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Witnesses urge clearer goals, more practitioner input for S.239 working group on mandated reporting
Summary
Witnesses at a Human Services Committee hearing on S.239 recommended adding mandated reporters and school staff to the child abuse and neglect reporting working group, urged clearer statutory definitions and outcomes, and highlighted training gaps, confidentiality concerns, and that many reports are not investigated.
Teresa Wood convened the Human Services Committee to take testimony on S.239, an act to create a child abuse and neglect reporting working group, and to consider who should be represented on it.
Ellen Amstets, director of the Vermont Parent Child Center Network, told the committee the network operates 15 centers statewide and that its staff are mandated reporters. She said the centers currently work with “at least 500 families that have open DCF protective services cases” and urged the working group to study how other states handle mandated reporting, to clarify the bill’s expected outcomes and to allow adequate time for a thorough review.
"It's absolutely necessary and good timing to do this," Amstets said, adding that parent-child centers can provide qualitative data and family-centered perspectives even if they do not sit on the working group…
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