They were supposed to be safe. Instead, Tennessee’s most vulnerable children are sleeping on cold office floors, surrounded by plastic chairs and fluorescent lights. Despite promises from state officials that this practice had ended, new images prove otherwise. This is not just a bureaucratic oversight. It is a humanitarian failure.
Photos recently obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates show thin mattresses inside Department of Children’s Services (DCS) offices in Hamilton County. These mattresses, clearly meant for children placed in custody, reveal a heartbreaking reality. This is neglect within the very system meant to protect them.
Last year, DCS Commissioner Margie Quin assured the public that the days of children being housed in offices were over, except for one county. She pointed to new transitional homes designed to provide emergency care. But those homes are now the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging that children are being warehoused in facilities lacking supervision, therapeutic support, and even basic dignity.
According to The Tennessean, nearly 100 children have spent time in DCS offices in 2024 alone, many with severe behavioral or medical needs. The department claims they were unable to safely place these children, especially in cities like Chattanooga where foster care options are stretched beyond capacity.
This is not a bedroom. It’s a makeshift holding space where a child placed in DCS custody was expected to live. No stability. No dignity. Just a clear bin of belongings and a borrowed bed in a back office.
This is what child ‘care’ looks like in the system. A cubicle. An air mattress. A child sleeping under a desk. Tennessee DCS says they’re protecting children. This says otherwise.
Former Guardian Ad Litem D. J. Davis, who spent years advocating for children in the court system, says this is not just a lapse in policy. It is a crisis. “It’s tragic, but it’s necessary,” she said of the new lawsuit, noting that Tennessee had only recently emerged from decades of federal oversight under the class-action case Brian A. Now, just years later, the system seems to be collapsing again.
Attorney Howard Talenfeld, a nationally recognized children’s rights attorney, is not involved in the current lawsuit but told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that his firm is aware of the problems in Tennessee.
“Honestly, the cases we see, the state is doing a far worse job than the parents that allegedly abused the kids in the first place.”
Let that sink in. A state agency meant to protect children is failing to meet even the standard set by the very households it claims are unsafe. That is not protection. That is institutional harm disguised as intervention.
DCS workers report being forced to work through the night supervising children, sometimes administering medications with no formal medical training. These staff members are overwhelmed, undertrained, and unsupported. And the children? They are traumatized all over again, this time by a system they were told they could trust.
This should never happen. A child should not be taken from a home and placed on the floor of a government building. They should not be treated as paperwork or logistical puzzles. They should not suffer more trauma in custody than they ever did before state involvement.
This is not just a Tennessee problem. It is a national pattern. Agencies across the country operate in secrecy, insulated from scrutiny, with minimal accountability for outcomes.
It is long past time for legislative oversight, federal scrutiny, and bold reforms. These are not headlines. These are children.
Original reporting by Ben Hall | Source: NewsChannel 5 Investigates