NASHVILLE (AP) - A Nashville judge has ruled that the Tennessee Department of Children's Services must provide records to the public of children who died or nearly died after the agency investigated reports they had been abused or neglected.
Judge Carol McCoy said in an order issued Wednesday that the department had 10 days to redact confidential information from documents that serve as case summaries for four specific cases. The records then must be turned over to 12 news media organizations that sued under Tennessee's public records law, including The Tennessean and The Associated Press.
The department also must file with the court an estimate of how long it will take to redact the confidential information from the summaries of an additional 200 or so requested files and the costs involved.