Legislation | Dawn Coppock

Publication on Missing Respondent Birth Parents Just Got Harder and More Expensive

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 03:26:36 +0000

Have a look at 2025 TN Public Chapter 500.

Basically, it requires that when we give notice by publication in a newspaper, we must also publish in a paid local online platform, where one exists. But the TN Press Association already has a free statewide re-publication service, which repeats the newspaper ads with no paywall, so anyone can view it.

While I’m open to explanations, this seems to “fix” something that was not broken for no good reason. And it requires adoptive parents to pay an extra publication fee and spend more on legal fees. Memphis now has a paid platform on offer for $30.

In addition to figuring out if there is a local platform and seeing that the correct notice is run there and the extra fees are paid, the adoptive parents’ attorney must also obtain, review, and file with the court a publisher’s affidavit from the paid online platform. We already do all this for the newspaper, as previously required. I predict that this additional requirement will add at least an hour of legal time to each adoption that requires publication notice, in addition to the fee to the platform.

While attorneys are often portrayed as greedy, it is noteworthy that the TBA adoption section seeks repeal of this requirement for the benefit of their clients. Just one more reason why I love the lawyers in the adoption bar.

Regardless of the new required redundancy, any potential respondent looking for a publication notice is best served by checking the free and existing TN Press Association site that repeats the paper publications statewide. Checking there does not require knowledge of the newspaper that the court ordered to be used. As we know that choice isn’t always 100% obvious.

In practice, just trying to figure out whether there is a paid platform in a locality is a snipe hunt that slows permanence for kids.

Foreclosures and elections got themselves exempted from this silliness, but regular people, nope.

So, here’s the to-do list:

[ ] If you have a publication notice to run, the bill was effective July 1, 2025. Read and follow this new law.

[ ] Call your state house member and senator and ask them to justify or repeal this nonsense and suggest that your adoptive parent clients do the same.

Dawn

Process Update: Report of Foreign Birth, what is it and what has changed?

Dawn Coppock — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 04:54:24 +0000

A child adopted abroad by Tennessee parents may obtain a report of foreign birth from the Tennessee Department of Vital Records. That is not new. Note, immigration is top of mind just now, that a Tennessee adoption of a child born abroad requires proof of the child’s lawful immigration to the United States.

A report of foreign birth is not a birth certificate. But it is an identity document issued by the state that contains all the information usually on a birth certificate, and it is in the format and language that ID-requesting entities in Tennessee have come to expect.

Most families adopting children born abroad have the child’s original birth certificate from the country of birth, and many also have a translated copy of the original birth certificate. But these documents usually still list the birth parent as the child’s parents rather than the adoptive parents.

In many countries of birth, it may be possible to have the original birth certificate amended to reflect the change in parentage. But engaging with the bureaucracy and legal process in a country where you don’t know the language or understand the government processes, and asking them to recognize a Tennessee court order is a lot. When they initially adopted, they had an adoption agency paid and motivated to help with each step. And for most families, amending the original birth certificate is either impossible or just too expensive and difficult. Fortunately, it is also not necessary.

Post-adoption Tennessee families obtain and use the report of foreign birth for most purposes and the original birth certificate and Tennessee adoption decree together for everything else. For the Tennessee adoptive parents of children born abroad that I represent, this has worked fine. Note, however, that the special form for the purpose of obtaining a report of foreign birth is no longer used. The Certificate of Adoption form used in all other Tennessee adoptions PH-1248 (Rev 10/24) is now used to request a report of foreign birth when a Tennessee family adopts a child born abroad. Preparation and submission of this document is part of the role of the attorney completing the Tennessee adoption.

Thank you for helping Tennessee’s children and families,

Dawn Coppock

T.C.A. § 68-3-312 New certificate of birth – Certificate of adoption
(f) For a person not born in any state, territory, or possession of the United States whose adoptive parents are residents of this state, the state registrar shall issue a Report of Foreign Birth upon receipt of a certified copy of the order of adoption or recognition with the certified certificate of adoption.

Adoption Law School Now ON-DEMAND

Dawn Coppock — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 01:57:30 +0000

Registration will open by the end of September for Good Law’s flagship seminar, Adoption Law School*, but this time as an on-demand course. You asked for it, and finally, Dawn’s done it. 15 hours of CLE, including 3 hours of ethics credit, will be open for registration by the end of September.

In the past, students wanted to take individual classes, “cafeteria style.” That didn’t work in a live format, but on-demand, you can take the whole course or pick and choose what you want to learn. As much as we loved the community and networking of the live format, April of 2025 was the last one. Hopefully, Tennessee lawyers will love having the information available without travel too.

See the course description and pricing.

Look for another post and a mailed Good Law course catalog when registration goes live in a few weeks.

