Nearly half of all Tennessee working families cannot afford the basic cost of living in their counties, according to new analyses of Census and federal economic data by the United Way of Tennessee.
The report examined the challenges facing households that earned more than the federal poverty level but, nevertheless, struggle to make ends meet.
While the number of households living in poverty decreased by nearly 5,000 across the state between 2021 and 2022, more than 34,214 households were added to the category of Tennesseans unable to pay for basic needs despite earnings that put them above the poverty level. In total, the report found that 1.2 million Tennessee households fall into this category.
The report concluded that the “survival budget” necessary for a family of four increased to $75,600 between 2021 and 2022. The budget includes the cost of housing, food, childcare, transportation and healthcare — all of which grew more expensive. In 33 Tennessee counties, more than half of all households failed to earn enough to meet their survival budgets.
While wages have increased in that time period, the 20 most common occupations in Tennessee still pay less than $20 per hour, the report found. These include jobs like sales, truck driving, administrative assistants and elementary school teachers.
Although poverty levels for Tennessee kids have shrunk, the report found that 38 percent of working Tennessee families with children at home did not earn enough to keep up with basic expenses.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Jace Wilder, education manager of the Tennessee Equality Project, says the new law “puts kids at risk of being abused, neglected and harmed again.” (Photo: John Partipilo)
With Gov. Bill Lee’s signature, Tennessee last week became the first state in the nation to establish the right of adults who claim moral or religious objections to LGBTQ identity to foster and adopt LGBTQ kids.
In the days since the law became effective, the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) has shelved a 10-year-old policy that said children in state custody must receive care that “promotes dignity and respect for all children/youth and families inclusive of their gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.”
That policy is now “under review and will be updated on the website once the review is complete,” DCS spokesperson Ashley Zarach said. New guidelines for how the state will navigate foster kids’ sexual orientation and gender identity in deciding where to place them are expected to be hashed out in the coming months.
The law’s passage has raised alarms among advocates for LGBTQ youth in Tennessee and elsewhere, who say it upends a central principle of child welfare systems: prioritizing the best interest of a child.
Instead, they say, the law gives greater weight to a prospective parent’s religious and moral beliefs over the need of a child for a loving, safe, and supportive home.
“What’s really sad about this is there’s a really high volume of LGBTQ+ kids in the foster system whose needs aren’t being met now,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. Among the LGBTQ nonprofit’s programs is one that aids 18- to 24-year-old LGBTQ youth facing homelessness, many of whom are former foster kids who faced a tough time in the child welfare system.
“The fact that the state would accept a family that is willing to discriminate into this broken system with such vulnerable kids is difficult to understand,” she said.
Best interests of the child?
The law, formally called the Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Parent Protection Act, was backed overwhelmingly by Tennessee Republican lawmakers, who two years ago also approved a first-of-its-kind law allowing private adoption and foster care agencies that accept tax dollars to reject prospective parents for a variety of religious or moral reasons, including their faith or whether they are LGBTQ.
In advocating for this year’s bill, Dickson Republican Rep. Mary Littleton characterized it as a necessary safeguard for families who want to offer loving homes to foster and adoptive kids but worry that they would have to compromise their faith or moral beliefs. Littleton also cited an urgent need for more willing families to step forward. Tennessee currently has 4,948 fully approved foster homes, but needs 400 more.
At the end of the day the state should be acting in the best interest of the kids and this doesn’t do this. This puts emphasis on beliefs of foster and adoptive parents.
– Laura Brennan, Family Equity
Littleton stressed that the new law says DCS is not precluded from taking a child’s preferences into account before placing them in a home.
“This bill does not disregard the values and beliefs of the child,” Littleton said, noting state child welfare officials can still take into account “a comprehensive list of factors” before placing any child in any home.
Advocates have pushed back to say that plain language of the law does not require the state to take into account the child’s own wishes.
They also criticized what they call a mischaracterization by the law’s supporters that prospective foster and adoptive parents in Tennessee have been rejected for holding anti-LGBTQ beliefs.
Parents in Tennessee have not been required to be gender- or sexual-orientation-affirming as a condition of becoming approved as a foster or adoptive parent. They have, however, been required to promote dignity and respect of a child’s identity if they take an LGBTQ kid in their home — until now.
DCS: parents preferences already taken into account
According to the Department of Children’s Services, prospective parents’ “preferences” have routinely been taken into account before a child is placed in a home, a spokesperson for the Department of Children’s Services said in a statement.
“Prior to this legislation, the DCS home study process included asking prospective foster and adoptive parents a series of questions to identify their placement preferences,” a statement from DCS said.
