“The Department of Children’s Services is struggling to provide support services to Tennessee’s most vulnerable children and youth,” auditors wrote in their report. “The safety, permanency, and well-being of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children is in jeopardy by management’s failure.”
The audit also revealed the most serious findings that DCS “did not ensure that reported allegations of sexual abuse, sexual harassment, or lack of supervision” were investigated, as well as the department having “not developed an effective and efficient process to respond to sexual abuse and harassment allegations to keep children in residential facilities safe.”
“Based on a review of 211 unique sexual abuse and sexual harassment incidents reported within residential facilities during calendar year 2021, we found 34 instances where the department did not investigate allegations in residential facilities,” the auditors wrote.
Of those, 28 were not investigated because they occurred at a facility that “did not primarily hours juvenile delinquents” or the allegations “sexual abuse or harassment between two children ages 13 to 17, and DCS chose to refer the allegation to law enforcement rather than investigate.” Additional cases were not investigated due to “staff oversight.”
Auditors also discovered 37 reports of “possible consensual sexual activity between children in residential facilities, which DCS deemed to not be sexual abuse or harassment and thus did not investigate.” Auditors said although they were not considered abuse or harassment they may indicate a lack of supervision at the facilities which “the department has a duty to investigate.”
Rising Caseloads, Decreasing Caseworkers
According to the audit, DCS has had, on average, over 8,000 children in its custody each month since 2020. The commissioner said as of last week the department had 488 vacancies for its case worker position.“Case managers are the backbone of DCS; without them, DCS cannot meet its mission to serve the state’s most vulnerable citizens, the children of Tennessee,” auditors said in the report. “Case manager turnover and employee vacancies at DCS have reached crisis levels while the number of children going into DCS custody continues to rise.”
The audit showed as of July there were 9,041 children in custody, representing a seven percent increase in four years—while the number of filled case manager positions had declined by 17 percent over the same time period.
Because of the “staffing crisis,” auditors said caseworkers are overworked and exhausted while trying to serve children in a “chaotic environment.”
The statewide turnover rate was found to be 54 percent, while the turnover rate in Davidson County (Nashville) was “alarmingly higher” at 127 percent.
“Our review of entry-level case managers for calendar year 2021 showed that 97 percent left DCS within their first year of employment,” Comptroller Legislative Audit Manager Lindsey Stadterman said during the hearing.
Quin has requested an additional $18.6 million in funding for the coming year to increase salaries for case managers. This would increase the starting salary to $44,000 for case managers.
Democrat state Rep. Vincent Dixie questioned whether that number would even be enough to retain employees.
“How do you expect to keep good employees, especially in Davidson County, when you can’t afford to live on basically $44,000 a year?” Dixie asked.
“$43,000, I agree with you, is not enough,” Quin responded. “That is not the target that I am shooting for any of our case managers—not just Davidson County but anywhere in the state.”
The audit further recommended the department works with the General Assembly to pass legislation to curb caseloads.
The Council on Accreditation recommends a caseload of 10 to 15 cases per caseworker, while the audit found much higher averages in Tennessee. As of May, over 36 percent of case managers had more than 20 cases, while some managers had over 100 cases.
The commissioner recommended using private caseworkers temporarily while working to hire and retain more caseworkers.
She said the department will work to contract with private providers to do private case management alongside DCS case managers. She said 95 private case managers will be brought in to the hardest hit areas of the state, including the Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis areas.
Seeking Help From Tennesseans
Subcommittee Chairman Kerry Roberts, a Republican, questioned if churches in the state are the answer to helping overburdened caseworkers.“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.
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?”
Quin said the department had worked with Governor Bill Lee’s Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives to work with churches to provide some 500 meals to caseworkers in the field.
“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.”
Another issue is a shortage of foster families which led to hundreds of children sleeping in state office buildings.
“DCS entered into a contract effective July 1, 2022 with an external partner to enhance and expand outreach and marketing capacity in the recruitment and certification of foster homes,” department management said in the audit response. “DCS management has also expanded work with the Governor’s Faith-Based Communities Director to put together an initiative to recruit foster care families throughout the state.”
