NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Many of the recently released case files of children who died or nearly died after being under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services were not filled out until months after a child's death.
The Tennessean has now reviewed 36 of the 42 records of cases released at a hearing on Friday by a Davidson County judge. The newspaper also found that many of the records lacked legally required information.
State Rep. Sherry Jones was the first to sound the alarm about problems at DCS. She says she appreciates the Haslam Administrations' efforts to correct problems at the agency, but also says her office continues to field a lot of calls about DCS from constituents.
“How their case is being handled, or what’s happened to their children, or their children were taken and they should not have been, or somebody was hurt – one of the children was hurt, or should not have been hurt if DCS had done right by the child. So we still have a lot of calls coming in."
Jones says she dates problems at DCS from when the state’s Select Committee on Children and Youth was closed, leaving the agency with no external oversight.