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House adds fostering as qualifying event for six-week state leave; amendment to limit age tabled
Summary
House Bill 9-57 expands the existing six-week paid leave for state employees to include fostering a child. A proposed amendment limiting the benefit to children age 0–6 was moved by Representative Leatherwood and then tabled after Representative Fazen highlighted that Tennessee has about 8,000 children awaiting placement (average age cited as about 14). The bill passed the House.
The Tennessee House on Feb. 25 approved House Bill 9-57 to add "fostering a child" as a qualifying event for the existing six-week paid leave available to state employees.
Chairman Slater, sponsor of the underlying measure, said the bill adds fostering to the existing qualifying events (birth, adoption and serious family illness) but does not expand the six-week allotment. "This bill simply adds to that list the qualifying event of fostering a child," he said.
Representative Leatherwood proposed Amendment 3 to change the bill’s definition of a qualifying child from "minor (birth to age 18)" to a narrower "child (birth to age 6)," arguing school-age foster placements can return to work when children are in school and the narrower scope would avoid undue use of the leave. Leatherwood related personal fostering and adoption experience while urging members to adopt the amendment.
Representative Fazen opposed narrowing the definition, citing testimony and statistics to argue the foster-care population includes many older children and youth with complex needs: "Tennessee currently has around 8,000 children who are looking for placement ... The average age of that 8,000 children is of the age 14," he said, and moved to lay Amendment 3 on the table. The motion to table—which cuts off further debate on the amendment—succeeded on a recorded vote (66 Aye, 24 Nay), effectively leaving the qualifying-event language unchanged.
After committee amendments and floor votes, House Bill 9-57 passed third reading with a recorded tally of 78 Aye and 13 Nay.
Supporters characterized the bill as an encouragement for state employees to consider fostering without increasing the total available leave time; opponents of the amendment emphasized the needs of older foster children and the risk that narrowing eligibility would undercut placement of older youth.
