06/21/2026
Months ago, I made a request to the Department of Children Services. I asked for a list with contact information for every child in state custody. The purpose of this list was so that my employees could reach out and check on the children on a regular basis. To make sure that they did not have a need that was not being met, to see if they were still in the same placement as the prior check-in, to make sure that they were in counseling or getting whatever help they needed and to make sure that no one was abusing them. This was in part, in response to the lawsuit that was filed against the Department a while back.
I was told that it would take a while to put together the list but that I would be provided what I asked for.
I felt that was a reasonable response, especially with as quickly as I received it. So I waited. Since then, I have hired someone, who starts tomorrow, that will be assisting on all matters involving children who are dependent and neglected. We’ve developed protocols specifically with the goal of ensuring that there are more checks and balances in place for kids that are not in their parents’ custody.
I checked in about six weeks ago and was told that the department would provide the list to me at a meeting that we had scheduled with the regional staff this past Monday.
I know government moves entirely too slow, but I thought I would show some patience.
This past Monday, we had a meeting with a few folks from the regional leadership team. Near the very end of the meeting, I asked about the list. They handed it to me. It consisted of four pages. Noticeably absent was any sort of contact information. The reason given was that upper management in Nashville had decided that they should not provide that.
So the list that I had waited three months to receive ended up being something that I could’ve spent a few hours and made myself.
After the meeting, I let our local DCS attorney know that from this point forward every child in state custody will be in Court for every hearing. 
We are committed to ensuring that any child that has to be placed in state custody will be taken care of. I understand that this increases the work on the local workers, but until I can get compliance with my request, there are very few other things that I can do.
For the folks who have asked what you can do to help these kids:
1. Mentorship. Call us and we will get you started on being approved to serve as a mentor. We have plenty of children that need mentors and we also have parents that do as well.
2. Visitation. I need a Church or a nonprofit group or several that would be willing to help us get together volunteers, we can handle background checks, but we need an organization to help us provide visitation options for families that still need supervised visitation. Part of my discussion with management revolved around that and it seems as if with some structure I may be able to get them on board.
3. Foster parenting. Bradley County has an absurdly low amount of Foster homes. Go to https://everychildtn.org/ and look into becoming a foster parent. It is not easy. You will have your heart broken. But you will be doing such a huge service to children as well as parents that are your neighbors. When we have local foster homes, it allows the parents who are doing good to be able to have visitation more often. You also help keep kids in the same school system, and sometimes even the same schools that they grew up in.
I have four more years in office and I intend to spend every day doing the most that I can to fix these and other problems that persist. Please consider ways that you can help the kids.
If you’re interested in becoming a foster parent or volunteering for foster children in Tennessee, we’re here to answer questions and help you get started.
