PDF: Department of Childrens Services

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen warned Wednesday the state may have to lay off about 160 administrative workers in the Department of Children’s Services due to a Bush administration rule change that went into effect last month.

He said the state is likely to lose $73 million in federal funds from the $109 million targeted case management program.

“The targeted case management is at the core of what DCS is about,” Gov. Bredesen said. “This is the idea of trying to take a single case manager to deal with the variety of issues a child might have.”

Gov. Bredesen said he is working with Tennessee’s congressional delegation, particularly U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who is on a “relevant committee” to reverse what he described as a unilateral move by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Tennessee has joined with seven other states that are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., over the changes.

The case management program uses 2,000 case managers who provide individualized oversight for an estimated 30,000 children and youth in areas ranging from education to mental health.

“We’re going to preserve the target case management,” Gov. Bredesen vowed.

The state has spent years boosting salaries and increasing professional qualifications, Gov. Bredesen said. He said he intends to build a legal “fence” around the case management workers but that doing so necessitates cuts in other areas of the Children’s Services department.

That puts about 160 people at risk of losing their jobs, Gov. Bredesen said, warning cuts “will be visible and painful.” It also threatens some $7.5 million in local grants to juvenile courts and community services, he said.

Protecting the case managers regardless of their seniority will require changes in civil service laws, he said. Other employees will be subject to layoffs beginning July 1. Until then, the state is using money from TennCare reserves to get through the remainder of the current fiscal year, he said.

Gov. Bredesen outlined the news to legislative leaders earlier in the day.

“The administration, and therefore the state, is in a tough position,” said Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris, R-Collierville. “The courts and the federal government, according to the governor, have put us in a position where we need more flexibility than your typical service laws will accommodate.”

He said the governor is “proposing to do the only thing that he can under the circumstances. None of us have seen anything in writing — the devil’s in the details — but I understand where he was coming from.”

Gov. Bredesen said the cuts are especially problematic in light of a $276 million shortfall that already is causing him to trim his proposed 2008/2009 budget.