News Events | Dawn Coppock

Dawn Coppock has retired.

Angi Newsome — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 02:56:03 +0000

I appreciate your following my blog and practice. I am retired! I stopped taking cases in April of 2025. After starting most days packing a briefcase and drinking coffee in the car, wrapping up my few straggling cases feels bittersweet. Mornings with two leisurely cups of coffee on the porch feel luxuriously expansive. The contrast is jarring. The absence of rushing and constantly being “on the clock,” has also left me with some survivor’s guilt.

On the porch, I occasionally think fondly of happy mornings finalizing adoptions, sorting out tricky cases with colleagues, or training younger lawyers. But I don’t regret retiring. I found my legal career rewarding, challenging, sometimes fun, too big, and too stressful.

Now I am taking better care of my health and relationships, and I’m trying new things. While I’ve been working about as much as not this past year, on admin matters, recording my seminars and putting them online (wwwgoodlawtn.com), I may now kayak on a Tuesday, have a 3-hour lunch with a friend, mail a card in time for the birthday, or figure out how to properly use the washer I’ve had for years. When I experience that lovely unconstrained relationship with time, I call it “practicing for retirement.”

I am often incredulous at the things, precious and mundane, left undone while I was working. I regret not asking more often, “Is it essential that I work so much today?” The footprint of my work life stayed about the same regardless of necessity.

We know that life experience is rarely directly transferable. Still, in response to your kind wishes for my happy retirement, I have a wish for you. I wish you as many days as you can wrestle back to “practice for retirement” yourself.

Warmly,

Dawn

A tweak to the federal adoption tax credit will put $5000 into some adoptive families’ pockets

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 02:06:14 +0000

The adoption tax credit is a lovely thing. It offers a direct financial benefit to families who adopt. The benefit is better for families who adopt special needs children. There is much written about the policy and mechanics of the federal adoption tax credit. It is not a new thing. And note that, like most tax provisions, not everyone is eligible and not every expense is covered, and there is a limitation of $17,280. But in the past, families needed t owe tax to use the credit. Effective 2025, $5000 of the credit will be refundable even for families who don’t owe tax.

I am not a tax lawyer. My goal here is to alert you to the change only. If you or your clients are in a position to use the federal adoption tax credit, you can get more information at the IRS website.

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/adoption-credit

Dawn

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.

DAWN COPPOCK is retiring from the practice of law.

Dawn Coppock — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 02:11:07 +0000

I know I just said I wasn’t retiring, and that was true when I said it. Now it isn’t. I started declining new cases today. By April 7, 2025 I will be retired, except for a few outstanding cases and on-demand seminar production. I had expected to retire near my husband Kyle’s long-planned retirement date of April 1, 2026. Adoption Law School in the Mountains in April of 2026 was planned as my last big, live seminar. But that seminar isn’t going to happen.

Don’t worry. My long-time paralegal, Angi Newsome, and I and our families are fine. The quick pivot occurred due to something good, not something bad. We had just begun half-heartedly watching for the right job for Angi after I retired. But Angi is a great hire. So, after just a few preliminary inquiries, her perfect job popped right up, and it couldn’t wait. Angi is excited to begin a new job for the Jefferson County government on April 7, 2025 and I’m excited for her.

After 30+ years together, it is hard to picture anyone filling Angi’s shoes, and I don’t really want to work with anyone else or train someone new. So, I am retiring now. We are spending March winding things down and preparing for the last Adoption Law School in the Mountains 2025, April 2-4, 2025.

If you are an existing client, you will hear from us soon. I’m personally finishing most of the cases I have right now. If your case isn’t amenable to quick resolution, I’ll make sure you land well. I’ve been writing and training for years in the hope of leaving many qualified successors. Lawyers, if you want to step into this meaningful work, now is a good time. If you need a review or to tune up your skills, I have exactly one more big, live training. For info on Adoption Law School live in April, my on-demand video courses, or to buy my law book, see www.GoodLawTN.com. The on-demand courses should be available on that site into 2027 and the book even longer.

Beyond maintaining Good Law for book sales and on-demand seminars, I haven’t considered professional diversions in my retirement yet. I may reserve time to consult with other attorneys on tough cases or find a way to reengage with foster parents. I likely have a dance or two left.