“Among those are questions regarding willingness to parent a child who identifies as LGBTQ+. Our goal always is to find the most appropriate placement to meet the unique needs of each child in our care,” the statement said.
Tennessee currently has 8,854 kids in state custody — 6,686 of them residing in foster homes. Up to a third of all foster youth nationwide identify as LBGTQ — often kicked out of home or winding up in state custody as result of mistreatment or rejection based on their gender identity, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Jace Wilder, education manager Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that has vocally opposed the law, pointed to his own tough childhood as an example of the importance of supportive adults in a child’s life.
Wilder, who is transgender, was raised, in part, by a friend’s parents after suffering abuse at the hands of his father, he said. His mother was disabled and frequently hospitalized.
Wilder said the abuse wasn’t solely because of his gender identity, but “it kind of gave him more ammo to use against me, so that did not help.” He was also able to connect with LGBTQ people for support in his teens and college years, he said.
“Without finding people that accepted me and really helped me grow, I think I would have been stuck in the position of being too afraid to transition, too afraid of being out,” he said. “I think this puts kids at risk of being abused, neglected, and harmed again.”
The nature of discourse over LGBTQ youth in Tennessee already exemplifies the need for safe and affirming homes, said Eli Givens, a college freshman from Tennessee who also serves as an advocate for the Tennessee Equality Project.
“It’s been just really unbelievable watching this session,” Givens said. “I’ve had adults telling me I need to go gas myself, that I was clearly molested when I was younger, just a wide array of threats.
“It’s bewildering that the same adults who told me to gas myself can adopt an LGBTQ child. That’s an extremely scary reality.”
Tennessee AG pushes back on proposed federal LGBTQ foster protections
The law was enacted on the heels of proposed new rules currently being considered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services related to the placement of LGBTQI+ youth in foster care. Among the proposed rules for all foster homes is they “establish an environment free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status.”
In November, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a 17-state coalition opposing the rules, saying in a letter to the federal government that they would shrink the pool of available foster families and “further divert resources away from protecting foster children from physical abuse and toward enforcing compliance with controversial gender ideology.”
Laura Brennan, associate director for child welfare policy for Family Equality, which advocates for LGBTQ families, said national advocates are keeping a close eye on what’s happening in Tennessee. The state’s 2022 law allowing publicly-funded private adoption and foster care agencies to exclude LGBTQ parents has seen been adopted by 13 other states, she said.
“At the end of the day the state should be acting in the best interest of the kids and this doesn’t do this,” she said. “This puts emphasis on beliefs of foster and adoptive parents.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Ford BlueOval City, photographed while under construction in April 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)
A high-stakes battle over the future of Tennessee’s wetlands has been playing out behind closed doors in recent weeks, with developers and environmental groups furiously lobbying on opposite sides of a bill to drastically roll back regulations.
The bill by Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) would limit state oversight over more than 430,000 acres of Tennessee wetlands. That’s more than half of the state’s critical ecosystems, which serve as a bulwark against floods and droughts, replenish aquifers and are prized by hunters, anglers and nature lovers.
Environmental groups warn that the proposed bill, if enacted by the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, could inflict irreparable harm on future generations.
“The proposed legislation favors the interests of developers over the safety of future flood victims and pocketbooks of Tennessee taxpayers,” said George Nolan, senior attorney and director of the Southern Environmental Law Center in Tennessee.
“Once a developer fills and paves over a wetland, it is gone forever. This is no time to repeal laws that have protected our wetlands for the last 50 years,” he said.
Vaughan called the measure an overdue check on red tape that costs developers time and money; he has denied weakened wetland regulation could lead to increased flooding.
The proposed legislation favors the interests of developers over the safety of future flood victims and pocketbooks of Tennessee taxpayers.
– George Nolan, Southern Environmental Law Center
He has accused state environmental regulators of “bureaucratic overreach” and “unnecessary inflation on the cost of construction” and pointed to the urgent need for relief from regulation given a building boom in the region he represents, where a new Ford plant is going up in Stanton just 40 miles from the offices of Township Properties, Vaughan’s real estate and development company.
“My district is one that is different from a lot of other people’s districts. We’re in the path of growth,” Vaughan told lawmakers.
Lee’s office did not respond to a question about whether he supports the bill.
West Tennessee Where Wetlands Abound.
There is perhaps nowhere else in the state where tensions between fast-tracking development and protecting wetlands are higher than West Tennessee.
