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MississippiSB 20012026 1st Extraordinary SessionSenateWALLET

The Mississippi Youth Court Reform Act of 2026; enact.

Sponsored By: Brice Wiggins (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Judiciary BJudiciary, Division A

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

45 provisions identified: 22 benefits, 11 costs, 12 mixed.

Limits on moving children into youth court

Circuit judges can move a child's case to youth court when that serves the child's best interests and justice. Transfer must happen before jeopardy attaches, the legal point when protection against double jeopardy begins. Transfer is barred after a prior conviction following transfer for adult trial, or a conviction within original circuit-court jurisdiction. Children age 15 or older cannot transfer firearm-use or firearm-possession cases involving conduct that would be an adult felony. A child convicted in circuit court without a transfer receives an adult sentence.

Courts must inspect private child placements

Beginning July 1, 2027, youth courts must inspect private institutions or agencies before placing a child in their custody. The court itself, rather than a designee, must check the physical facilities for a reasonable standard of health and safety.

Fairer access to youth diversion programs

Intake officers cannot deny diversion because a youth cannot pay, has a lawyer, or has current or past Human Services involvement. The law also bars denial based on specified personal traits or disability, mental-health, behavioral-health, or capacity symptoms. The symptom exception applies only when the youth cannot understand or take part in diversion. The Division of Youth Services must align diversion with evidence-based practices and train risk-screening users. Programs may use validated, approved assessments to guide supervision and services, and intake officers may recommend treatment and service providers.

Lawyers for children in abuse cases

Children in abuse or neglect cases are parties and must have lawyers at every stage; courts appoint lawyers when needed. These appointed lawyers need child-protection and juvenile-justice training approved or provided by the Mississippi Judicial College. Lawyers appointed to covered youth-court cases also need annual training approved by the state public defender and continuing legal education commission. Lawyers with 10 or fewer youth-court appointments yearly are exempt from that annual requirement. Nonexempt lawyers who miss annual training or required training within six months of appointment are disqualified and replaced.

More child cases reach youth court

Youth court may take eligible child cases from criminal court, including traffic, hunting, fishing, implied-consent, and liquor-law cases. Another court that finds a child belongs in youth court must dismiss its proceeding without blocking a later case. It must send the papers to youth court and erase permanent record entries. These rules exclude transferred cases and children previously transferred to circuit court for adult trial and convicted.

More legal help for court families

Youth court must appoint lawyers for custodial parents or guardians who cannot afford counsel in abuse, neglect, or parental-rights termination cases. Courts may appoint counsel for noncustodial parents who cannot afford it and show a significant caregiving relationship. At parental-rights termination hearings, courts must appoint counsel for parents who cannot afford it and request a lawyer. A child's guardian ad litem must report a conflict of interest. The court keeps that guardian for the child's best interests and appoints a separate lawyer to present the child's wishes.

Separate defense lawyers for children

Children in delinquency cases must have a defense lawyer separate from any guardian ad litem protecting their best interests. The court appoints a lawyer for a child who qualifies as indigent. Representation covers detention, hearings deciding the case and outcome, revocation, and proceedings after disposition.

Shorter detention limits for children

Children under 12 cannot receive secure detention as a court disposition. Detention dispositions cannot exceed 90 days. Detention lasting more than 45 days requires an administrative review by day 45. A 90-day placement must be the least restrictive appropriate option and consider distance from family and identified rehabilitation needs.

Youth courts can pause misdemeanor sentences

Within the appeal period, county youth court may pause a child's misdemeanor sentence from another court and order release on terms. This option excludes children previously transferred to circuit court for adult trial and convicted. For cases within its exclusive original authority, youth court may set aside judgments, clear records, and refund fines and costs. Criminal courts must report a child's misdemeanor conviction and sentence to youth court before incarceration begins. Beginning July 1, 2027, that notice goes to the judge, not a designee.

Youth screening statements gain legal protection

Youth risk screening can guide only diversion decisions. Screening tools and information from screening or assessment, including admissions and confessions, cannot be used against the child at adjudication. That material also cannot be subpoenaed or used in another proceeding or for another purpose.

School attendance failures trigger parent enforcement

Once an attendance officer exhausts efforts to secure a school-age child's enrollment or attendance, the officer must seek enforcement. The officer must ask the youth court prosecutor to file a petition and ask law enforcement to pursue remedies against the parent. Youth court is the only court for enforcing the compulsory school attendance law for that child.

