Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-3-302

The county legislative body may bind out illegitimate children in the same way as orphans, upon its satisfactorily appearing that the mother of such illegitimate children disregards their moral and mental culture, and either keeps or lives in a house of ill fame, and upon its further appearing that the condition of such children would be thereby bettered, although the mother may provide ordinary food and clothing for the mother's children.