NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services is no longer under federal oversight.
The news comes more than 16 years after Children’s Rights, an advocacy group, filed a lawsuit stating children suffered in the state’s system.
Since then, the state has performed a system-wide reform of the DCS.
“This is monumental for Tennessee’s children and the state,” Governor Bill Haslam stated Tuesday. “After years of intervention, the federal government is saying that Tennessee is providing service to children in a way that models what it should look like for the rest of the country.”
The department reportedly achieved their goals in 2015, but as part of the agreement had to maintain it through 2016.
The state learned this week, they had done just that.
There are currently 7,300 children in the state’s foster care system and another 1,100 in the juvenile-justice population.