Exit Strategy Marks Beginning of the End of Brian A.

Federal Court Filing Recognizes Landmark Changes at DCS

NASHVILLE  -- Today, the Tennessee Attorney General, on behalf of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, and Children’s Rights, Inc., entered a joint filing in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee that recognizes the sweeping reforms that have bettered the lives of Tennessee’s most vulnerable citizens and plots out the final tasks the department must accomplish before exiting the Brian A. class action lawsuit.

Since 2000, DCS has operated under a federal consent decree negotiated with New York-based Children’s Rights, Inc., which sued the state over its poorly functioning foster care system.

“Public-child welfare reform was a task that this administration inherited and one that we committed to improving,” said Governor Phil Bredesen. “We set out to do the hard work it would take to reshape this department, and today DCS is one of the few state child-welfare departments in the nation to become accredited. As we begin preparing to exit from the consent decree, we can mark this as one of thee significant accomplishments we have made in Tennessee. My thanks to Children’s Rights and the employees of DCS who have worked together to improve the system of care for our state’s most vulnerable children.”

“I am very proud of the DCS employees with whom I work,” said Commissioner Miller. “In every county office, our staff, our partners and our resource parents have made the lives of Tennessee’s foster children so much better. Even with these improvements, though, protecting children will always be difficult and sometimes heartbreaking. We know that there is always more that we need to do.”

The Brian A. consent decree established a path to reform the department. Since Governor Bredesen appointed Commissioner Miller in late 2003, DCS has transformed itself, with the active cooperation, guidance and assistance from Children’s Rights and from the Technical Assistance Committee, a group of nationally known child-welfare experts who serve as federal court monitors of the Brian A. consent decree.

The decree set out a series of benchmarks that the department must reach before exiting the suit. Since then, DCS has dramatically improved outcomes for children who come into custody. Siblings, for instance, are placed together far more often. The department has had great success in shifting its resources away from congregate-care settings in favor of family placements. Adoptions freeing children from state custody, which were below 200 annually in 1996, are now running at about 1,000 a year. Case loads have been reduced. Salaries for case managers have improved. A consortium of universities across the state now offer enhanced education and training for those who are dedicating their careers to public child welfare in Tennessee.

By recognizing those tasks that have been accomplished, the department can now focus on finishing those that remain.  These efforts include working even harder on serving the needs of older foster youth and on refining the department’s engagement with foster parents.

The agreement requires the department to meet every provision in the consent decree and to maintain those provisions for 12 months before the department can exit the lawsuit.