BlueOval City, Ford Motor Co.’s $5.6 billion electric truck plant, has spurred a land rush in the region, with developers buying up properties, designing subdivisions and erecting apartment complexes at a fast clip ahead of its 2025 planned opening.
Restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores are springing up to accommodate an expected 11 percent increase in population by 2045 in the 21-county region surrounding the plant — making it the fastest-growing area in Tennessee.
West Tennessee counties also have some of the largest shares of wetlands that would lose protections under Vaughan’s bill.
The bill targets so-called “isolated wetlands” that have no obvious surface connection to a river or lake. Wetlands, however, rarely stand alone, often containing hidden underground connections to aquifers or waterways.
The 10 Tennessee counties with the largest share of at-risk “isolated” wetlands are located in West Tennessee, within commuting distance of the Ford plant.
Haywood County, where the plant is located, has more than 57,319 acres of wetlands that could lose protections under Vaughan’s bill — nearly 17 percent of all land area in the county, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife National Wetlands Inventory compiled by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
The region also lies atop the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the primary water supply for urban and rural communities, and farmers in west Tennessee. Wetlands serve to recharge and filter water that supplies the aquifer.
“This is such a unique moment in west Tennessee history,” said Sarah Houston, executive director of the Memphis advocacy group Protect Our Aquifers, noting projected growth data that shows population increases of 200,000 or more in the next two decades.
“But when you’re removing protections for wetlands, you’re cutting out that deep recharge potential for all the water supply West Tennessee relies on,” she said.
Vaughn’s business among those to profit from building boom.
Developers who wish to fill in, build on or otherwise disturb wetlands must first apply for a permit from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or TDEC, which can approve or reject the plans.
The process can prove costly; companies must hire lawyers, hydrologists and other experts before filing a permit. And if they get one, TDEC can require developers to pay expensive mitigation fees for disturbing wetlands — potentially adding tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to construction costs. The fees are used to preserve wetlands elsewhere, balancing out what is lost by a single project. The process can add months, or more, to construction timelines.
Vaughan has spoken openly about ongoing frustrations in his own business to comply with the state rules, describing TDEC regulators as overzealous in defining marshy or muddy lands that are created by tractor ruts or runoff as wetlands.
State records show that Vaughan as recently as December received state notice that a project he is spearheading contains two wetlands: one at 1.42 acres and another at 1.51 acres.
Given the presence of wetlands, “any alterations to jurisdictional streams, wetlands, or open water features may only be performed under coverage of, and conformance to, a valid aquatic resource alteration permit,” the Dec. 8 letter from TDEC to Vaughan said.
The project, a 130-acre site of the proposed new headquarters for Thompson Machinery, Vaughan’s client, will have to incur costly remediation fees should its permit to build atop wetlands be approved by TDEC.
It’s one of multiple development projects that Vaughan has been affiliated with that have butted into TDEC wetland regulations in recent years.
PAC money flows in from west Tennessee.
Vaughan also represented Memphis-based Crews Development in 2019 when the company received a notice of violation for draining and filling in a wetland without permission.
Vaughan did not respond to questions from the Lookout, including whether his sponsorship of the bill presents a conflict of interest.
He is not alone among developers in the region who are seeking favorable legislation during a period of rapid growth.
West Tennessee construction companies and real estate firms have spent big on a new political action committee formed in 2022 to influence legislative policy. The little-known Build Tennessee PAC spent $186,000 in the six months before the start of this year’s legislative session, the fourth largest spender over that period, according to campaign finance records analyzed by the Lookout.
Keith Grant, a prominent Collierville developer listed as Build Tennessee’s contact, did not respond to a request for comment.
The measure also has gained the backing of influential statewide groups, including the Tennessee Farm Bureau, the Home Builders Association of Tennessee, Associated Builders and Contractors and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce.
Bradley Jackson, president and CEO of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, said last week the legislation — which Vaughan recently amended to make distinctions between different types of wetlands — represents a fair and balanced approach.
Jackson said the chamber convened a working group of five trade organizations last summer that concluded Tennessee’s wetland regulations need adjustment. “We feel this deal strikes a really good middle group. It provides the business community with consistency and certainty. We can ensure we’re being compliant,” Jackson said.
Vaughan offers ‘compromise’ amendment; environmental groups say it leaves wetlands unprotected.
The legislation is scheduled to be heard Wednesday in the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, with an amendendment that makes distinctions between wetlands.
The amendment would allow developers to build on “low-quality” wetlands and up to four acres of “moderate” isolated wetlands without seeking state permission.
Environmental groups say the proposal continues to place large pieces of Tennessee wetlands at risk.
Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville. (Photo: John Partipilo)
“Vaughan’s current amendment is not a compromise as it requires no mitigation for low-quality wetlands regardless of size and no mitigation for large swaths of moderate-quality wetlands,” Grace Stranch, chief executive officer of the Harpeth Conservancy said. “The development resulting from those huge carveouts will likely cause increased flooding, a decline in water quality, higher water bills, and aquifer recharge problems.”
The measure has also drawn pushback from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
“We at TDEC fear the proposal could result in greater back-end costs,” Gregory Young, the agency’s deputy commissioner, told lawmakers earlier this month.
Alex Pellom, chief of staff for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, cautioned the bill could lead to more flooding; the state has already suffered its wettest years in history since 2019, leading to devastating floods, billions of dollars in property damage and loss of life.
“We continue to work with the sponsor to discuss potential solutions,” Eric Ward, a TDEC spokesperson, said last week.
A Supreme Court decision limits federal oversight.
Vaughan’s bill was introduced on the heels of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that narrowed federal protections of wetlands, leaving it up to states to set their own rules.
The court concluded that only wetlands that have a surface water connection to rivers, lakes and oceans fall under federal oversight and are subject to Clean Water Act regulations.
There is little debate in the stormwater community about the value of wetlands as key instruments of maintaining water quality and mitigating damaging flooding.
– Aaron Rogge, Tennessee Storm Water Association
The majority of Tennessee’s wetlands — 432,850 out of the state’s 787,000 acres of wetlands in the state — do not have a surface connection to a water source, according to TDEC. It is these wetlands Vaughan is seeking to remove from state oversight and protection.
“This is going to be a major change to the way that the state manages its water resources, and likely one that we’ll look back on as a product of our current political climate,” said Aaron Rogge, a Nashville-based civil engineer who is also the current president of the Tennessee Stormwater Association.
“There is little debate in the stormwater community about the value of wetlands as key instruments of maintaining water quality and mitigating damaging flooding; in fact, many cities and counties choose to actively construct wetlands to manage their runoff,” he said.
Tennessee is not alone in targeting wetland regulation after the high court’s decision, according to Jim Murphy, director of legal advocacy for the National Wildlife Federation.
Legislatures in Illinois, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado are considering expanding wetland protections in light of the court’s decision while Indiana is among states considering a developer-backed bill similar to Vaughan’s.
“It’s a very fluid situation,” Murphy said. “In a lot of ways, it mirrors the politics of a state. But as you get down to state-level realities of what’s being lost, people are seeing what unregulated development means and often that means that their special places get paved over.”
Reporter Adam Friedman contributed to this story.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
A ticketing system that restricts public access to the Tennessee House of Representatives is allowable under the state’s constitution, according to a legal opinion from Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti.
In practice, the ticketing system has meant that Tennessee’s super-majority GOP House can control its audience while conducting public business. GOP lawmakers get 75 tickets and Democrats 24, all for the west balcony overlooking the House floor. The east side of the gallery remains open to the media and public.
Sexton has defended the policy against criticism, saying representatives want to ensure visitors they know are arriving have seats, even if they are a few minutes late. He said lawmakers could also share tickets and noted that Congress also has a ticketing system.
Establishing a ticketing system falls within the authority of the General Assembly to regulate and manage access to the Capitol building, the legal opinion, issued last week, said.
According to the opinion, “the Tennessee Constitution contemplates that sessions during which the General Assembly conducts its business will be open to the public, but it does not guarantee the public a right of access to legislative sessions,” it said.
The Tennessee Constitutions says that “doors of each House and of committees of the whole shall be kept open, unless when the business shall be such as ought to be kept secret.”
The ticketing system, the opinion said, “would not run afoul of the “open door” provision of (the Tennessee Constitution) because it would not close the doors to the public; it would merely manage public access to the limited space that is available.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Five years ago, a conservative think tank made an explosive revelation: Tennessee leaders had allowed a key anti-poverty program to amass a $730 million surplus —dollars from the federal government that never reached the struggling families for whom they were earmarked.
Fast forward to today: the state currently has a surplus of $717 million in the same federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — known in Tennessee as “Families First.” The size of Tennessee’s TANF balance dwarfs every state but one.
Officials with the state’s Department of Humans Services say they are making progress in putting the unspent funds to use.
In the coming years, all but $190 million of the amassed funds will be distributed in the form of multi-year grants to community groups, transferred to a health department nurses for newborns program and paid to IT contractors to overhaul the agency’s aging computer system. New grant awards announcements are expected this spring.