Warmly
Dawn

*Tech set up and CLE approval are pending.

Class Action Filed Against DCS

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 02:54:26 +0000

On May 19, 2025, a class action on behalf of 13 Tennessee foster children was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee against the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, alleging significant systemic failures, summarized in a preliminary statement, the first 3 paragraphs of the complaint included below.

Experienced Tennessee guardians ad litem appear on behalf of the children, and prestigious Tennessee and national law firms represent the plaintiffs. A National nonprofit children’s advocacy group, A Better Childhood, appears to be the primary organizer of the action. The class is not yet certified. To read the complaint and sign up for news on developments, see https://www.abetterchildhood.org/tennessee

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

1. Tennessee’s foster care system is failing the children it is intended to protect.

Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services (“DCS”) warehouses children in spaces which lack the basic necessities of life, including adequate food, bedding, soap, and potable water. Intended as temporary placements, DCS leaves children in these situations for months on end. Once placed in ‘long-term’ placements, children fare no better. DCS contracts with facilities which possess well-known track records of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. Children are placed in foster homes that have not been properly vetted, do not receive necessary information about the children, and do not receive the services necessary to care for them. Foster care is intended to be temporary, until children can either be reunited with their families or placed in another permanent home; however, children in Tennessee linger in foster care and are moved from place to place without the opportunity for a stable childhood.

2. The caseworkers required to support and protect foster children are overworked and undertrained. Due to crushing caseloads, DCS caseworkers are unable to reliably perform the basic duties necessary to oversee the well-being of the foster children assigned to their care. As concluded by a state audit in 2022, “[t]he safety, permanency, and well-being of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children is in jeopardy.”

3. DCS’s dereliction of care is no mere oversight or mistake. It has been previously sued in federal court for violating the rights of foster children. As a result of the suit, DCS improved many aspects of the foster care system, until the court ended its jurisdiction over DCS’s performance metrics in 2017. However, eight years later, the state of Tennessee’s child welfare system is just as bad, if not worse, than the crisis which engendered the previous lawsuit.

A Better Childhood’s advocacy goals for Tennessee from their website: www.Abetterchildhood.org

ADVOCACY GOALS

Keira M. v. Quin requests that the court prohibit DCS from subjecting the children in the general class and the ADA subclass to practices that violate their rights. The case seeks an order directing the state and DCFS to, among other things:

Provide all children who enter foster care placement with an adequate and individualized written case plan within 60 days;
Ensure all children who enter foster care placement receive necessary medical and therapy services;
Ensure that children are only placed in homes that can meet their needs;
Develop a process to properly match children with appropriate and safe foster homes, and prioritize keeping sibling groups together;
Improve recruitment and retainment practices of appropriately trained caseworkers;
Lower caseloads of individual workers to professional standards;
Ensure that children with disabilities are provided with the services they need in their community.

Every Tennessee child welfare lawyer and juvenile judge I know who offers an opinion on the function of Tennessee’s child welfare system describes it as “worse than ever,” often using terms like “free fall,” “imploding,” and “systemic child abuse.” Caseworkers and DCS lawyers, too, often openly acknowledge the systemic chaos. Many foster parents are dismayed by the impact on the children they love.

In many forums, including an op ed posted on this blog and in Tennessee newspapers in January 2023, https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2023/01/03/public-outcry-needed-to-fix-tennessee-department-of-children-services/69774889007/ , I’ve called for recognition of the severity of the problem and DCS’s adoption of proven management practices and standards used in states whose systems work better, but the steep decline has only continued. My legal career began in 1987, and the Tennessee Child Welfare has never been worse. While I regret that a lawsuit is necessary, it is. I wish the Plaintiffs every success.

Update your termination of parental rights pleadings with the new notice to incarcerated respondent birth parents effective July 1, 2024.

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:54:17 +0000

Effective for Petitions filed on or after July 1, 2024, the new notice is:

T.C.A. § 36-1-113 (f)

(1) A parent or guardian who is incarcerated at the time the parent is served with a petition to terminate parental rights shall receive notice that:

(A) A hearing will be held to determine whether the parent’s rights will be terminated;

(B) If the parent files a timely, written answer within thirty (30) days of service of the petition to terminate their parental rights, then:

(i) The parent must receive advance notice of the time and place of the hearing;

(ii) The parent has the right to participate in the hearing and to contest the allegation that the parent’s rights should be terminated. At the discretion of the court, such participation may be achieved through personal appearance, teleconference, telecommunication, or other means deemed by the court to be appropriate under the circumstances;

(iii) The parent may claim to be indigent and offer evidence of their financial circumstances and, if the court finds the parent to be indigent, the parent must be provided with a court-appointed attorney to assist the parent in contesting the termination of parental rights;

(iv) The parent has the right to offer testimony and other evidence at the hearing by all means permitted by the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure; and

(v) The parent has the continuing responsibility to update the court and petitioner’s counsel with the parent’s current contact information and mailing address promptly upon the parent’s release from incarceration and upon any subsequent changes; and

(C) The rights specified in subdivision (f)(1)(B) may be voluntarily waived by the parent’s written or verbal statement or, if the court determines that the parent has waived the rights specified in subdivision (f)(1)(B), by the parent’s action or inaction, including the failure to timely claim indigency or file an answer to the petition to terminate parental rights. If the court determines that the rights specified in subdivision (f)(1)(B) have been waived, then the court may hear and decide the petition without the parent’s or guardian’s participation.

