DCS handles reports of child abuse and neglect in Tennessee. Image courtesy DCS

Governor Bill Haslam’s DCS commissioner of two years resigned under mounting pressure over child death records. This week there is an interim at the helm – Jim Henry – charged with watching out for Tennessee’s most vulnerable children. Lawmakers described the job as “impossible.”

Talking to newspaper publishers last week, Haslam defended his departed commissioner Kate O’Day, saying she inherited many of the problems that brought so much criticism.

“DCS has been in existence for 16 years and they’ve had 16 bad years in a row,” the governor said.

The enormous state agency with more than 4,000 employees and a $650 million budget was a combination of departments that was created in 1996. It has been no stranger to scrutiny.

The Brian A. class action lawsuit of 2000 led to an agreement that a third party would look over the agency’s shoulder. DCS was packing group homes instead of adopting out foster kids, and the agency was splitting up siblings unnecessarily.

But the most recent troubles have to do with the other big job of DCS – investigating child abuse or neglect.

Under O’Day, the agency admitted it had stopped reporting fatalities and near-fatalities to lawmakers as required under state law.

So state legislators like Sen. Jim Summerville of Dickson were finding out about abuse from law enforcement officials instead.

Abuse Reports Roll In

Democrats began raising the alarm and calling for O’Day’s resignation months ago. Summerville was one of the first Republicans to voice concerns. He says he piped up after hearing of a boy from Hickman County who had been choked by his mother, and then taken to get medical attention.

“She claimed the child had fallen off his bicycle,” Summerville says. “The doctor just rolled his eyes and said that couldn’t be. That very day, he was sent back home with the woman who had choked him – his mother – who had also tested for two types of illegal drugs. One story is an anecdote. Lots of stories are evidence.”

Summerville – like many lawmakers – doesn’t believe DCS was intentionally keeping quiet. It’s more likely they’ve just had trouble keeping track.

The state spent $27 million on a new tracking system for kids in 2010 known as TFACTS. Ever since, the agency has been unable to produce even some basic reports about children they are monitoring.

Ultimately news organizations sued to get four years of reports about deaths and near-deaths of children under supervision of DCS. In the course of the lawsuit, DCS discovered more deaths than initially thought.

Governor Haslam has been defensive about the struggles at DCS. His administration circled the wagons around Commissioner Kate O’Day, and continued to defend her after her resignation.

Haslam says her departure is “totally unrelated” to the reporting problems and that she just felt like she was becoming a “distraction.”

But O’Day had plenty of critics. And some point out that DCS was improving before she took over. In 2010, the agency became one of just seven such departments in the country to achieve a rigorous accreditation. And monitors associated with the Brian A. lawsuit suggested the state may soon have no need for additional supervision.

DCS has endured budget cuts in recent years that started under the previous administration of Governor Phil Bredesen, a Democrat.

Caseworkers Need a Raise

And while few have blamed having less money with the current struggles, Governor Haslam has proposed putting more money into DCS this year. During his State of the State Address he announced a plan to pay case managers more and increase qualifications for those jobs.

He’ll have no trouble getting Democrats on board.

“These people are making these decisions, sometimes on the spur of the moment,” says Rep. Mike Turner of Nashville. “We need to reward these people making these tough decisions.”

Democrats have also praise Haslam’s pick as the interim commissioner.

Jim Henry will hold down two jobs for the time being as the current head of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. He says he’ll spend more of his time on DCS.

Henry has said he won’t just “babysit” the agency until a permanent replacement is named.

Already he has been open to talking to lawmakers, child advocates and the media.

However, it may get tougher to be as open when you can no longer answer the tough questions with, “I don’t know. I just took this job.”