Foster parents, shelters hurt by Mississippi pay problems.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

?JACKSON, Miss. _ The state is making hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in faulty payments to house children in emergency shelters and with foster parents.

Some shelters say they receive as much as $3,000 to $4,000 a month for children who are no longer in their care. Others aren't being paid for children they are keeping.?Ironically, a tight state budget is in part to blame.

The Department of Human Services, which oversees the child protection division, is so short of staff that it can't keep track of the children in its system. ?

Five shelters and 856 foster families depend on social workers to notify the state office when a child enters …