Tennessee Senate Bill 1868 would let the state put foster children in juvenile detention — no criminal charge required.
Read that again.
The bill, drafted by Governor Bill Lee and the Department of Children’s Services, creates a brand new label called “child in need of heightened supervision.” Once a foster child gets that label, a judge can send them to a juvenile jail — barbed wire, locking cells, the whole thing — without ever being charged with a crime. And if a child is accused of an altercation with staff at one of these facilities? They can be held indefinitely. No defined end date. The private facilities getting paid to hold them help decide how long they stay.
Let me connect the dots.
In December 2025, a state audit revealed Tennessee foster children were sleeping on the floors of state office buildings because there weren’t enough placements. Instead of fixing that crisis — instead of investing in family-based care, kinship placements, or trauma-informed support — the state’s answer is to expand its power to detain the very children it failed to house.
This is consolidation, control, and extraction in plain sight:
 • Consolidation of state authority over children who have no voice
 • Control through a vague label that can be applied without due process
 • Extraction of public dollars into private detention facilities that profit from indefinite holds
These are kids who survived abuse, neglect, and family separation. The state took custody promising to protect them. Now it wants permission to cage them when their trauma becomes inconvenient.
This bill could become law on July 1, 2026.
We’re calling on Governor Bill Lee, DCS Commissioner Margie Quin, and the Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee to reject SB1868 and its companion HB2526. Foster children need homes, healing, and family — not handcuffs.
Sign this petition. Share it. Tag someone in Tennessee. Make noise.
Children in state custody are still children. They deserve protection, not punishment for surviving.
I’m Girly Muhammad — connecting the dots the world needs to see. 🫶🏾

Tennessee Senate Bill 1868