More than 300 kids sleeping in state office buildings, DCS commissioner says

By Marissa Sulek

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services said some of the most vulnerable children in the state’s care are sleeping in office buildings.

According to DCS Commissioner Margie Quin, there’s more than 300 children in DCS custody using state office buildings as bedrooms in the last two years. Images also show refrigerators filled with ramen and other junk food, which is their only option to eat at times.

DCS also said it needs almost 500 people to fill case manager vacancies.

In a hearing before Tennessee state legislators on Wednesday about the new DCS audit, Quin said there aren’t enough homes children can be placed in. She said during the pandemic shelters closed and foster families refused to house some kids.

“We’re attempting to get all children out of offices at this point,” Quin said during Wednesday’s hearing. “We have a pretty aggressive goal, which I had to say in front of a whole lot of news media back here. But we need to get all kids out of offices.”

“We got the holidays coming up. What are you doing immediately to try and address those key needs to try and keep them from living in conditions like that?” state Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville, asked.

Subcommittee Chairman Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, wonders if churches are the answer.

“I want to issue a challenge to the churches and faith-based organizations in these four areas to reach out to DCS and ask what your needs are,” Roberts said.

The four areas with the greatest needs that Roberts identified are Memphis and Trenton in Gibson County in West Tennessee, the Waynesboro-Linden-Hohenwald areas in southwest Middle Tennessee and Cookeville in the Upper Cumberland area of Middle Tennessee.

Other lawmakers said the state needs to issue emergency funding.

“At the end of the day, Tennessee has billions of dollars in reserve,” Dixie said. “And we’re going to rely on a struggling Tennessean to fill in these gaps?”

Currently, the audit said some case managers have 108 cases. That number should be closer to 20.

State Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, said she attempted to pass legislation last session that limits how many cases a manager can take on, but that bill was killed.

“We had a bill last session that would put a huge fix on this problem, and they killed in on a party line vote,” she said.

“We are working to move as quickly as we possibly can,” Quin said. “We have a lot of folks to hire, that’s only going to happen as quickly as it’s going to happen. That’s why we are asking for some privatization of some case manager.

Nashville’s Metro Council plans to address the DCS audit at its meeting on Tuesday night. One council member plans to introduce legislation that would give the state $50 million to DCS instead of the new Tennessee Titans stadium.

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