[T]he House Judiciary Committee passed the latest version of the expansive child protection reform bill S.9 Tuesday.
The committee added language to clarify requirements for mandated reporters — including school employees, camp counselors and others who are required to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect.
Rep. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, chair of House Judiciary, explained that she hopes the language changes will “give clarity to our mandated reporters and our criminal justice system.”
S.9 is the result of a legislative study committee that investigated the state’s child protection system following the deaths of two toddlers last year who had been in contact with the Department for Children and Families.
The bill passed the Senate last month. The House Human Services Committee passed S.9 earlier this month.
House Judiciary removed a section that amended the current cruelty to a child statute. The committee agreed to remove the section Tuesday after lengthy discussion. Rep. Willem Jewett, D-Ripton, told the committee that he would prefer to take the section out than pass a “half step,” and fellow lawmakers agreed.
“Our committee felt strongly that a criminal fix is not necessarily … the best approach,” Grad said.
Grad said the committee will continue to look into the section and may offer an amendment to the bill when it is on the House floor or during conference committee with the Senate.
The House Human Services Committee had removed a section from S.9 as it passed the Senate that created a new crime, failure to protect a child, but had revised the current cruelty to a child statute.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised the changes the House Judiciary Committee made to the mandatory reporter section, but said that he sees a need for reform to the current cruelty to a child crime.
“I’m willing to look at alternatives to failure to protect language, but I’m not willing to accept that the criminal laws as they stand today to deal with children who are abused by adults and people who fail to protect those children are adequate,” Sears said.
David Cahill of the Department of State’s Attorneys and Sheriffs’ Association said that prosecutors support the creation of a failure to protect crime, but that the association opposes anything that would make it more difficult to prosecute child abuse or neglect.
“Sometimes inaction can be better,” Cahill said.
Auburn Watersong, of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, raised concerns that the existing statute potentially endangers victims of domestic abuse.
The bill passed out of the committee by a vote of 8-3. Grad expects the bill will come up for a vote in the House later this week.
