuse, housing insecurity, or most likely all three. A large percentage of
our time is necessarily occupied by trying to address neglect that is not always intentional. In the majority of cases, it is
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