Alternately exciting, frustrating, overwhelming, and hopeful, this session left us with a lot to reflect on as an organization. Our advocates spent countless hours watching simultaneous committee meetings while navigating the many issues impacting Vermont kids today. We were often struck by the ways in which the current landscape has shaped advocacy and legislation, and the unique condition of being both more isolated and connected than ever before.

As the session comes to a close, we are acknowledging the elements that were transformational, and those that were clearly not sustainable, for both legislators and advocates alike. As we reflect, it is with gratitude for the great work and accomplishments that took place on behalf of children and families. We are determined to bring the lessons of this year into the work ahead.

We are also staying present with the knowledge that child well-being begins with child safety. Children today are growing up in an unceasing climate of gun violence, racial violence, gender violence, economic violence, and environmental violence. In this context, systems change cannot be simply an aspiration. If we are to truly move toward justice as a community, we must be prepared for the deep engagement, vulnerability, and relational work this moment requires.

H. 265: Establishing an Office of Child, Youth, and Family Advocate

On May 24th, the governor signed H.265 into law, officially establishing an Office of Child, Youth, and Family Advocate and making Vermont the last state in the Northeast to have independent, objective oversight of the Department of Children and Families. It is difficult to quantify the layers of work that brought this bill to the finish line. H.73, an act relating to the Office of Child Advocate, was introduced by Chair Pugh in January of 2013, and several iterations of this bill followed. The current bill, H.265 was co-sponsored by Rep. Noyes and Rep. Brumsted, with several additional sponsors and many, many champions.

While the urgency to establish an Office is real, the relationships and experiences that were brought to the forefront during the process of creating this bill will be important in setting the Advocate up for success. We will need to create the space that will enable the Advocate to be effective, ensure that they are accountable to Vermont’s children, and be prepared to listen and act on their recommendations.

This Office is tasked with defining current inequities in our system, reducing harm, and providing the state with the data needed to create a system that is responsive, restorative, and trauma-informed. In August, the Oversight Commission will begin gathering to recruit and hire Vermont’s first Advocate. This Advocate will begin work on January 1. It is our collective responsibility to support their work, and ensure that Vermonters have clear access to the Office and an understanding of its scope and authority.

The work that lies ahead is immense. At this moment in time, we know that we can do better. We can support our children and families in a way that is restorative, supportive, and generative. The Office of Child Youth and Family Advocate is a meaningful step on that path.

H.464: Reach Up Funding: Ending Child Poverty is Within Our Reach

We are also celebrating the passage and signing of H. 464, a bill containing a number of improvements to the Reach Up program, including several provisions imported from H.672. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ann Pugh and championed by Rep. Taylor Small and other members of the House Human Services Committee and makes a number of important policy changes to the program, including shifting the work requirement to a “universal engagement” model that aims to engage each participating family, to the best of their ability, in improving the family’s social, emotional, and economic well-being- a national first.It also expands the activities that count as engagement, drawing from research on how to best achieve and sustain family economic security.

In an additional step forward for families, the bill also moved to better support families with children going to school by raising the age limit for dependent children who are full-time students to be counted as family members for the purposes of benefit levels from 19 to 22. The bill also increased the amount of money working parents can keep by increasing the “job earned income disregard” cap from $250 to $350/month. The amount of child support allowed without reducing benefits was additionally raised from $50 to $100/month. Allowing parents to keep more of the money they’ve earned, continue their education, and most importantly, trusting them as they set their priorities is progress worth celebrating.

However, despite the headway made on these fronts, the legislature did not respond to calls to increase basic needs grants for families in the face of record-high inflation and robust revenue projections, leaving families enrolled in the program well below the poverty guideline even when other benefits are factored in. Furthermore, the Legislature accepted a $4.6m funding decrease for Reach Up based on questionable caseload projections in the Governor’s Recommended FY23 Budget, which the House Human Services Committee examined in detail and found to be unrealistic. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees decided to count the savings in their budgets, and re-examine the issue during the annual Budget Adjustment process in January. We expect that caseload numbers will actually go up, rather than down, and that funding increases will be needed. Ending child poverty is within our reach in Vermont, but as this session comes to a close, it is clear there is still much work to be done.

H.510: Vermont Child Tax Credit

The final tax credit compromise that emerged from the conference committee contains several positive measures for Vermont families. The bill establishes a refundable child tax credit of $1,000 per child aged five or younger for families with up to $125,000 in adjusted gross income. The credit phases out by $175,000 AGI. Fully refundable credits are available to families regardless of tax liability, meaning that even families who do not owe taxes can receive the full credit, which is intended to improve young families’ financial security. The legislature took care to ensure that the credit would not interfere with eligibility for other safety net programs. Unfortunately this means that the credit will be issued in a single annual lump sum, rather than via advance monthly payments, which is one of the mechanisms that make income transfers an effective anti-poverty tool. Still, an annual benefit will help families cover essential expenses.

In addition, H.510 increases the Vermont Earned Income Tax credit from 36% to 38% of the federal credit; expands the Child and Dependent Care Credit; creates a tax credit for interest paid on student loans; and a number of other provisions relating to Social Security and civil service retirement tax liabilities.

