WHB/8/9
Sponsored by Pawlose Endatresaw, Saron Jemal, Mekdelawit Weldesilasse of Smyrna High School
This legislation was filed in the Childrens Services category
Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference
| 1 | BE IT ENACTED BY THE TENNESSEE YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Section 1: Terms in this act are defined as follows: |
| 4 | Department of Child Services (DCS): The Tennessee Department of Children's Services is a state |
| 5 | agency of Tennessee that operates services for children and youth. |
| 6 | Social Worker: a person whose job is to help people in a particular area who have social |
| 7 | disadvantages or personal problems. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Section 2: The salary of social workers within the foster care and child protection sector of the |
| 10 | DCS will be increased to attract and retain qualified social workers and other personnel. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | Section 3: Caseloads will be reduced to 13 cases per caseworker to allow for more time to |
| 13 | investigate cases and provide effective interventions. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Section 4: The current budget for DCS is $1.2 billion. $50 million of the budget will be allocated to |
| 16 | increase the yearly wages of DCS social workers from an average of $45,000 to $60,000. There is |
| 17 | no additional cost from the state. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Section 5: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Section 6: This act shall take effect on July 1, 2024, public welfare requiring it. |
| 22 |