TN: DCS reports hiring new caseworkers, end to children sleeping on office floors
Four months after a scathing audit found the Department of Children’s Services repeatedly put children in harm’s way, its leadership reported back to lawmakers steps taken to address crises within the agency.
The department has reduced caseworker vacancies nearly in half, enlisted more than 1100 families to begin the process of becoming foster parents, and ceased housing kids in state office buildings, DCS Commissioner Margie Quin told lawmakers Monday.
Quin, who has been on the job since September, called them “important first steps.”
With a one-time budget infusion, DCS has raised starting caseworker salaries to $50,600 on Feb. 16 and has received more than 1,000 applications for the positions since, Quin said. In September, there were 620 vacant caseworker positions; today there are 365.
Quin said the state has added transitional housing for children taken from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect allegations and in need of an immediate bed. There are 29 now across the state. For more than a year, there have been repeated reports of children sleeping on office floors. That ended March 30, Quin said.
https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/04/18/dcs-reports-hiring-new-caseworkers-end-to-children-sleeping-on-office-floors/
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