JACKSON, Miss.- The Mississippi Parent Representation Committee released a statement announcing a June 3 meeting at 10 a.m. to discuss funding for programs that would assist low income parents with legal representation when facing the possibility of having their children taken away.
The group is working to create a program to provide legal representation to families who could possibility loose their children after allegations of abuse or neglect. They are trying to secure funding to make this program free of cost to those parents.
The pilot programs are already operating in Youth Courts in Adams, Forrest, Hancock, Harrison, and Rankin Counties. Currently they have not been able to secure additional funding for more projects. The existing programs are funded by Casey Family Programs and a federal grant overseen by the Administrative Office of Courts.
They are hoping to expand their pilot programs into DeSoto and Lafayette counties.
The Committee will also discuss laws passed in the previous legislative session and will also finalize standards that have been in the works for two years that relate to the practice for attorneys representing parents in child protection and termination of parental right proceedings.
The standards of practice were drafted by The Mississippi Judicial College, University of Mississippi School of Law and Mississippi College School of Law along with representatives from the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law and the University of South Carolina School of Law Children’s Law Center.
The committee will meet June 3 at 10 a.m. in the office of the Attorney General in room 1307 of the Walter Sillers Building at 550 High Street in Jackson.
