TENNESSEE
Keira m. V. Commissioner QUIn
Plaintiffs: 13 children in foster care, representing the general class of over 9,000 children in foster care in Tennessee. The lawsuit includes a general class and a subclass: the Americans with Disabilities Act subclass, which represents children with emotional, psychological, cognitive, or physical disabilities.
Read the complaint, filed May 19, 2025.
Read the press release.
Sign up for case updates.
about the TENNESSEE foster care system
Tennessee’s foster care system is failing the children it is intended to protect. Tennessee children originally filed a lawsuit against the state in 2000, Brian A., which resulted in a settlement requiring Tennessee to overhaul its foster care system . By 2017, the state met the required metrics for improvement and the court oversight ended, but system quickly declined to a point even worse than it was in 2000, and now subjects children to a wide range of harms, including:
DCS put children in placements that which lack the basic necessities of life, including adequate food, bedding, soap, and potable water. This includes facilities which possess well-known track records of physical, mental, and sexual abuse, and foster homes that have not been properly vetted.
DCS allows frequent moves among homes and institutions; children in Tennessee are moved from place to place without the opportunity for a stable childhood.
DCS fails to recruit and retain an adequate number of caseworkers. The caseworkers required to support and protect foster children are overworked and undertrained. Due to crushing caseloads, DCS caseworkers are unable to reliably perform the basic duties necessary to oversee the well-being of the foster children assigned to their care.
DCS fails to provide children with legally required services and treatments they need. Foster children’s medical, mental health, and physical needs remain unmet, leading to physical, psychological, emotional, and educational deterioration.
DCS is unable to meet the needs of the thousands of foster children with disabilities.
DCS failed to establish a reliable information system; the central database used by DCS, has been plagued by systemic failures for over a decade, which causes delayed services, missed visits, and harmful placements.
In its most recent audit of DCS in 2022, the Comptroller found that “the Department of Children’s Services is struggling to provide support services to Tennessee’s most vulnerable children and youth.”
ADVOCACY GOALs
Keira M. v. Quin requests that the court prohibit DCS from subjecting the children in the general class and the ADA subclass to practices that violate their rights. The case seeks an order directing the state and DCFS to, among other things:
Provide all children who enter foster care placement with an adequate and individualized written case plan within 60 days;
Ensure all children who enter foster care placement receive necessary medical and therapy services;
Ensure that children are only placed in homes that can meet their needs;
Develop a process to properly match children with appropriate and safe foster homes, and prioritize keeping sibling groups together;
Improve recruitment and retainment practices of appropriately trained caseworkers;
Lower caseloads of individual workers to professional standards;
Ensure that children with disabilities are provided with the services they need in their community.
Meet OUR PLANTIFFS
(All names below are pseudonyms)
-
Siblings Amara and Zane, now eight and nine years old, have been in foster care since 2017 after enduring neglect and abuse as young children. After leaving their first foster home, they were placed with foster parents who sexually and physically abused them, but it was not discovered until they were removed from the home. Because of this history, both children have significant trauma and PTSD, but the state fails to consistently provide them the therapeutic services they need. Amara was eventually returned to the first foster home, but the state failed to find Zane a safe and permanent foster placement. At one point Zane was switched between institutions nightly and placed with in an institution for teenagers as a 7-year-old. The state has still not found an appropriate home for him. Over the eight years that the children have been in foster care, DCS has rotated them through seven caseworkers. Amara and Zane have been living apart and have not seen each other in two years.
-
Keira, age 11, has been in DCS custody for 9 months, after being adopted out of foster care 5 years ago, following abuse and neglect from her bio parents. After being hospitalized in August, DCS took custody of her without following Family Crisis Intervention program guidelines or providing family services. In the following months, she was placed in a transitional facility, then an institution, where she has not been assessed for medical or behavioral needs. These locations are supposed to be temporary, but DCS has not created a plan for a more permanent home. DCS has hindered progress of connecting Keira to a prospective foster family and has failed to give consistent reports of her wellbeing and progress. Keira continues to suffer because of DCS’s failures.
-
Jasmine, age 15, has been in DC custody for over 3 years. She was originally removed from her home after being trafficked by her bio mother, and placed in a foster home with her sister. DCS failed to provide therapy to address her trauma, and in 2023 Jasmine was sent to an out-of-state residential facility over 1,500 miles away, and she has been there for over 18 months. She is not receiving the care she needs in this facility, and has been receiving medications with harmful side effects. She has not received consistent visit from a caseworker, and DCS has failed to make a plan for her future. Her clothes were packed and mistakenly thrown away in the facility, and never replaced. Even though she is almost 16 and has the right to attend planning meetings regarding her future, DCS has conducted at least 17 meetings with her. There is a family who would like to adopt her, but DCS has failed to plan or take steps toward a transition. DCS’s failures have caused Jasmine to suffer in case unnecessarily.