DCS Commissioner Kate Oday speaks to Finance Commissioner Mark Emkes and Governor Bill Haslam. Image courtesy DCS

The commissioner of an embattled state agency has resigned. Kate O’Day steps down as head of the Department of Children’s Services one day before she was to testify about child deaths.

A statement from Governor Bill Haslam’s office says O’Day “felt the time was right” to leave. She entered the job two years ago and has been under intense scrutiny in recent months for unreported fatalities and a computer system plagued with glitches. Just this week, her office told newspapers they’d have to pay $55,000 to get copies of case files in question.

O’Day’s critics, like Nashville Democrat Sherry Jones, say she also was difficult to work with.

“Advocates couldn’t get in to talk to her,” she says. “That’s just not the way your run a department when you’re supposed to be taking care of the state’s children.”

While Democrats have been hard on O’Day, several acknowledge the job is one of the most difficult in state government.

The governor is pulling the commissioner of the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities – Jim Henry – to temporarily head the embattled agency.

It’s now unclear when representatives of DCS will testify to state lawmakers. The hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.

O’Day May Still Need to Testify

“I could see a scenario where that might be if Jim Henry and the assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners can’t answer the questions that we need answered,” says Senator Rusty Crowe, who chairs a committee with oversight of DCS.

Last month DCS admitted in court that the agency couldn’t accurately count the number of children who had died in it’s custody. The tracking system had missed nine deaths in the last two years.

DCS has a history of court orders and consent decrees because of trouble with paperwork.

Those formerly in DCS custody know first hand. Matthew Madlock of Nashville says he had an extended stay at a group home before aging out of the foster care system.

“I was there for two and a half years – longer than any other kid had been at that group home – not really due to my behavior but because DCS failed to update my permanency plan,” says the 18-year-old high school senior.

Still, Madlock says he recognizes the state has a tough time standing in for a parent.

Rep. John DeBerry of Memphis says O’Day’s resignation was becoming a foregone conclusion. Lawsuits and a drumbeat of criticism have been directed at her office.

“I can’t for one second believe that this was not eating her alive – as a woman, as a mother,” DeBerry says. “It was inevitable that at some point throw up her hands and give up.”

Governor Haslam defended O’Day until the end.