Image Credit: Tennessee Department of Children’s Services / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) is asking yet again for more money for budget items.
The agency has made a habit of hitting up Tennessee lawmakers annually for ever increasing sums of taxpayer money with which to fund their ever burgeoning budget with little to show for it in return over the years.
After a spate of yearly $50 million dollar increases, Commissioner Margie Quin asked for a whopping $156 million at the end of 2022 to supplement the more than $1 billion annual budget of a department that Quin hoped to use to revamp the systems that had been built decades ago.
Last year, Quin was back for a second year in a row to ask for another significant increase to the tune of $182 million that Quin said was earmarked for payments to foster and adoptive payments and to increase payments to providers of residential treatment facilities.
This year, the department is asking for an additional $189 million, part of which is aimed at helping rural families in crisis.
Half of all kids in the state’s foster care system come from just fifteen counties. Because of this, DCS officials are looking to spend $6 million in state funds to provide services to families that will keep children at home, rather than being taken away.
Despite the creation of a federal law in 2018 – Family First Act – which no longer requires the removal of a child from their family in order for federal funds to be collected, Tennessee lawmakers have failed to make a similar shift in adopting a Family First program, choosing to throw money at DCS instead.
It appears that change may be on the horizon.
The $6 million that DCS has outlined in their budget would pay to expand the department’s contract with Youth Villages for intensive in-home services. Through their “Intercept” program Youth Villages would provide services to families in crisis three days a week. Problems that the program addresses include child neglect, trouble in school, and parental substance abuse.
Last week, Quin admitted that two years ago, the department had indeed been failing epically, but has since made changes to put it on firmer footing thanks to the investment of increased funding over the past twenty-four months.
The DCS budget currently stands at $1.2 billion and has used some of the increase in funding to reduce caseworker turnover and lower caseloads. At one time, as high as ninety caseloads per social worker, the average is now less than twenty, with first-year social workers only handling a maximum of ten.
With the increase in funding for the new budget, DCS hopes to provide in-home services to a total of eight hundred families, with three hundred of those located in rural counties with the highest rates of children in state custody.
Quin says the budget’s boost would also provide $8 million for additional privately-contracted social workers, $41 million for residential care for children with medical and psychiatric needs and another $1.5 million for nurses.
Last year, DCS officials informed Governor Bill Lee of the 20% increase in numbers of children needing specialized care entering the state’s custody. At the same time, the amount of foster homes in the state was in decline and those that were left were not able to adequately care for children with significant healthcare or psychiatric needs.
An audit at the beginning of last year showed that children were ending up in DCS office buildings for the night for lack of available foster homes. Following media attention of this wholly inadequate situation, the Tennessee General Assembly approved $27 million in emergency funds to make sure children in state care were properly provided for.
Nonprofit groups like Isaiah 117 House also stepped up to ensure that children in Shelby County would no longer be forced to sleep in an office instead of a home.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
They are despicable destroyers of families.
The reason there are less families willing to take in foster kids is because the bureaucracy of DCS is abusive. DCS does not function as a social agency; its mission is just to perpetuate itself as any other bureaucratic system. The policies are not conducive to care of these kids. After 4 years fostering, I was fired because I would not follow all of their draconian actions against the children including psychotropic pills to control them and excessive shots and treatments. Instead of looking at the results of my kids who got calmed and happy, they hit back because my kids objected to being treated poorly by the system. They are despicable, and this is what Gov. Lee supports.