Home supervision gives youths help and duties

The law creates 75 intensive-supervision slots per county; the Department of Human Services must seek placement bids and set supervision rules. Youths ordered into intensive home-based supervision receive a full assessment of their strengths and needs. A team develops an individual treatment plan, involving family when possible. Each youth must pay $10 toward alcohol and drug testing costs. Youths must attend school or alternative school, or work toward a High School Equivalency Diploma.

Parent lawyer funding and payment rules

The law creates the Juvenile Court Representation Fund using appointed-lawyer fees and expenses collected from parents or custodians. Courts may order reasonable payments only after reviewing a verified financial affidavit and finding an ability to pay. The Administrative Office of Courts may use the fund for low-income parents' or custodians' lawyers in trial-level dependency and neglect cases. If the fund is short and state funds are exhausted, courts may order counties to cover reasonable trial-level costs. County payments continue until state funding is provided.

Written safeguards for child removal cases

Emergency removal requests must explain the facts in writing and be filed within 48 hours after removal. A covered oral order becomes invalid unless written within 48 hours, but actions taken under it carry no liability. Abuse or neglect petitions seeking to skip reasonable efforts to keep a child home must say so and cite the law. The child protection department must be a party at every stage of cases involving children in its custody. It may hire lawyers or use Attorney General representation when it has or may receive custody.

Courts can clear children's youth records

Youth courts can seal or unseal a child's records on their own or at a party's request. They can also expunge records for children found delinquent or in need of supervision. Before acting, the court must hold a hearing and place specific findings and legal conclusions on the record.

Judges lead children's placement reviews

After a child is adjudicated abused or neglected, permanency reviews follow a three-month schedule tied to the removal date. A different timeframe applies when Section 43-21-603(7) requires it. Beginning July 1, 2027, youth court judges—not referees—must conduct specified reviews of supervision, probation, and placement orders. Judges also handle required annual reviews, permanency hearings, and related decisions.

Police lose specific child-questioning authority

The law repeals a statute allowing police to stop and question certain children in public. This removes that specific source of police authority, not all authority to stop or question children.

Regular court reviews for removed children

For children removed before an abuse or neglect decision, youth courts must hold a shelter review within 90 days of removal. Courts must hold another review every 90 days until they decide whether abuse or neglect occurred.

Court findings govern abuse registry listings

Child protection officials must seek a registry order when involved in a case where the court substantiates abuse or neglect. Youth court prosecutors must seek the order in delinquency cases. Listing requires a criminal conviction or a youth court or other competent court ruling ordering placement. The central registry is confidential, not public.

Limits on sharing sensitive youth records

For children referred to advocacy centers, forensic interviews and related records cannot be shared without an order from the youth court overseeing them. Registered sex offenders with sex-offense convictions cannot access the youth court data system, regardless of the conviction date. That access ban ends July 1, 2029. The amended youth record-disclosure provisions also remain in effect until their July 1, 2029, repeal date.

New forum coordinates services for families

The new Family Services Forum coordinates child welfare and juvenile justice services, funding, data sharing, a service directory, and recommendations. Members must be appointed within 15 days of the section taking effect; the forum must meet within 60 days. It reports annually by December 15, and members serve until their terms end or October 1, 2030, whichever comes first. Consultant costs and expense payments depend on legislative funding. The detention monitoring unit must cooperate with this forum instead of the Council of Youth Court Judges and Referees.

Nine districts gain dedicated youth judges

Beginning July 1, 2027, nine chancery districts each gain an extra judge devoted entirely to youth court cases. They are the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Fifteenth, and Eighteenth districts. Each judge may live in any county in the district and is elected across all its counties.

Youth court staffing follows caseload needs

When money is available, the community services director assigns probation and aftercare workers based on caseload and need, not judges' requests. Counselor assignments also require approval from the Division of Youth Services director. Intake officers must enter all youth court case information accurately and promptly into the uniform data system. Each officer must receive at least 12 hours of annual training from the Administrative Office of Courts. The intake and data-management provisions in Section 43-21-351 end July 1, 2029.

Youth courts gain staff and transfer cases

If the Legislature funds it, the Administrative Office of Courts must support an intake officer and one administrator per chancery district. It must also reimburse youth courts for local diversion programs; no funding amount is specified. This support provision ends July 1, 2029. In counties without county courts, youth court referees must prepare their cases and dockets for transfer to chancery court's youth division. The Administrative Office of Courts must assist and complete those transfers on July 1, 2027.

