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Department of Children's Services Commissioner Quin outlines efforts to address ongoing crises – Tennessee Lookout [1]
['Anita Wadhwani', 'More From Author', '- December']
Date: 2022-12-15
A day after a damning report chronicling ongoing crises within the Department of Children’s Services, agency leaders testified about efforts to address problems that have led to children being taken from their families as a result of abuse or neglect only to be subject to additional abuse and neglect while in state custody.
Margie Quin, tapped by Gov. Bill Lee to lead the troubled agency in September, outlined those short- and long-term efforts before a legislative committee on Wednesday.
They include a “total personnel change” among DCS staff tasked with investigating allegations of sexual assault and harassment involving children in some state facilities. An audit released by the Comptroller on Tuesday found that children who reported sexual harassment or abuse were “remaining in potentially abusive situations for weeks before the investigator spoke to them.”.
Quin said she was immediately creating new policies to cap caseloads at 10 for all new social workers, part of a broader effort to address turnover that averages about 50% overall, but is much higher for new hires. There are currently 488 social worker vacancies at the department.
And she touted incremental progress in getting children into stable placements, instead of sleeping on office floors, where they may lack access to showers, food, clothing, mattresses and other necessities. In the last 30 days, Quin said agency staff have found stable placements for 97 children and in the past two weeks no children in Knoxville have slept in an office.
Longer term changes rely on a $156 million budget boost that won’t be considered until next year.
Five years from now is too late. 2012 until now? If we can’t fix a problem like this in ten years, we have serious problems with our management. So I’m asking you to step up to the plate. – Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, on a five-year plan to replace the DCS information system
That budget increase, which must be approved by lawmakers, would go toward raising caseworker salaries, upgrading a glitchy computer system, increasing payments to treatment facilities that prioritize caring for children higher paying out-of-state child welfare agencies and temporarily privatizing some of its foster care management, Quin said.
“Our current system is built for the needs of kids 10 to 20 years ago,” Quin said. “We don’t have a system built for the needs of kids today….Change doesn’t happen overnight. It happens one step at a time.”
Some lawmakers are calling for more urgent action.
“Why are we putting off this work, that is my concern,” said Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville. “When we had a situation in Memphis where we had a backlog of rape kits, the governor was able to get that money to get started…Why can’t we work on the this problem now.”
And Quin’s request for $62 million beginning next year to undertake a five-year plan to replace the agency’s flawed information systems, whose lack of function have hampered caseworkers and child abuse investigators, drew a rebuke from Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge.
“Frankly, from an oversight perspective, and I think I speak for the committee members here: This is unacceptable, pure and simple. We live in the 21st Century. Apple 2E was a household item in 1997. We are long past the point of being able to use computers to track information.”
“Five years from now is too late. 2012 until now? If we can’t fix a problem like this in ten years, we have serious problems with our management. So I’m asking you to step up to the plate.”
But Quin’s efforts also drew praise from Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, who chairs the Government Operations Joint Subcommittee on Education, Health and General Welfare that reviewed the Comptroller audit’s findings Wednesday.
“I think we’re blessed to have a commissioner whose hit the ground running and she’s already implemented some of the things that were in the audit finding,” Bowling said, noting that Quin stepped into the job months after auditors had begun identifying agency lapses.
“She got in, looked at things that were problematic and has already been putting in some policies and procedures, and certainly the state will step up with what it needs to.”
Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, suggested that community volunteers, including faith-based organizations and churches should also be doing more, including providing temporary shelter for children taken into custody when there is no immediate space for them in a foster home or residential facility.
But Rep. Vincent Dixie, D-Memphis, said the responsibility ultimately relies on state leaders.
“I think the state needs to provide more to those community resources and programs in order for them to operate effectively. We’ve all been in organizations where we volunteer and we volunteer when it’s convenient for us, not when it’s easy for us. My question is how can the government provide more resources to make sure …all of these particular programs and organizations can survive and not rely on the average Tennessean.
“The state needs to play a more important role in facilitating those public-private partnerships and we can do that with more funding to those organizations who are helping do this.”
The legislative committee directed Quin to report back to them every quarter next year with an update on the agency’s progress.
Senior reporter Sam Stockard contributed to this report.
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