If the incarcerated respondent does not participate, ask the court to make that determination with language such as:

“Respondent, (incarcerated birth parent) received the notice required by 36-1-113(f). (Incarcerated respondent) did not file an answer, or an affidavit of indigency, and has not otherwise informed this Court of a desire or intention to participate in this action. Therefore, this Court finds that (incarcerated respondent) has waived the rights provided to incarcerated respondents under 36-1-1113(f).”

Finalization – Six Months or Three Months?

Dawn Coppock — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 01:35:52 +0000

Question: I understand that the waiting period for adoption, the time the child must live with the prospective adoptive family before the adoption can be finalized, has been reduced from 6 months to 3 months, correct?

Answer: Not exactly. The waiting period is still 6 months but the judge in the case CAN, but does not have to, reduce the wait to 3 months. Judges are expected to be most open to reducing the waiting period in newborn adoptions. When older children are new in a home at least 6 months for the child and family to adjust to one another and for problems to arise and be resolved is usually recommended by social workers and is good common sense in most cases. Judges know this and often will not reduce the waiting period for children older than newborns. Also, when an agency has guardianship of the child, as in DCS or private agency adoptions, the agency’s consent is required. Agencies typically will not consent until they feel the family has had sufficient time to settle in together. Regardless of the waiting period, when a child is in full guardianship of an agency, an adoption cannot be finalized until the agency is ready to consent.

A Voice in Court for Foster Parents

Dawn Coppock — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 17:00:28 +0000

Effective July 1, 2023

Big addition to foster parent’s right to participate in hearings.

T.C.A. § 37-2-415 (a)(17) – (Public Chapter 263)
For some time, the court has been required to promptly notify foster parents of all court hearings regarding their foster child. They are permitted to attend “at the discretion of the court” which means unless the judge doesn’t want them to.

The new provision says, “A foster parent who has served as the physical placement of the child for a period of nine (9) months or more shall be permitted to appear and actively participate in any permanency hearing or dispositional hearing for the child with regard to the best interest of the child.”

Now there is a right to “actively participate”.

T.C.A. § 37-2-416 – (Public Chapter 263)

(a) “The department shall notify the foster parents, if any, or any prospective adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child in state custody with notice of any review or hearing to be held with respect to the child. The foster parents, if any, of such a child and any prospective adoptive parent or relative providing care for the child shall be provided with notice of the right to be heard in any review or hearing to be held with respect to the child, except that this section shall not be construed to require that any foster parent, prospective adoptive parent, or relative providing care for the child who has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of fewer than nine (9) continuous months be made a party to such review or hearing solely on the basis of such notice and right to be heard.
(b) Any foster parent who has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of nine (9) or more continuous months shall be permitted to appear for the sole purpose of presenting evidence with regard to the best interests of the child.
(c) At each hearing, the court shall determine whether the department has complied with this section.”

After the child is in the foster parents’ care for 9 months the foster parents have a right to present best interest evidence.

Judges are just learning about these new rights. As of this post, these changes are not yet in the online version of the Code. For a while, the judge may not call on you. You may need to stand up and respectfully ask to be recognized. You can share a copy of this post with your social worker, GAL, Department lawyer or court staff as necessary to be recognized.

Public outcry is needed for Tennessee to fix the Department of Children’s Services

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 21:21:39 +0000

Public outcry is needed for Tennessee to fix the Department of Children’s Services – Opinion – By Dawn Coppock – Published by The Tennessean, The Knoxville News Sentinel & The Commercial Appeal – January 4, 2023. Click the blue link for the full text of Dawn’s op-ed.

Dawn’s Deep Dive into Tennessee’s Best Interest Statute – The Cover Story in July / August TBA Journal

Dawn Coppock — Tue, 06 Jul 2021 14:39:53 +0000

Read it here:

– TBA Journal – July / August 2021

Tennessee’s best interest factors are now BETTER

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 21:07:52 +0000

On April 22, 2021, the Governor signed HB200/SB205, new factors for judges to consider to determine the best interest of a child in a termination of a parental rights case. My detailed analysis is HERE.