Tennessee Incentivized To Keep Children In State Custody In Order To Keep Federal Funds
Image Credit: Janko Ferlič / Unsplash
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
According to sources who have decades of experience with Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS), the state of Tennessee is incentivized to keep children in state custody in order to keep federal funding at the same level each year.
Tennessee’s DCS budget is funded with state and federal tax dollars with up to approximately 35-40% of the funds coming from the federal government. This federal money, called Title IV-E, has strings attached, just like federal educational funds and federal COVID relief funds.
Title IV-E funding matches state funds for the foster program on about a dollar to dollar match and is a “use it or lose it” fund. As a result, Tennessee DCS is incentivized to keep their foster care numbers at an equivalent of the prior year or lose federal funding.
To get Title IV-E money, DCS must take a child out of his home and put him in state custody, usually that means foster care. Foster parents get a monthly paycheck for each child in state custody in their home which is based on a “per diem” rate depending on how complex and difficult the child is to raise. These categories are called “levels,” starting with a level one and progressing, with each level increasing the monthly paycheck. At the highest levels of care, a child may be “worth” over $300 per day.
This income for foster parents is tax-free. The child is also immediately enrolled in TennCare, and a host of other benefits. While the child is in state custody, the biological parents are ordered to pay child support to the state; and if the child has any social security survivor benefits, DCS collects that money as well.
The Title IV-E money comes from Social Security funds and is a funding scheme that is an entitlement, not an appropriation, which means that it is never part of the congressionally approved annual budget and is never subject to sequester.
In addition to the Title IV-E money, DCS gets a host of other funding streams: Medicare, block grants, Title IV-B, and a host of grants for aging out foster care and juvenile justice programs. All of these are incentives for the state to continue control and custody of children.
In 2010, DCS had 4,757 employees with a payroll of $251,874.000, and an operational budget of $400,925,100 – a total of $652,799,100. In 2016, the agency had 4,244 employees with a payroll of $256,328,600 and an operational budget of $497,825,000 – for a total of $754,063,600. In the most recent 2021 budget, the agency had 3,851 employees with a payroll of $281,719,200 and an operational budget of $711,340,400 – grand total of $993,059,600. And the agency continues to request more money.
A source tells us that DCS employees were surveyed two years ago and many of them reported that the agency is becoming an inflated bureaucracy. Case workers who were surveyed at the time complained that Central Office cares more about “the numbers” than they do about the children in their care.
Our source reported, “So long as DCS and its private providers are financially motivated to place children in out-of-home care, it is unlikely we will see a paradigmatic change in operations of the agency and each year will bring continued pressure on the taxpayer as their budget continues to balloon.”
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
It’s always about the money, never about the best interests of the children or the taxpayers. This situation is a perfect example of how socialism works. We give you money, you do as we say. Same old, same old.
Just about as much Corruption in TN as Washington. They will sell these Children’s soul for a Federal dollar!
Yup, lucifer’s own DCS.
I would suggest to vote out the people that are responsible for this. The foster care program should not have ties to any government state or Federal. Granted there are parents that need their children taken away from them. But making money racket out of it is something else
Yep, just like Washington’s swamp. Tennessee has its own bureaucratic swamp. The inmates run the farm. Vote the RHINO’S OUT!
I am a parent that had a child taken out of my home in Tennessee. They took her because she didn’t want to be here and put her in a group home. There was no allegations or pending charges. They kept her for two and a half years while youth villages kept pumping her head full of lies. They file for social security and didn’t even tell me she was getting it she came home September 6th 2022. They never told me about her social security and here it is February 2023 and I’m just now finding out. So where has all this money gone to if she was in a youth village non-profit organization she has TennCare so all her medical bills are being paid. Why is DCs paying a group home plus the group home is getting government funding and grants and donations where has my child’s money went to.
I am a parent that is a victim of this. I have an attorney now that confirmed this. Parents need to know do not get a court appointed attorney if you actually care about the custody of your kid. There’s so much I didn’t know and so much yet to be revealed to me.can Anybody else relate to this??
I can relate to this. Do you want to share an update