M. Alfonso - July 11, 2025 - Mississippi Code Annotated Section 43-15-17

550 HIGH STREET • SUITE 1200 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39201 POST OFFICE BOX 220 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39205 TELEPHONE (601) 359-3680 July 11, 2025 The Honorable Margaret Alfonso Chancery Court Judge, Eighth District Post Office Box 1446 Gulfport, Mississippi 39502 Re: Mississippi Code Annotated Section 43-15-17 Dear Chancellor Alfonso: The Office of the Attorney General has received your request for an official opinion. Background According to your request, you preside over guardianship clinics, which are held to assist indigent relatives obtain custody orders for children in their care. These orders are necessary to enroll a child in school or obtain medical treatment for a child. Frequently, the only source of income for relatives is Social Security. Questions Presented 1. Would supportive services payments be available to indigent relatives with a child in their care if the child has not been in Child Protection Services (“CPS”) custody and has not been placed with the relative by Youth Court or CPS? 2. Are supportive services payments only available if a child has been in CPS custody, the placement is granted durable legal custody, and the relative has complied with foster care training requirements? Brief Response 1. Supportive services payments, as provided for in Mississippi Code Annotated Section 43-15- 17, are not available to indigent relatives with a child in their care if the child has not been placed with the relative by CPS. The Honorable Margaret Alfonso July 11, 2025 Page 2 550 HIGH STREET • SUITE 1200 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39201 POST OFFICE BOX 220 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39205 TELEPHONE (601) 359-3680 2. Please see response to question one. To receive supportive services payments from CPS, a child must be placed in the individual’s home by CPS, and the individual accepting the placement must complete foster care training requirements. Applicable Law and Discussion Section 43-15-17 addresses authorized supportive services payments and provides in part: (1) The Department of Child Protection Services is authorized to make such payments as may be appropriate for supportive services to facilitate either the return of children to their natural parents or their adoption, depending upon and contingent upon the availability of the Department of Child Protection Services securing or having sufficient funds to render this supportive service. . . . (2) For those children placed in foster care by Child Protection Services, the department shall make monthly payments for the support of these children’s room and board, clothing, allowance and personal needs. . . . [I]n order for foster parents to receive the monthly payments authorized under this subsection (2), the Department of Child Protection Services shall require foster care placements to be licensed as foster care homes and shall require prospective foster parents to satisfactorily complete an appropriate training program that emphasizes the goal of the foster care program to provide stable foster placement until a permanency outcome is achieved. (3) For a child placed by the Department of Child Protection Services in the care of any adult related by blood, marriage, or adoption within the third degree or who makes up the family support system of the child, including adults related beyond the third degrees, godparents, friends of the family, or other adults who have a strong familial bond with the child, unless a child is placed in the care of a relative who is exempt from foster care training requirements, the department shall make monthly payments to defray the relative’s expense of furnishing room and board. . . . The department may continue to make those payments to the relative after the department relinquishes legal custody of the child to the relative if the relative has complied with foster care training requirements. Any such payments for relative care shall be subject to specific appropriation therefor by the Legislature. (emphasis added).1 You ask if supportive services payments would be available to indigent relatives with a child in their care if the child has not been in CPS custody and has not been placed with the relative by Youth Court or CPS. Section 43-15-17(1) provides CPS with general authorization to make payments as “appropriate for supportive services to facilitate either the return of children to their natural parents or their adoption.” Subsections (2) and (3) break down the duties of CPS and the 1 Section 43-15-17 was amended by House Bill No. 1387 of the 2025 Regular Legislative Session. These amendments became effective July 1, 2025. The Honorable Margaret Alfonso July 11, 2025 Page 3 550 HIGH STREET • SUITE 1200 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39201 POST OFFICE BOX 220 • JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 39205 TELEPHONE (601) 359-3680 requirements for those individuals receiving supportive services payments when taking in a child through foster or kinship care. As shown, both Subsections (2) (foster care) and (3) (kinship care) limit the application of such payments to CPS placements. Accordingly, it is the opinion of this office that supportive services payments as provided for in Section 43-15-17 are not available to indigent relatives with a child in their care if the child has not been placed with the relative by CPS. You next ask if supportive services payments are only available if a child has been in CPS custody, the placement is granted durable legal custody, and the relative has complied with foster care training requirements. As stated supra, to receive supportive services payments from CPS, a child must be placed in an individual’s home by CPS. Miss. Code Ann. § 43-15-17(2)-(3). Further, the individual accepting the placement must complete foster care training requirements. Miss. Code Ann. § 43-15-17(2). CPS is not required to make supportive services payments to relatives under Section 43-15-17(3) when “a child is placed in the care of a relative who is exempt from foster care training requirements.”2 Finally, Section 43-15-17(3) provides that relatives may receive supportive services payments both before and “after the department relinquishes legal custody of the child to the relative if the relative has complied with foster care training requirements.” If this office may be of any further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, LYNN FITCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL By: /s/ Maggie Kate Bobo Maggie Kate Bobo Special Assistant Attorney General 2 See Miss. Code Ann. § 43-15-13 (6)(b)(i) (“The court may waive foster care training for an appropriate relative placement.”) and (6)(b)(ii) (“A relative exempted from foster care training is not eligible for board payments, foster care payments, kinship care payments, therapeutic care payments, or any other monthly payments from the department to assist in the care of the child.”).