Children's Services, Dept. of

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Child Advocacy Center Reimbursement Act

This bill sets a thirty-day limit for reimbursement payments to child advocacy centers and requires an additional ten percent fee if payment is late.

What This Bill Does

• Sets a thirty-day limit for the Department of Children's Services or another department to pay back money owed to child advocacy centers.
• Requires an additional ten percent fee on top of the original payment if reimbursement is not made within thirty days.
• Needs the Department of Children's Services to send yearly reports about how well they are paying these reimbursements on time.

Who It Names or Affects

• Child advocacy centers in Tennessee that receive state funds.
• The Department of Children's Services and other departments managing child advocacy center funds.

Terms To Know

Reimbursement

Money paid back to a person or organization after they have spent it on something the government agreed to pay for.

Late payment fee

Extra money charged when a bill is not paid by its due date.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if departments do not follow the new rules.
• It only applies to child advocacy centers that receive state funds in Tennessee.

Official Summary Text

Present law prohibits state funds appropriated specificall
y for child advocacy centers from being allocated or paid to any such center unless the center clearly demonstrates certain criteria. For those meeting such criteria, the department of children's services, or any other department administering state fund
s
specially appropriated for child advocacy centers (together "department"), must continue to allocate or pay such funds to existing child advocacy centers with active applications on file with the department,

REIMBURSEMENT PAYMENT SCHEDULE

This bill req
uires the department to ensure that a reimbursement payment owed to a child advocacy center is paid within 30 days of the date a request for reimbursement from the child advocacy center is received. For any reimbursement that is not completed within such

thirty-day period, the department must pay to the child advocacy center an additional amount equal to 10% of the total reimbursement amount owed as a late payment fee, with such the ten-percent payment being paid from the applicable department's budget wi
t
hout additional appropriation.

ANNUAL REPORT

This bill provides that, on or before January 15, 2026, and no later than January 15 of each year thereafter, the department must submit to the clerks of the senate and the house of representatives a report o
n the timeliness of reimbursements to child advocacy centers in this state during the previous calendar year. The report must include, at a minimum, data on the amount of reimbursements to child advocacy centers that failed to meet the thirty-day deadlin
e
, expressed as both a raw number and a percentage of total reimbursements, and the amount of late payment fees incurred.

Current Bill Text

SENATE BILL 1071
By Johnson

HOUSE BILL 46
By McCalmon

HB0046
000476
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 9 and
Title 37, relative to child advocacy centers.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 9-4-213, is amended by adding the
following new subdivisions:
(e) The department of children's services, or another department administering
state funds specially appropriated for child advocacy centers, shall:
(1) Ensure that a reimbursement payment owed to a child advocacy
center is paid within thirty (30) days of the date a request for reimbursement from
the child advocacy center; and
(2) For any reimbursement that is not completed within the thirty (30)
days required by subdivision (e)(1), pay to the child advocacy center an
additional amount equal to ten percent (10%) of the total reimbursement amount
owed as a late payment fee. The ten-percent payment must be paid from the
applicable department's budget without additional appropriation.
(f) On or before January 15, 2026, and no later than January 15 of each year
thereafter, the department of children's services shall submit to the clerk of the senate
and the clerk of the house of representatives a report on the timeliness of
reimbursements to child advocacy centers in this state during the previous calendar
year. The report must include, at a minimum, data on the amount of reimbursements to
child advocacy centers that failed to meet the thirty-day deadline required by subdivision

- 2 - 000476

(e)(1), expressed as both a raw number and a percentage of total reimbursements, and
the amount of late payment fees incurred pursuant to subdivision (e)(2).
SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it.