“Over the course of the next three to four years we will see a consistent reduction in those unexpended balances as grant funding is distributed,” said Danielle Cotton, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Human Services, which manages the Families First program.
Critics, however, have questioned the lengthy timeline that has elapsed since the existence of the surplus was first brought to light in 2019, and the consequences of withheld resources for Tennessee’s working poor.
“The goal seems to be to give community grants to organizations when we know that TANF funding can go directly to the people who really need them,” said Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat who has a bill this year to mandate cost of living increases for the cash payments given to families, similar to the automatic adjustments linked to the governor’s salary.
“These dollars keep piling up when we have one of the most food insecure states in the nation,” Campbell said.
TANF is a federal program that provides an annual block grant to every state. Its purpose is to help lift families with children out of poverty and towards self-sufficiency. Tennessee receives about $190 million each year. The federal government places no timelines on when states must spend their annual allotment.
There are approximately 29,000 Tennesseans enrolled in the program — more than 23,000 of them children, according to the most recent department data publicly available.
Each state sets its own priorities, but uses a portion of the federal funding to send monthly cash stipends to low income families with kids.Tennessee’s monthly cash payment for a family of three averages $387. It is among the lowest TANF cash payments in the nation.
States may also use the funding to provide grants to community groups that provide services to working parents — services that include child care, transportation and job training.
In 2019, the Beacon Center, a conservative-leaning think tank based in Nashville, revealed the state had routinely failed to spend its annual $190 million allotment for more than a decade, amassing the then-largest surplus in TANF in the nation: $732 million. (The unspent funds are reserved for Tennessee’s use by the federal government: they do not accrue interest for the state.)
An immediate public outcry followed. And after initially defending the program’s spending decisions, Gov. Bill Lee changed course, pledging in early 2021 to make TANF reform one of his top legislative priorities.
The resulting “TANF Opportunity Act” was enacted with bipartisan support later that year. It addressed the accumulated reserves by capping any TANF surplus at $190 million in “unobligated funding.” It also increased the then-average family-of-three payment from $277 per month to the current $387. And it set time limits for the state to spend its annual TANF allotment.
DHS officials noted last week that the current $717 million in reserves are all obligated or in the process of being obligated for specific current and future purposes, in compliance with the law.
“Every dollar of the $717.5 million has a budgeted line item,” Cotton said. Several community grants are “in the contractual process for final obligations.”
The 2021 legislation also created a Families First community advisory group tasked with recommending reforms and monitoring outcomes of the spending decisions.
DHS Commissioner Clarence Carter, tapped by Gov. Bill Lee to lead the department in January 2021, detailed his ambitious approach at the time.
“We are using the TANF program to redesign Tennessee’s safety net,” Carter said at the advisory group’s first meeting in August 2021.
“Instead of a knee jerk response to, OK, we’ve got $700 million and let’s just get that money out the door, folks came together and were very thoughtful about what’s the most impactful way we can put those dollars into play and really have better results,” Carter said.
At the outset, however, the department faced challenges in distributing the hundreds of millions of dollars accumulated in its reserves.
The goal seems to be to give community grants to organizations when we know that TANF funding can go directly to the people who really need them.
– Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville
The funding distributed from the TANF reserve to community organizations providing safety net services comes with strict rules that require agencies to follow complex federal mandates as well as show measurable improvements for working families.
Cotton, the DHS spokesperson, said only a few agencies were willing or able to take on the grants.
“There are a limited number of organizations that serve our fellow Tennesseans in the public safety net, and even fewer organizations that want to comply with the requirements and regulations of a federal grant,” said Cotton, the DHS spokesperson.
“As such we have noticed that we are often reaching the same or similar audience with more and more opportunities but very few new participants,” she said.
As a result, earlier this year lawmakers amended the TANF legislation, extending deadlines for DHS to distribute the federal funding.
Instead of a requirement that DHS fully expend its annual $190 million allotment every 12 months, lawmakers extended its spending deadline to 18 months each year.
The law also extended the original legislation’s three-year deadline for the department to develop, implement and evaluate pilot programs with communities organizations from three years to four years, or until the 2026-2027 fiscal years.
And instead of a December 2025 deadline for the advisory group to issue a report on TANF reform progress, the new law gives the group another year, setting a new December 2026 deadline.
“Frankly it took us a little while longer than I anticipated, than the legislation anticipated, to get these organizations up and running,” Rep. David Hawk, who sponsored the law, told a legislative committee last year.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Tennessee has one of the highest overall rates of child homicide in the nation but ranks even higher for the rate of kids killed by guns: one out of every four children who died in 2021 was killed by a bullet.
