Hayes O'Donnell, assistant director of legislative affairs at the Department of Children’s Services, presented a summary of 2025 public chapters and budget actions affecting child welfare and juvenile justice to the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.

O'Donnell walked through several enacted public chapters: expanding the definition of child abuse to include minors who witness domestic violence (as summarized in the meeting under Public Chapter 398); establishing that poverty is not neglect (Public Chapter 322); clarifying admissibility for child forensic interviews (Public Chapter 162); creating a new offense for placing a child in imminent danger (Public Chapter 499); and multiple foster care and adoption reforms, including extension of foster care eligibility (program name cited in transcript as "Bridal Futures"), a foster child bill of rights and expanded access to adoption records.

"Reunification cannot occur until the parent makes sufficient progress on the permanency plan," O'Donnell said when describing changes requiring counseling, domestic‑violence services and semiannual reporting to lawmakers for certain removals. He also said the legislation creates or extends several administrative and review mechanisms, including a Tennessee juvenile justice review commission (Public Chapter 281) and statutory direction to study housing and treatment availability for juvenile offenders (Public Chapter 418).

O'Donnell summarized fiscal highlights from the Appropriations bill as presented: a statewide appropriation figure cited in the presentation and increases directed to DCS (the transcript notes roughly $171 million in increases and references line items including $3 million to modernize foster care extension, $9 million for provider rate increases, $6 million to expand Safe Baby Courts, and $10 million to expand intercept programs). He said some transcript‑presented numeric fields were formatted in the slides and should be read in context of the published Appropriations document.

O'Donnell also noted procedural changes that affect juvenile records and privacy: some delinquency records are opened to public inspection in narrowly defined circumstances (school‑ground homicide where the offender is deceased), with redaction responsibilities to protect other juveniles.

He invited attendees to review posted public chapter language on the department website and said the legislative affairs team will publish summaries with links to each public chapter for counties and practitioners to consult.

The presentation closed with an offer from DCS to follow up on statutory questions and a reminder that effective dates for some statutory changes are commonly 07/01 in the fiscal cycle.