On January 19, the Brian A. Technical Assistance Committee , a five person court appointed panel chaired by CFPC Associate Director Andy Shookhoff, released its second Monitoring Report, a 179 page evaluation of the progress made by the Tennessee Department of Children's Services in implementing the requirements of Brian A. v. Bredesen, a civil rights class action brought on behalf of neglected, abused, and “unruly” children in state custody. Both this monitoring report and the first Monitoring Report, issued on April 13, 2005, are available on the CFPC Website.

The Brian A. Settlement Agreement requires improvements in the operations of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services (DCS) and establishes target outcomes to be achieved by the State of Tennessee on behalf of children in custody and their families in the core areas of safety, well-being, and permanency.

The Settlement Agreement established the Technical Assistance Committee (TAC), consisting of five experts in the child welfare field and selected by agreement of the parties, to serve as a resource to the Department in the development and implementation of its reform effort. In addition to Shookhoff, the TAC includes: Steven D. Cohen, Senior Associate, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, MD; Carolyn Lapsley, Division Director (R.C. Coordinator), Alabama Department of Human Resources, Montgomery, AL; Judy Meltzer, Deputy Director, Center for the Study of Social Policy, Washington, D.C.; and Paul Vincent, Director, Child Welfare Policy and Practice Group, Montgomery, AL. The work of the Technical Assistance Committee is supported by a grant to the Child and Family Policy Center from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Sharon Carter, CFPC Research Associate, serves as full time staff to the Technical Assistance Committee.

The TAC was envisioned as a way of making available to DCS the range of expertise and assistance that was perceived by the parties as necessary to ensure that the reform would be successful. The primary function of the TAC was and continues to be to advise and assist DCS in its efforts to design, implement, and evaluate improvements required by the Settlement Agreement. In addition, there are certain areas in which the Settlement Agreement gives the TAC responsibility for making recommendations, which the Department is then required to implement.

Under the terms of the Stipulation of Settlement of Contempt Motion (Stipulation) entered by the Federal District Court on December 30, 2003, the TAC also assumed responsibility for assisting the Department in developing an implementation plan and monitoring the Department's performance both under that plan and under the original agreement.

The second Monitoring Report includes four sections: an executive summary that highlights the major findings of the report; a review of aggregate data relevant to some of the key outcomes and performance indicators identified in the implementation plan and the Settlement Agreement; a presentation of the key findings of the annual case file review required by the Settlement Agreement; and a domain by domain report on the activities undertaken by the Department to date under its implementation plan.