House Appropriations advances S.239 to study mandatory child-abuse reporting; amendment approved

Summary

The House Appropriations Committee approved S.239, which creates a working group to review Vermont’s mandatory-reporting laws and pre-investigation reporting practices; committee members debated membership size and learned Joint Fiscal Office estimates per-diem costs under $10,000 and payable from existing DCF funds.

The House Appropriations Committee advanced S.239 on April 17, 2026, approving a committee amendment and then voting the bill out of committee. The bill, described by Michelle Childs of the Office of Legislative Council, would create a working group charged with examining laws and policies around mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect, with an interim check-in by April 1 next year and a final report by Oct. 1, 2027.

Childs told the committee the amendment passed by House Human Services includes findings that helped frame the group’s work: from 2022 through 2024 Vermont’s rate of referrals to child welfare services was “over three times higher than the national rate,” yet only 17% of those referrals met criteria for further action, and just 20% of victims received post-response services in Vermont compared with a 57% national average. Those gaps, she said, motivated a focused review of who is a mandatory…

House Appropriations advances S.239 to study mandatory child-abuse reporting; amendment approved

Summary

Subscribe to keep reading