Youth courts get a replacement data system

The Administrative Director of Courts must replace the existing youth court data system using recommendations from its completed audit. The uniform replacement must be fully operational by July 1, 2029. The old system may stay in temporary use as needed until the replacement works well enough. Annual progress reports to the House and Senate Judiciary A Committees run from September 1, 2026, through September 1, 2029. The reports must also include a timeline for operation by July 1, 2027, separate from the 2029 full-operation deadline.

Youth diversion programs must report results

Diversion providers must collect data on youths, screening, offenses, services, and outcomes, set goals, and report progress. Funded agencies must report rejected screenings by August 1, 2027, and each August 1 afterward. These reports cover the July 1–June 30 state fiscal year, and youths may decline to provide demographic details. The Division of Youth Services must monitor programs, provide technical help, and submit a statewide report each December 1.

Youth screening guides diversion and supervision

Beginning January 1, 2027, intake officers must screen youths referred to youth court, including school-attendance referrals. Screening is not required for youths already committed, on probation, or who have already had a diversion attempt. It is also not required when prosecutors decline a petition, dismiss the case, or charge an offense reserved for circuit court. Results guide diversion eligibility and supervision, and officers must share them with the youth and family or guardian. Officers must consider alternatives for youths with intellectual or developmental disabilities, mental-health needs, or concerns about their capacity. They must recommend appropriate diversion and publish program eligibility rules.

Some children's court records become public

Records involving a child convicted as an adult are public rather than confidential. The same rule applies after two delinquency findings for sex offenses defined in state law.

Youth license suspensions reach state records

Youth court clerks must report children's court-ordered driver's license suspensions to the Commissioner of Public Safety. Law enforcement must report test refusals when a child's license is suspended under the Implied Consent Law. Both reports follow the adult reporting process and need no separate records-disclosure court order.

Youth record disclosure penalties are reduced

The law removes a specific criminal penalty for disclosing certain youth court records. Other confidentiality rules still apply. Information in reports to police or prosecutors can now be released under either of two youth court disclosure sections. Those sections control when release is allowed.

Counties pay for state youth detention

Counties must pay up to $100 per day per youth housed in state-owned youth detention facilities after a shelter or detention hearing. Payment covers no more than 90 days per youth. At both caps, the maximum county payment is $9,000 per youth.

Fewer local youth courts, tighter funding

Counties cannot form additional county youth courts, and municipalities lose authority to create municipal youth court divisions. Beginning January 1, 2031, county-court youth divisions in counties under 50,000 people end, subject to a separate statutory exception. Population uses the 2020 census. Counties can keep these divisions through a supervisors' opt-out vote and notice to the Administrative Office of Courts before December 1, 2028. These counties pay the costs except for the statutory salary supplement. Beginning January 1, 2031, county-court youth divisions cannot spend or receive reimbursement from direct state funds, except that supplement; other state-agency grants remain allowed.

New filing roles, fewer court deadlines

County prosecutors represent the state and file delinquency petitions; child protection officials or youth court prosecutors file child welfare petitions. District attorneys can join transfer cases, and the child protection department must be summoned only in child welfare cases. The department or youth court prosecutor decides covered department investigations; prosecutors decide covered police investigations instead of courts. The law removes the department's 72-hour abuse-report notice and update duties to youth court officials. It also removes the 10-day petition deadline for noncustody cases, previously measured from the court order allowing filing.

Remaining family support law sections repealed

The law repeals three remaining sections of the Supporting and Strengthening Families Act: Sections 93-31-1, 93-31-5, and 93-31-7. The supplied provisions do not explain which services, rights, or duties those sections contained.

Teen Court Pilot authorization ends

The law repeals the Teen Court Pilot Program Act. This ends that program's statutory authorization for youth courts and participants.

Youth judges replace designated decision makers

Beginning July 1, 2027, only youth court judges may issue the covered custody and release orders or preside over teen court. Judges no longer must give law enforcement an after-hours designee list. The law also assigns judges, not designees, decisions on detained children's family calls, visits, interviews, and questioning. Beginning July 1, 2027, it removes the statutory requirement that judge designees follow the Code of Judicial Conduct.

