NASHVILLE, Tenn (WTVF) — Governor Bill Lee is rolling back a plan released last week by the Tennessee Department of Education on child wellbeing checks. The program was created to help ensure the needs of children are being met during and after extended periods away from school and to empower local communities to support child wellbeing.
"We created a task force who created recommendations and brought forth those recommendations, it was the work of that task force," said Lee during Tuesday's press conference. "We have scaled-back, pulled it back and put a reset on it. We have no knowledge yet about where it’s going to go from here."
The $1 million initiative would conduct wellbeing checks for all children in the state from birth to age 18. It was designed to verify a child’s health and safety with frequent checks with children's schools being closed.
"We all know that schools are the place where we catch a lot of things, maybe domestic abuse, child abuse, hunger things like that going on in the home," said Rep. Mark White.
White, who chairs the state House Education Committee, says the program was well-intended but too much for the state to take on. He says it was during the special session when lawmakers got a hold of the program and its concerns.
"This is something that’s more of a larger program, a long-term thing and it was not ready for prime time and it was not good," said White, "We asked the department and administration to pull this back right now and let us look at other things when the education committee has a chance to come together to digest things."
Lawmakers from across the state reached out to pull the plug on the well-being checks program. Many calling the plan an overreach by state government.
"I don’t think it’s a program that the state should get into. I think it’s something it’s something the state can support through financial investment but we have a lot of these support structures already in the local communities," White said.
White says local entities should be taking up the charge through the department of children’s services or even through district truancy programs.
