The transfers of the seven who remain there are expected to be completed next month, although three have asked to stay, DHS officials said. No parent has asked that a child be moved.
"The goal remains to find suitable accommodations to meet the very complex emotional and psychological needs of these children," acting DHS Commissioner Arthur C. Evans Jr. said.
Neither employee in the Leach case is there now, DHS noted.
DHS and the city's Family Court judges send children in their custody to Chad. Last month, Administrative Court Judge Kevin Dougherty ordered eight children removed and has since transferred others. Dougherty could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Chad still has a valid license but may not accept new admissions, Tennessee child-welfare officials said.
"The suspension of admissions that we put in place in June remains in effect indefinitely," said Jill Hudson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. Her office is awaiting the results of a state investigation, she said.
Experts agreed that placing difficult children could be tricky.
"Although it seems outrageous and inconceivable that the city would not have acted sooner to move the children, moving them has its own consequences," said Richard Gelles, dean of the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
Unless the children are in immediate danger, he said, the city wouldn't move them without making sure they could be placed in a suitable facility.
Marc Cherna, who directs the child-welfare agency in the Pittsburgh area, said the medical examiner's report underscored the need for Philadelphia officials "to try to change their practice to keep their kids close to home."
Meanwhile, Edith Pearce, an attorney for the Leach family, said yesterday that the District Attorney's Office in Tennessee had told her that it was "seeking to make sure justice was done."
