Tennessee Lawmakers Aimed At Making Adoption And Foster Care Easier
Tennessee lawmakers this week announced legislation aimed at making adoption and foster care easier, cheaper and faster in the state of Tennessee. The legislation presented seeks to make many improvements such as removing red tape from the adoption process, increasing the number of children someone can watch in their home and reducing the caseload of Department of Children’s Services (DCS) caseworkers. House Republican Caucus Chairman, Jeremy Faison co-presented the ill on Monday. Faison, who is a parent of adopted children, says every child deserves to be protected and cared for in a loving home. Among the things the Adoption and Foster Care legislation would do is allow non-foster care parents to adopt from DCS, allow more time for adoptive parents to pay for birth related expenses, allow foster parents to be involved in court proceedings, prohibit the overturning of adoptions after 6 months and increase options for pre-birth and post-birth surrenders. Other items lawmakers discussed during the meeting on Monday include eliminating sales tax on baby formula, diapers and wet wipes. Lawmakers are also looking at a firm cap of 20 cases per DCS worker…20 is now the average. There is also a bill proposed that would provide 6 weeks paid family medical leave to state employees who are first-time adoptive or foster parents.
There is also a measure that would revise the definition of abandonment for purposes of terminating parental rights to include circumstances where the parent or guardian fails to visit or support the child for a period of three consecutive months if the child is less than four years of age.
Also being proposed is a change to the state’s Safe Haven Law. That legislation would require DCS to transfer guardianship of an infant to a certified adoption agency if left at a Safe Haven location. It would also allow a court to waive the six-month waiting period to finalize an adoption of a baby who was surrendered under the safe haven law.