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Almost 230 Tennessee foster children placed out of state as department struggles with 'insufficient in-state resources'

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services said as of the end of October, 229 youth were placed with out-of-state providers.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Around 230 young people were placed with providers outside Tennessee after the state's Department of Children's Services said it had insufficient resources to support them.

The department said to make sure the kids had the resources they needed, it expanded its placement network to include providers outside Tennessee. The department's problem was not generally related to a lack of foster homes. Instead, the department said most of the children had complex needs and needed more care than what a typical foster home could provide.

However, the department also said in an email that some children were placed out of state "simply due to capacity limitations in Tennessee." 

"There is also limited capacity in out-of-state systems, so our youth need to be spread out based on their needs and the available capacity in other systems," the department said.

The department said as of the end of October, 229 children were placed with out-of-state providers. Children were placed with organizations across the United States including Alabama, Texas and Georgia.

It is working to recruit additional providers, and its "Real Estate Plan" is aimed at creating additional capacity in the state.

That plan will use $19 million to start designing two new juvenile justice centers. It also said $88 million would go to building nine new intake facilities and assessment centers across the state.

The department said it has seen an increase in "the complexity of needs" among children who enter its care.

Frank Mix, the executive director of network development, said during a budget hearing that the department has seen a change in the ratio of children being placed in traditional foster homes and going into high-end care.

"The data is clearly skewing towards the high-end of care. You can't add these together, the number of children is roughly the same," he said.

However, he said their needs and the costs associated with those needs have risen, and he expects the data to continue trending that way.

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