Tennessee lawmaker files 14 civil rights complaints against state child services agency

Tennessee lawmaker files 14 civil rights complaints against state child services agency BRADLEY COUNTY, Tenn. — A Bradley County mother says she has spent more than a year trying to get answers after her daughter was taken into Tennessee Department of Children’s Services custody, and she is now asking federal officials to investigate what she and other parents describe as serious failures in the state’s child welfare system. State Rep. Aftyn Behn of Nashville says she has filed 14 federal civil rights complaints against DCS on behalf of families across Tennessee. Three of the complaints involve families in Hamilton, Bradley and Grundy counties. One of the complaints involves Michelle Ward, a Bradley County mother whose daughter entered DCS custody in February 2025. Ward said she has been trying to get someone to hear her concerns. “The hardest part is, you know, not knowing when I you know somebody’s actually going to listen, or when our child is going to get to come home,” Ward said. Ward is among 14 Tennessee parents represented in complaints filed Friday with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. According to the complaint, Ward alleges DCS removed her daughter from her sister’s home in February 2025 while Ward was at the hospital with her newborn son. She says the removal happened without a court order or petition. “My son having surgery, he was having surgery. They went to my sister’s house, and they removed my daughter. They said it was for failure to cooperate with them from a prior case that was already closed,” Ward said. The complaint alleges that shortly after entering state custody, Ward’s daughter, who has epilepsy, was denied seizure medication, causing her to suffer a seizure and an injury that required stitches above her eye. “It wasn’t even like maybe 24 hours that she was there, and she failed. She got a cup above her eye, she had to have stitches in, and I wasn’t even like, you know, notified, towed, or anything,” Ward said. Ward also alleges her daughter suffered multiple unexplained injuries while in foster care, including what she describes as a severe carpet burn on her daughter’s back. The complaint alleges DCS failed to provide an explanation for the injury. Behn said the complaints raise concerns about disability discrimination, improper child removals and broader failures within Tennessee’s child welfare system. Ward said she wants state leaders to take a closer look at her case. “I just asked the state leaders carefully review my case and listen to the concerns being raised, because you know the decisions and that they make, you know, impact our children and families,” Ward said. Ward’s daughter has remained in state custody for more than a year. DCS was contacted for comment but had not responded.