Office of the Child, Youth and Family Advocate seeks new intake specialist, cites federal grant and potential $1.75M drawdown

The Office of the Child, Youth and Family Advocate asked the Vermont House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 21 for an additional full-time intake specialist — a five-year position the office says would cost about $63,000 in fiscal 2026 — and described a newly awarded federal grant and a federal funding rule that could increase support for families served by the Department for Children and Families (DCF).

The request came during a roughly 35-minute budget presentation to the House Appropriations Committee. "Our office was created, we've been in existence almost 2 years," Matthew Bernstein, the Child, Youth and Family Advocate, told the committee, describing the office's mix of individual and systemic advocacy for children, youth and families who receive services from DCF or funds administered by DCF.

The nut graf: the advocates said their office's caseload has grown and that a new staff position would let them handle more intakes and manage a complex five-year federal grant they recently won. They also described a separate, existing federal funding rule they say could allow Vermont to draw down about $1,750,000 a year in federal funds that the state is currently covering with general funds.

Bernstein and Lauren Higbee, deputy…