Lawmakers appalled by DCS audit
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The troubled department, which provides services for children in state custody, is scheduled for termination June 30, but members of a joint Senate-House subcommittee said they will recommend the department get a two-year reprieve.
In the meantime, they want monthly reports on the department’s progress in improving its foster care system and employee retention and training, as well as other issues cited in the November performance audit by the state comptroller’s office.
Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, said that after hearing the 22 findings in the audit he was prepared to let the department “go into receivership and start over.”
He changed his mind after hearing from Viola Miller, who was appointed commissioner in January and candidly acknowledged the department has a long way to go.
“I do agree with everything you said. It’s scary,” she told Ketron. But, she added, “we didn’t get into this shape overnight and we’re not going to get out of it overnight.”
Miller required regional leaders statewide to attend the hearing so they would be clear on legislators’ displeasure and the need to correct problems quickly. Miller said her staff is nearly finished crafting a strategic plan that should address most of the concerns.
DCS was created by the previous administration in 1996 through the merger of services that had been scattered among several departments.
It was hoped to improve coordination of services for children, but almost from the beginning has had management problems. In 2000, a lawsuit was filed accusing the department of failing to adequately care for foster children.
The suit was settled the following year, but the department has made minimal progress since in meeting requirements of the consent decree. DCS narrowly avoided a contempt of court hearing in December when Miller — not yet officially on the job — negotiated a settlement.
The department has until the end of the month to develop an implementation plan and submit it to the plaintiffs and a group of nationally recognized experts in the field of children’s welfare that helped negotiate the agreement.
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On the Net:
Comptroller’s office: http://www.comptroller.state.tn.us/sa/reports/pa02084.pdf
DCS: http://www.state.tn.us/youth/