Youth training schools exclude older offenders

Courts cannot sentence offenders over age 18 to Division of Youth Services custody for a state-supported training school. This rule does not specify an alternative sentence or placement.

Child records stay private with exceptions

Youth court, child law-enforcement, and court-appointed advocate records remain confidential, subject to legal disclosure exceptions. Youth court and appropriate school officials must receive requested law-enforcement records about children taken into custody for adult-felony conduct or dangerous-weapon offenses. Requests must be written; recipients must sign confidentiality acknowledgments and use photos and fingerprints only for criminal or juvenile law enforcement. Qualifying attorneys in good standing and their designated office representatives may check out youth and adoption court files under sign-out, attestation, and safekeeping rules. Files must return within 10 days or before the next chancery court term, whichever comes first.

Open youth hearings with privacy limits

Youth court hearings are generally public, including hearings deciding the case and outcome. Welfare hearings can close only for an allowed reason stated on the record, after considering child, reunification, and privacy factors. Reasons include alleged sexual offenses, the child's best interests, or legally protected information; judges can close delinquency hearings at their discretion. Judges can exclude people for stated reasons involving the child's welfare, fair fact-finding, or justice. Recording or transmitting proceedings, and media release of identifying or recorded information about children, family members, foster parents, or caretakers, require a written court order for good cause.

Suspected false reporters can be identified

The child protection department may share a reporter's identity with law enforcement or prosecutors when it suspects a fraudulent report. The department must give the reporter written notice of the disclosure.

Written youth court orders gain deadlines

Youth court judges must put oral orders in writing within 48 hours, excluding weekends and state holidays. Orders not written on time are void, but no liability attaches to actions taken under those later-voided orders. Judges must put children's best interests first and follow amended youth court law when conflicting court rules cannot be reconciled. Intake officers, prosecutors, child protection staff, and state-agency staff or contractors can communicate with judges about cases only as the act allows.

Counties fund youth courts and guardians

County boards must provide youth court budgets; municipal governments no longer have the listed funding duties. Judges or administrators submit annual budgets when asked, and counties may repay reasonable work travel and training expenses within budgeted amounts. Beginning July 1, 2027, judges, not designees, appoint court staff under the statutory appointment rules, using county-budgeted funds. From that date, youth court judges set reasonable guardian ad litem fees, replacing the judge-or-referee rule. The county general fund pays those fees only on court order, and guardians must document their time.

Greene and George change court districts

Greene County joins the Nineteenth Chancery Court District on January 1, 2027. George County joins on January 1, 2031. The district has two judgeships: Place One requires Jones County residency. Place Two may be held by a resident of another county in the district, but not Jones County.

New intake rules for child cases

Delinquency reports alleging facts that establish youth court authority must include a law enforcement report or sworn statement. When a counselor ends informal adjustment, the intake officer must restart intake. The officer may also restart informal adjustment.

Youth court judges take more responsibility

Beginning July 1, 2027, county court judges serve as judges of their youth court divisions. Where no county court exists or its youth division ends, the chancery district assigns a chancellor for full-time judicial handling. A senior chancellor can seek a family master to help. On that date, the law also ends statutory authority for youth court referees and certain intake-unit appointments. After a petition and hearing date are set, the judge must personally order the clerk to issue summonses.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

  • Brice Wiggins

    Republican • Senate

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 94 • No: 41

House vote • 7/16/2026

Passed

Yes: 69 • No: 31 • Other: 1

Senate vote • 7/15/2026

Passed As Amended

Yes: 25 • No: 10

Actions Timeline

  1. Approved by Governor

    7/17/2026legislature

  2. Enrolled Bill Signed

    7/17/2026House

  3. Enrolled Bill Signed

    7/17/2026Senate

  4. Returned For Enrolling

    7/17/2026House

  5. Passed

    7/16/2026House

  6. Title Suff Do Pass

    7/16/2026House

  7. Referred To Judiciary B

    7/16/2026House

  8. Transmitted To House

    7/16/2026Senate

  9. Immediate Release

    7/15/2026Senate

  10. Passed As Amended

    7/15/2026Senate

  11. Amended

    7/15/2026Senate

  12. Committee Substitute Adopted

    7/15/2026Senate

  13. Title Suff Do Pass Comm Sub

    7/15/2026Senate

  14. Referred To Judiciary, Division A

    7/15/2026Senate

Bill Text

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