At the request of the parties in the case of Brian A. v. Bredesen, a class action which mandates improvements in Tennessee 's child welfare system, the Technical Assistance Committee, chaired by Andy Shookhoff and supported by the Center through a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has agreed to continue to monitor the implementation of the Settlement Agreement and provide technical assistance to the Department through August 31, 2007. An agreed order extending the role of the Technical Assistance committee was entered in February.
The TAC issued its third monitoring report on March 30, 2006, reporting on the extent to which the Department had met certain child welfare outcome and system performance targets set out in the Settlement Agreement. The report, which, as with previous monitoring reports, can be viewed and downloaded from the CFPC website, reports on the following outcome and performance measures: time to reunification; adoption finalization; number of placements while in care (placement stability); length of time in placement; reentry into placement; adoptive placement disruption; achievement measures upon discharge; parent child visiting; sibling visiting; placing siblings together; timelines for filing termination of parental rights petitions; time to placement in adoptive homes; use of “permanent or long term foster care”; and rates of “in region” placement. |