New data released Monday by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth provides a comprehensive portrait of the lives and deaths of Tennessee’s children and the economic and social forces that shape their childhoods, from poverty to educational achievement, access to healthcare and housing.
While child deaths by firearms are on the rise — Tennessee ranks 7th in the nation for children murdered by guns — youth in Tennessee are much more likely to be the victim of a firearm crime than to perpetuate one, the “State of the Child in Tennessee 2023” report notes.
In 2022, kids were perpetrators of 1,561 crimes involving firearms; they were victims in 4,490 firearm-related crimes, according to the report.
At the same time, the state’s largest cities — Memphis, Chattanooga and Nashville — all experienced a decline in the under-18 crime rate. Nashville and Memphis experienced some of the largest declines in youth crime in Tennessee, according to the report.
The report also noted that infant mortality from all causes has increased in Tennessee, after a slight decline between 2019 and 2022. Tennessee’s infant mortality rate of 6.6 per 1,000 surpasses the national average of 5.6 per 1,000.
“Our state does better when all children have access to the resources, supports and services they need to thrive,” said Richard Kennedy, executive director of the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. “We hope this report can serve as a guidebook for where we as a state are getting things right and where we can focus our investment and attention to improve outcomes.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Jasmine Bryant was caught by surprise at the grocery store in September, when a state-issued debit card to buy food for her three kids was rejected at the checkout counter.
Her SNAP benefits — formerly referred to as food stamps — had been cut off without notice, despite no change in the circumstances that allow her family of four to access the nutritional help.
Bryant made multiple calls to the Tennessee Department of Human Services helpline, where hold times stretch to four hours and hang-ups are a frequent occurrence. An online application system was often down. And at a nearby local Knoxville benefits office, where many of the electronic kiosks were out of order and in-person windows were closed, there were hours-long waits, rude staff and security guards, and few answers.
It would be another three months before the Bryant family was restored to the program that allows the single mom to buy fresh fruits, vegetables and protein for her active, sports-playing kids — ages 13, 11 and 8.
“I did everything I could to make sure the kids didn’t know what was going on,” said Bryant, 35. “But they noticed. They’re used to me cooking home-cooked meals and fresh food that you can’t really get from food banks. It made me feel like a failure.” Jasmine Bryant, 35, lost access to state food benefits for three months due to backlogs at the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
The family’s benefits, Bryant would learn, had been cut off in error.
As the holiday season approaches, thousands of Tennessee families who qualify for food assistance have been cut off from food benefits they rely on; families recently out of a job or falling on hard times haven’t been able to successfully access first-time aid.
State officials blame the rollout of a new computer system in June and an ongoing staffing shortage.
“This year, the Tennessee Department of Human Services experienced its largest technology transition since 1992,” Danielle Cotton, department spokesperson, said. “As we transition from the old system to the new one, there has been a temporary increase in our processing times that we are actively working to mitigate.”
Advocates for Tennessee children and families question why the computer rollout was so poorly launched and note frustrations for families are compounded by widespread reports of mistreatment by state employees.
“It’s really hard. The reason why people are turning to SNAP is because they’re having a hard time feeding themselves or their families. It’s a lifeline,” said Signe Anderson, senior director of nutrition advocacy for the Tennessee Justice Center.
Anderson said last week that the problems identified months ago haven’t gotten any better for families, who have turned to community organizations like hers for assistance. Applicants have reported chaos inside DHS offices, she said: Senior citizens have waited in lines of 150 or more that stretch outside offices into the cold; security guards, at times, have called police about applicants who expressed frustrations; state employees have refused to use translations services for non-English speaking individuals.
“DHS calls individuals applying for SNAP their ‘customers,’ but we’ve seen none of the respect and dignity in treating people here,” Anderson said.
Cotton said the agency is also working to recruit and retain staff, offering accelerated training to new hires who work on the SNAP program. Cotton did not immediately respond to a request last week for vacancy numbers in its SNAP program.
Six months after the the agency installed the new computer system, thousands of low-income Tennesseans remain in limbo. As of November 30, there were 48,690 SNAP applications pending, according to DHS.
Approximately 40 percent of the applications have been stuck in the system for more than a month, despite a federal rules that require states to process applications within 30 days. Cotton noted that not all pending applications are from people who will ultimately qualify for SNAP: one in five applications are denied, she said.
The backlog in processing applications spiked in June, when the state replaced and modernized computer systems. By July, more than 73,000 individuals — mostly children — lost access to food benefits in a single month, a notable drop in a program that sees routine fluctuations in the numbers of individuals receiving benefits.
