Vermont Legal Aid urges passage of H.98, describes standby guardianship clinics for children of detained or deported parents

Barbara Prine, a staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, told the House Judiciary Committee that the nonprofit has developed a standby minor-guardianship program, in coordination with the Department for Children and Families (DCF), to keep children out of state custody when parents are detained or deported. “We developed it in response to a need presented to us both by undocumented parents and also DCF,” Prine said, and added the program was created because “there are 400 to 900 children of undocumented parents living in Vermont.”

The program trains volunteer lawyers to prepare paperwork and, where appropriate, file for provisional or minor guardianships so a named adult can care for children immediately if parents are detained. Prine said Vermont Legal Aid has trained about 20 volunteer attorneys around the state and has helped roughly 40 to 45 families so far. She said the organization has a memorandum of understanding with DCF and that the state…