The Department of Child Services (DCS) is working to help thousands of Tennessee children who are left to sleep in offices and hospitals.

There are currently more than 9 thousand children in the foster system, and more than 800 of those children are in the Chattanooga area, according to Chambliss.

"So children who are abused or neglected, the state is taking them from one precarious situation and, sounds like, putting them in another," says Michelle Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center. "Many of these children don't have a safe foster home or safe, appropriate treatment to ensure that these kids have a chance to deal with their trauma and to thrive."

Chambliss says they are only able to house 35 of the 800-900 foster children that are local.

"In the middle of a pandemic, putting kids in a hospital when they don't need to be there, you know, puts them in jeopardy," says Johnson. "No little person needs to be in an institution for one second longer than than their health requires."

DCS supervisor Margie Quin proposed a $156 million dollar budget increase, but they have learned it will not go into effect until July of 2023.

Because of their financial issues, 47 percent of DCS workers left the job in their first year because of overworking, according to the DCS.

The DCS says they currently have around 500 worker vacancies.

For six more months this will continue to be an issue since the proposed budget solution does not help immediately.

The DCS says they are advocating for use of the state's "Rainy Day" fund so that they have can give case workers a pay raise to $45 thousand a year.

"That's what the Rainy Day Fund is there for; situations like this, urgent crises, life and death prices, and for these children, it sure is rain," says Johnson.

The state currently has over $1 billion in "Rainy Day" funds.

Eleven Democratic state legislatures have asked Governor Bill Lee to address this issue.

"Well, it really needs to be the biggest priority of Governor Lee," says Johnson. "And it may be that he needs to invest more money, he needs to invest more energy."

The DCS also says they are also hoping to cap the work load for case worker.

"It's clear that this is not an easy problem to solve," says Johnson. "This is about political priorities, and it's about resources. We have more money in state government than we've ever had thanks to a lot of investments."

We are working to learn how far away the DCS is from seeing state help.

Depend on us for updates.