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DCS legislative overview: new public chapters target child safety, records and services; budget adds funds for foster care and Safe Baby Courts
Summary
Hayes O'Donnell of the Department of Children's Services summarized multiple 2025 public chapters affecting child safety, juvenile records, foster care extensions and adoption records, and highlighted budget increases allocated to DCS programs including Safe Baby Courts and provider rate increases.
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…
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