TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Jun 9, 2023

A new report from the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Second Look Commission finds that child abuse costs the state between $3 and $5 billion each year. That cost is mostly covered by Tennessee taxpayers in increased healthcare costs, special education services, child welfare, juvenile justice and other publicly funded programs for survivors. The Tennessee Lookout reports that Kylie Graves, director of the Tennessee Second Look Commission, says she “hopes the startling figures the report has produced will bolster arguments for increased investments in a broad range of public supports and interventions that include, but go beyond, the $1.35 billion budget for the Department of Children’s Services.”