The department also changed its once-yearly benefits review of people currently receiving SNAP to once every six months, adding further stressors to the system, Anderson said.
In many cases, families that applied for the benefit without getting an answer simply reapplied, adding to the volume of cases for agency review. Between June and November, more than 40 percent of applications were duplicates, according to DHS.
For those like Bryant, who already have SNAP that are now subject to a new six-month review, upwards of 500 people have been waiting more than a month to get their benefits reviewed, agency data shows.
“If it hadn’t been for two food banks and people in my community looking out for me, I don’t know what I would have done,” said Bryant.
Bryant is also enrolled in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, taking required workforce training classes — a chance at a future career that would be lost should she take a job now.
“I’m doing everything I can to try and make a better way,” she said. “DHS has always been bad, but never this bad. I know the staff has to feel overwhelmed, but I don’t understand why they had to make this so hard.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
After years of steady declines, Tennessee’s prison population climbed by nearly eight percent last year, a bump in the rate of incarceration that surpassed all but three other states during a period of time that also saw steep drops in the most serious crimes.
Tennessee added 1,615 more men and 125 more women to its roster of state prisoners in 2022, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Justice. Only Mississippi, Colorado, and Montana experienced greater gains.
By the end of 2022, there were 23,735 state inmates in Tennessee; the data does not include the population in county jails, which hold individuals for misdemeanor offenses and those awaiting trial.
Criminal justice reform advocates said they were disheartened but unsurprised by the data.
“Everything that we said was going to come true has come true,” said Dawn Harrington, executive director of Free Hearts, a nonprofit that advocates for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Among the drivers, Harrington believes, is Tennessee’s so-called truth-in-sentencing law, which took effect midway through 2022. The law requires heightened minimum sentences for a host of offenses.
The COVID epidemic also ushered in a series of social and economic challenges — among them unemployment, limited access to mental health resources and widening disparities in education and healthcare. All are “predetermining factors” that may also explain why more men and women wound up behind bars, she said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction did not respond Friday to questions about factors state officials believe are driving the growth in Tennessee’s prison population.
Tennessee incarcerated more people in 2022 despite a drop in crime. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported incidents of murder, rape, and kidnapping decreased by double digits last year.
2022 Tennessee crime rates. Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
Data that could shed light on the number of imprisoned people who received lengthier sentences as a result of last year’s truth-in-sentencing law was not immediately available last week.
The law was enacted over the objections of Gov. Bill Lee, who said he was concerned about “unintended consequences.”
“Widespread evidence suggests that this policy will result in more victims, higher recidivism, increased crime and prison overcrowding, all with an increased cost to taxpayers,” Lee said in a letter to House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally before the legislation was enacted.
“If we need to build more prisons, we can,” Sexton responded at the time.
Lee, nevertheless, declined to veto the law, allowing it to take effect without his signature.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a coalition of 17 states in fighting a proposed federal rule intended to give LGBTQ kids greater protections in foster care.
The proposed rule reflects misguided federal policy, illegally intrudes on state authority and risks violating the free speech and religion rights of foster parents and organizations that provide care to kids in state custody, a letter sent Monday U.S. Department of Health & Human Services from Skrmetti and 16 of his counterparts in other states said.
“It also hampers the ability of the states to protect kids by forcing children’s services agencies to police pronoun usage with the same urgency they address physical abuse,” Skrmetti said in a statement released Wednesday.
Announced in September by the Biden Administration, the proposed new rule would require state child welfare agencies to ensure LGBTQ+ kids in state custody are “protected from mistreatment related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, where their caregivers have received special training on how to meet their needs, and where they can access the services they need to thrive.”
LGBTQ kids are disproportionately represented in foster care across the nation, with some studies suggesting that up to a third of all foster youth identify as LBGTQ — often winding up in state custody as result of mistreatment or rejection based on their gender identity, according to DHHS.
The proposed “placement rule” would require child welfare agencies like the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services to place kids in foster homes, residential treatment centers or group homes that are “free of hostility, mistreatment, or abuse based on the child’s LGBTQI+ status” and with caregivers who have the appropriate knowledge and skills to provide for the needs of a child related to the child’s sexual orientation.
“For example, to be considered a safe and appropriate placement, a provider is expected to utilize the child’s identified pronouns, chosen name, and allow the child to dress in an age-appropriate manner that the child believes reflects their self-identified gender identity and expression,” the rules say.
It would also require caregivers to provide access to “clinically appropriate mental and behavioral health care supportive of their sexual orientation and gender identity and expression as needed.”