S. 287: An act relating to improving student equity by adjusting the school funding formula and providing education quality and funding oversight

An education funding bill that generated considerable interest and debate this session was S. 287, legislation to increase education funding across Vermont for students who need additional resources to support their learning needs such as multilingual learners, students from low-income families and students attending small and rural schools. Signed by the Governor in May, it is an important step in a years-long effort to analyze and recommend changes to Vermont’s education weighting and categorical aid funding formula(1). Triggered by the proposed change to the state’s special education funding method in Act 173, a study of pupil weighting and categorical aid was authorized and the findings were released in 2019. In 2021, a Legislative Task Force was established to examine the report’s findings and to create an action plan and recommendations for legislative action. What followed is S. 287, which incorporates some of the Task Force recommendations most notablyupdating and adding new pupil weights(2).

Other significant elements of the legislation include: developing and instituting a universal declaration of income form to determine student household income; adding, in addition to weighting, English Learner categorical grants for schools with small numbers of EL students; increased staffing at the Agency of Education to support S. 287 implementation; and a critical evaluation component focused and the impact of the targeted resources on education outcomes for students.

Voices supports these increased financial resources to help our schools to meet the learning needs of every student and will monitor how schools are engaging families and community members in their evaluation of educational outcomes.

1)These are education funding tools that help school districts secure additional resources to support all students’ learning needs.

(2)Pupil weights increased for income, English Learners and secondary grades (to 1.03, 2.49 and .39 respectively) and weights were added for middle grades, school size and rurality.

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Legislative leadership communicated at the start of the session that they wanted to see if a federal solution emerged, so there was little action on this policy, as expected. Several legislators continue to list paid leave as a top priority, so with renewed clarity that Vermont will need to pursue our own path, we look forward to engaging with partners and champions to craft a universal, equitable, publicly administered paid family and medical leave program in the next biennium. This work will take place within the broader context of a care continuum, as the pandemic has highlighted the many ways that our current systems fail parents and children.

Proposal 5: Declaration of rights; right to personal reproductive liberty

Prop 5 is a proposed amendment to the Vermont Constitution guaranteeing every individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy. It passed both the House and the Senate in two consecutive legislative sessions, and as the final part of the process will be voted on by the public in the 2022 election. Across the country the right to reproductive liberty has been eroded, and is now threatened at the Supreme Court level. If passed, Vermont will be the first state in the country to explicitly protect reproductive liberty in its constitution, meeting these threats with a comprehensive and proactive guarantee of this fundamental human right along with the ability to ensure access to health care within our state borders

Proposition 5 anchors the principles of the Reproductive Justicemovement, which holds several interconnected values: “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” This movement, for decades, has been asking us to reach a deeper understanding of the ways various oppressions impact the circumstances, choices, and realities of family creation and parenthood. Asking us to look beyond choice alone, it demands that we add multiple layers of context–economic, social, environmental–to our understanding of every situation. Prop 5 establishes a firm foundation on which to pursue our broader goals of building a just and equitable world for our children. You can read Voices’ full written testimony in support of this amendment here.

Additional bills impacting children and youth

S.100: the Universal School Meals Bill

Voices supports and celebrates the advocacy of Hunger Free Vermont and the passage of S.100, which will extend Universal School Meals in Vermont for the 2022-2023 school year in all public schools . The one-year plan for this program will be paid for through the Education fund, and will require revisiting to ensure it continues in future years. To that end, the bill directs the Agency of Education to collect data this upcoming fall about Universal School Meal participation across all Vermont schools, including data on student participation in the meals program across different school and grade levels, as well as strategies for minimizing the use of State funds, in order to help the legislature determine long-term costs. We strongly support permanently establishing Universal School Meals in Vermont so that every child continues to receive healthy meals at school.

S.139: An act relating to nondiscriminatory school branding

From confederate statues and flags to team names and school mascots, Vermont, like the nation, is grappling with how to acknowledge and address the inherent racism of these symbols embedded in our culture. Recent conflicts over school mascots highlighted the need for state policy oversight in the matter.

Voices is lifting up the passage of S. 139, which requires the Agency of Education, with stakeholders, to develop and adopt a statewide nondiscriminatory school branding model policy. The policy is required to “prohibit school branding that directly or indirectly references or stereotypes the likeness, features, symbols, traditions, or other characteristics that are specific to either: (A) the race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity of any person or group of persons; or (B) any person, group of persons, or organization associated with the repression of others.”

The statewide policy establishes the baseline for school districts and supervisory unions to use to review or develop local school branding policy. S.139 takes effect July 1.

H. 399: Requiring the sentencing court to consider the criminal defendant’s status as primary caretaker of a dependent child prior to imposing sentence

Voices supports the passage of H.399, which will require courts to consider the impacts of incarceration on a person’s family. The bill would give defendants the right to present a family impact statement before sentencing. It would also require the court to weigh a defendant’s responsibilities if they are a primary caretaker of a minor and to consider alternatives to incarceration. One out of every 17 Vermont children has had a parent in prison. This new law will center children and youth in decision making, which is truly exciting and should be celebrated.

H.293: An act relating to creating the State Youth Council

From our friends at Vermont Afterschool: H.293, establishes a State Youth Council composed of a diverse group of Vermont youth from each state county who are responsible for advising the governor and General Assembly on issues affecting young persons including education, equity and anti-racism, climate change, and mental health.

The writing of H.293 was informed by the work of Vermont Afterschool’s 2020 State Youth Advisory Group, a group of 50 young people who met regularly throughout the pandemic to develop recommendations for the State Youth Council and who testified in support of them before the Vermont Legislature.

We know that young people enrich our communities when their voices are heard and their passion for the future is felt. The State Youth Council recognizes the importance of young Vermonters and ensures they have a say in what that future looks like.

We have a busy summer in front of us to lay the foundation for the work ahead. We’re grateful for your ongoing support and championship of the issues that matter most to children and youth.