TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Jun 21, 2022

Ongoing problems at the Department of Children's Services (DCS) could lead to a class action lawsuit on behalf of children in the state’s foster care system, Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 reports. Nashville attorney David Raybin, who was involved with a similar lawsuit against DCS in 2000, said “very active discussions” about a class action are taking place "unless the state steps up.” Raybin says high turnover among case workers, high caseloads and not enough foster homes mirror the problems the department faced in 2000, which led to a court takeover of DCS. Court supervision of the department stopped in 2019, but Raybin says DCS has “just slipped right back into the old ways.” He is urging DCS and Gov. Bill Lee to make changes.