I’ll consider all that after the last big seminar and when cases are buttoned up. I apologize for not making personal calls to tell you and not being around to chat about it. I’m swamped. I hope to have plenty of time to chat and reconnect with my treasured professional friends and former clients this summer. While it is a quick decision, it feels like the right choice. I’ve had a pretty good run. By May, I expect to enjoy our mountain spring with time to smell the flowers.

Dawn

Of course, you can adopt an adult in Tennessee!

Dawn Coppock — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 18:04:57 +0000

This is not a debated or murky point of Tennessee law. You just can. I do 2 or 3 adult adoptions a year and I have for decades.

See Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-117(j).
(1) When the person sought to be adopted is eighteen (18) years of age or older, only the sworn, written consent of the person sought to be adopted shall be required and no order of reference or any home studies need be issued.

Chapter 17 of Coppock on Tennessee Adoption Law, 7th Ed. is called, guess what? “Adult Adoptions.”

The law creates a legal relationship because the people have an existing emotional parent-child relationship and think their love is just that important.

At the hearing, the clients usually cry. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes even the judge and the bailiff cry.

It is a “real” adoption and the legal part is easy peasy, not just in Tennessee, but pretty much all over the U.S.

I don’t know anything at all about the case in the news. I just want to be sure that you know that if you want to adopt an adult, like a nephew, niece, stepchild, or former foster child, and they want to be adopted, have at it.

If you and your de facto parent or child want to make it legal, call your local adoption lawyer.

Dawn Coppock, Attorney
Strawberry Plains, TN

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.

PASSED: Tennessee Legislative Update – Best Interest of the Child – HB200/SB205

Dawn Coppock — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 21:06:13 +0000

In Tennessee, to terminate a parent’s rights the petitioner (Agency or prospective adoptive parents) must prove grounds “against” the parent AND also must prove that termination of parental rights is in the child’s best interest. In most cases, proof of grounds is the difficult part, but occasionally grounds are easy and a trial will be more about what is in the child’s best interest. Tennessee law sets out the factors judges must consider when determining the child’s best interest in a termination case.

Many psychological professionals, foster parents and lawyers have observed that Tennessee’s “best interest of the child” factors are oddly weighted in favor of the birth parent and not the child. The current factors don’t place much weight on the child’s need for continuity and stability, the child’s emotional attachments, the child’s fear of a birth parent, or a birth parent’s delay in working toward reunification.

This summer and fall, a group of Tennessee Bar Association members who practice adoption law hammered out more child centered factors. The proposed factors take into account modern science regarding the needs of children, particularly children who have experienced trauma, disruption and medical insults like prenatal drug exposure. I was privileged to work on this project. A number of psychological professionals provided input as well.

The product is now a bill before the Tennessee legislature, HB200/SB205.

You can follow the progress of the bill through my blog: https://dawncoppock.com/blog/ and also on the Tennessee General Assembly website, http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/

I am excited about this bill. Read a copy here: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/112/Bill/HB0200.pdf

If you want to read the current law and the proposed changes comparatively, you will find the current best interest of the child factors at T.C.A. 36-1-113(i):

T.C.A. 36-1-111(i) In determining whether termination of parental or guardianship rights is in the best interest of the child pursuant to this part, the court shall consider, but is not limited to, the following:

(1) Whether the parent or guardian has made such an adjustment of circumstance, conduct, or conditions as to make it safe and in the child’s best interest to be in the home of the parent or guardian;

(2) Whether the parent or guardian has failed to effect a lasting adjustment after reasonable efforts by available social services agencies for such duration of time that lasting adjustment does not reasonably appear possible;

(3) Whether the parent or guardian has maintained regular visitation or other contact with the child;

(4) Whether a meaningful relationship has otherwise been established between the parent or guardian and the child;

(5) The effect a change of caretakers and physical environment is likely to have on the child’s emotional, psychological and medical condition;

(6) Whether the parent or guardian, or other person residing with the parent or guardian, has shown brutality, physical, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse, or neglect toward the child, or another child or adult in the family or household;

(7) Whether the physical environment of the parent’s or guardian’s home is healthy and safe, whether there is criminal activity in the home, or whether there is such use of alcohol, controlled substances or controlled substance analogues as may render the parent or guardian consistently unable to care for the child in a safe and stable manner;

(8) Whether the parent’s or guardian’s mental and/or emotional status would be detrimental to the child or prevent the parent or guardian from effectively providing safe and stable care and supervision for the child; or

(9) Whether the parent or guardian has paid child support consistent with the child support guidelines promulgated by the department pursuant to § 36-5-101.