“I would say that there is definitely a link between the opioid epidemic and children entering foster care,” said Supreme Court Justice Dawn Beam. Before Beam took her seat on the Supreme Court, she worked in chancery court and saw numerous foster care cases.
The severity of the impact of opioids on children entering the foster care system is unknown.
“In government, data drives things,” said Beam. “So we need to do a better job tracking that data so we can really have some real numbers.”
Federal assistance with fighting the opioid epidemic as it relates to children will continue to be harder to obtain until the right data is collected.
“Just sitting there, and watching parent after parent come in, I knew it was a problem,” said Beam. “So many of our cases. It wasn’t just opioids… but it’s no longer just marijuana.”
Beam said often times, marijuana use isn’t even part of the threshold questioning anymore–the focus has shifted to harder drugs like opioids.
With a lack of data, it’s hard to claim officially that children in Mississippi are entering foster care because of a parent’s opioid addiction– despite what is seen when a child is removed from the home.
“Where the parent cannot function because they’re addicted to Lortab or some other kind of opioid,” said Beam. “You can’t leave a child in a house like that because it is just dangerous.”
While Mississippi is striving to lead the fight against opioid abuse, the state is failing at finding and researching vital connections to children entering foster care and opioid abuse.
‘On a nationwide level, they’ve connected the dots to opioid abuse and other drug use to children entering foster care,” said Beam. “And they’re seeing an increase all over the country. In Mississippi, we don’t the best job of keeping our records,” said Beam.
The Justice added that it is because of how investigations are started and logged throughout the state.
“When someone calls the hotline and says this mother is using drugs and is unable to take care of her kids, that goes down as a drug case,” said Beam. “But when they say these children are in the street and mom is sleeping all day that goes down as a neglect case.”
Beam added it isn’t until the neglect case is started that drugs are found. Still, the case remains flagged as a neglect case. Solid statistics that show whether or not a child is placed into foster care because of opioid abuse does not exist in the state.
Beam argued that a lack of data does not necessarily mean that the problem doesn’t exist.
“If you spend any time in youth court,” said Beam. “You see how this is getting to our kids.”
News Mississippi reached out to the Department of Child Protection Services, and they were unable to provide data.
CPS referred News Mississippi to Canopy Children’s Solutions, and they were unable to provide the data as well.