That requirement is “particularly problematic,” the letter from attorneys general said.
(A proposed federal rule) also hampers the ability of the states to protect kids by forcing children’s services agencies to police pronoun usage with the same urgency they address physical abuse.
– Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti in a statement
A recently enacted Tennessee law, currently facing a legal challenge in federal court, prohibits a variety of gender-affirming medical care for minors. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to block the law during the legal challenge, issuing a ruling that expressed deep reservations about such medical treatments for youth.
“The Placement Rule nonetheless appears to condition … Tennessee’s continued funding on foster parents’ providing certain gender-affirming treatments that it and other States have permissibly banned. Or perhaps HHS would require foster parents to take children on costly out-of-state trips for medical visits and surgeries to avoid designation as “unsafe” foster providers,” the letter said.
The attorneys general also expressed concern the new rules, potentially holding foster parents and state agencies legally liable for failing to follow them, and required new training, could deter people from becoming foster parents, or prompt existing foster parents to leave, adding to an already acute shortage in foster homes. Ultimately, that would harm kids not help them, the letter said.
A Department of Children’s Services spokesperson did not respond to request for information, but published agency guidelines maintained by the federal government show that the agency is one of approximately 39 states that provide explicit protections from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Tennessee’s guidelines, however, do not go as far as the proposed federal government’s rules.
“Flexibility is needed for youth participating in activities that would create safe spaces for LGBTQ in foster care,” Tennessee’s guidelines state. “Caregivers should seek assistance and information on resources and opportunities for these youth if not aware of them and seek consultation with the youth’s worker, when needed.”
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
A Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency vehicle. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency will be required to wear body-worn cameras, joining an increasing number of state and federal law enforcement agencies who police hunting, fishing, and boating laws across the nation that are now required to wear the devices.
Roughly 250 Tennessee officers who routinely interact with the public will be required to wear body cameras, spokesperson Emily Buck said.
The goal of adding cameras is to “promote perceived legitimacy, sense of fairness, and procedural justice the citizens of Tennessee have about TWRA,” read the agency’s grant application to the U.S. Department of Justice, which provided $340,000 start-up funding.
Body-worn cameras have been adopted by numerous traditional law enforcement agencies over the past decade, but only in recent years put into use by sworn officers with the U.S. Department of Interior, Forest Service, and TWRA counterparts in other states who patrol natural areas.
These officers possess the same authority to question, detain, arrest, search and seize as local police and sheriff’s departments, but they have received far less scrutiny in their interactions with the public, which often take place in rural, forested and other natural areas — including waterways — away from public view.
In Tennessee, allegations about TWRA officer misconduct and abuse of power have surfaced in two recent lawsuits.
In April, a panel of state judges, ruling in a lawsuit brought by two Benton County property owners, struck down a state law giving TWRA officers the right to search and surveil private property without a warrant —and without notice to property residents or owners.
The panel called TWRA’s practice of conducting warrantless searches and surveillance “unconstitutional, unlawful, and unenforceable” and giving rise to an “intolerable risk of abusive searches.” No other Tennessee state or local agency is explicitly granted the same powers. TWRA is appealing the decision.
In July, a master falconer filed a federal lawsuit against three TWRA law enforcement officers, alleging her constitutional rights were violated when they unlawfully seized 13 birds of prey, phone, computer, video, and other records from her Nashville home in 2022 — an action a Nashville criminal court judge later called “egregious,” “an abuse of the law” and “malicious prosecution.” TWRA officials have denied their officers violated the law.
TWRA is still in the process of implementing body camera usage. Officers have received training and are currently being outfitted with the video and audio capturing devices, Buck said. The DOJ grant covers less than half the initial three-year startup costs of cameras, she said.
All full-time wildlife officers, sergeants, and lieutenants will be issued cameras, which must be activated to record all vehicle and vessel stops, pursuits, calls for service, “detentions, investigations pursuant to an arrest, arrests, suspect interviews,” searches of individuals and during the execution of search warrants — among other circumstances detailed in protocol provided by TWRA.
The protocol provides for exceptions to the requirement to record, including in restrooms or other areas where the public has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Among other exceptions: audio may be muted at an officers discretion while conferring with other law enforcement during a law enforcement action or in other circumstances “based on clearly articulable reasons.”
TWRA’s adoption of body worn cameras comes after numerous state and federal wildlife law enforcement agency have begun requiring them.
In 2019, the United States Forest Service began requiring its officers to wear the cameras. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Interior began requiring its officers to use them, a policy that extends to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
