DCS By the Numbers

NASHVILLE, TN –Each year from 2010-2017 more opioid prescriptions were filled in Tennessee than the number of people who live here. In the 1990s the crack cocaine epidemic overwhelmed the state’s child welfare system. In the last decade, opioid abuse has done it again. 

Since 2016 the number of children taken into state custody has increased each year. DCS had 8,001 children in custody in 2016. A year later it had 14,421. It has remained that high since. 

About 4,000 families are willing to take in a foster child in Tennessee but there are about double that number of children who need a foster home, according to the Tennessee Alliance for Kids (TAK).   

Children in Custody and Exits 2014-2020 (from DCS reports)

The number of parents having their parental rights legally terminated has increased by 51% in Tennessee during the past few years, according to TAK.  

Children Waiting for Adoption
Source: Children’s Bureau U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services

Tennessee	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Total waiting	1,268	1,301	1,322	1,625	1,743
TPR Children*	1,056	1,112	1,067	999	1,014

Since 2010 there has been a 56% increase in the number of children waiting to be adopted. The number of children in custody keeps increasing and adoptions are not keeping up.   

DCS tells a different story. On November 1, 2021 the department announced permanency for foster children has increased four years in a row. In 2021, 1,630 foster children were either adopted or found guardians. The 2020 figure was 1,618. 

Children Adopted from (Children’s Bureau U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services)

DCS said that the fiscal year 2021 figures include 1,219 adoptions and 411 subsidized permanent guardianship finalizations and reflect an 8 percent increase in the number of foster children who found permanency in the federal fiscal year 2017.  

Children Reentering Foster Care (%)

Source: Children’s Bureau U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services

The number of DCS caseworkers has remained relatively flat and caseloads have dramatically increased.  

DCS Caseworkers      

On December 6, 2021 DCS released caseload data by region for October 2021. Caseloads varied from a low of 15 in the Southwest Region to a high of 29.5 in the Davidson Region. According to DCS, the overall state average was 21.

In October, Ben Hall from NewsChannel 5, reported that caseloads in Davidson County were sometimes 4-5 times higher than state law allows (20).  A whistleblower leaked screen shots and graphs of DCS’s “Face to Face Contacts” internal tracking software. 

The graph showed 34% of June 2021 cases were not found, meaning no caseworker visited or didn’t enter the information into the TFACTS tracking system. In July, the number was 41%; in August 46.9% of cases were not found.  

DCS said those numbers combined children in foster care with investigations that have not been completed yet. The department claims case managers are visiting foster children in Davidson County more often than those numbers indicate. Shortly after Hall’s report, DCS announced it was hiring some outside contract caseworkers to help lessen the workload on DCS staffers.

In a survey of 1900 DCS employees in March 2021, one worker said that in his region DCS had 40-50 open investigations at one time. Many staffers leveled sharp criticisms at current DCS leadership for creating a toxic work environment and complained that case managers and investigators simply can’t deal with the workload. (see https://tntribune.org/inside-dcs-toxic-workplace/) 

State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) said the situation has continued to deteriorate and the entire system needs to be overhauled. She asked Governor Lee to look into it. He’s responsible for putting Jennifer Nichols at the helm in the first place. Nichols has a criminal justice background and is not suited to the job. She doesn’t inspire the ground troops like former commissioners Viola Miller and Jim Henry did. 

After she was appointed in January 2019, Nichols made changes that did not work out well. Special response investigators were reassigned and a rollout of three-person drug teams hasn’t expanded to other regions. DCS veterans have lost confidence in Nichols’ ability to lead the department.

Increased numbers of referrals to investigate, excessive caseloads, and a staff turnover rate of 22% are putting a strain on Tennessee’s child welfare system. Just five years ago the nation’s largest nonprofit advocate for at-risk children, Childhelp, honored DCS with the Voice of the Children Award. DCS was praised for the innovative reforms it made under federal oversight from 2001-2017. 

A 2019 report by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, credited DCS for pioneering “Continuum Contracts” that many states have adopted. DCS contracts with private providers to get families and foster children the services they need. 

“Tennessee deserves the national recognition that it has received for its significant accomplishments and other states can benefit from the ‘lessons learned’ in the course of Tennessee’s successful reform. However, the complex and difficult nature of child welfare work makes it all too easy for reform to unravel,” concluded the 41-page report. 

Between 2001-2016 Tennessee’s child welfare system was overhauled. The federal court monitor and others praised DCS for the turnaround and specifically noted the department’s transparency and accountability in making dozens of reforms to DCS operations. But it didn’t last long.

Commissioner Nichols has been unable to sustain those reforms; her top down changes have not been embraced by caseworkers; they are overworked and underpaid; they are leaving faster than DCS can replace them; tunnel vision and performance metrics pervade all levels of the department, and like a car speeding out of control, DCS is about ready to crash and burn.

This story was update on December 6, 2021