House Human Services narrows pre-K working group, votes to include two paid lived-experience participants
Loading...
Summary
The House Human Services panel agreed to limit the core working group on child-reporting and pre-K policy to about 13 members, remove one listed office and add two paid participants with lived experience funded by DCF; members also set consultative roles for Parent Child Centers and the Child Development Division.
The House Human Services chair opened the session with an update on pre-K and said the panel wants its work reflected in the pending education bill as it moves through Ways and Means and appropriations. The chair said the panel will seek to ensure the bill preserves the committee’s prior policy decisions and emphasized representation for mandated reporters and education staff.
Committee members agreed to structure the effort in two tiers: a core working group of roughly 13 people who will meet and a broader consultative list. The chair said DCF indicated it would fund stipends for two people with lived experience so those participants can be part of the decision-making table rather than unpaid consultants. The committee discussed that stipends would come from existing budget authority rather than creating a new line.
Members removed the Office of Professional Responsibility from the core list and refined a draft roster the chair read aloud that includes: the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services; the Vermont Network Against Domestic Violence; Prevent Child Abuse Vermont; the Vermont Child, Youth and Family Advocate; the Office of Racial Equity; two individuals with lived experience; a representative of the Vermont Principals Association; defender general representation; children’s mental-health representatives from designated agencies; Vermont Pediatrics; and the Vermont Criminal Justice Council. Parent Child Centers and other childcare providers were placed primarily in a consultative role unless the committee decides otherwise.
On legal representation, members agreed the attorney general’s office should shift to a consultative role while the defender general would remain engaged to address post-reporting or legal-defense perspectives. For law enforcement, the panel favored a single designee appointed by the chair of the Law Enforcement Advisory Board or Criminal Justice Council rather than multiple law-enforcement seats.
Committee members debated how to ensure early-childcare perspectives are represented without creating an unwieldy core group. Options discussed included naming a pediatrician and a designated-agency mental-health representative on the core roster and asking the Child Development Division or the state education office to coordinate additional provider input.
The committee closed the discussion for lunch and planned to resume after members returned from the floor session.
