[A] policy brief released this week by a group advocating for early childhood development questions Vermont’s ability to monitor the prevalence of child neglect.
The brief released Thursday by Building Bright Futures says that while incidents of child abuse may dominate headlines, incidents of child neglect are much more frequent.
“Neglect has been a really vague concept for the general public,” said Julie Coffey, executive director of Building Bright Futures.
The organization wanted to draw attention to new research about the impact of neglect on early childhood development, Coffey said, especially in the wake of the passage of broad child protection reform legislation this year.
Statistics from 2013 cited in the brief show that 79 percent of children who are maltreated nationwide are neglected, compared with 18 percent who are physically abused.
Vermont, meanwhile, has a narrower legal definition of neglect than many other states — although DCF argues that “neglect” is captured under other categories of maltreatment, including “risk of harm.”
By combining categories, the Department for Children and Families estimates that between 60 percent and 65 percent of substantiated reports of child maltreatment in 2014 were incidents of neglect.
Coffey said that Building Bright Futures is not making policy recommendations to the state, but is addressing the fact that its research shows that there is potentially an area where Vermont is not able to get a clear picture of the prevalence of the issue.
“We just don’t know if this means that there are uncounted children,” Coffey said. “We’re asking the question.”
The brief points out that in the recently passed Act 60, the legislation that makes changes to wide-ranging aspects of Vermont’s child protection system, lawmakers changed the definition of “risk of harm” by removing “neglect” and “emotional maltreatment.”
“It is unclear how this will further impact Vermont’s ability to track child neglect,” the report states.
“We not only believe we do keep track, we also work hard to support development of programs,” Schatz said.
Schatz commended the report for drawing attention to the issue of child neglect.
“We appreciate the attention that is given to child neglect,” Schatz said. “It is definitely portion of child maltreatment that really warrants thoughtful review and understanding.”
Awareness of neglect is especially critical as the state addresses the high usage of opiate drugs in Vermont, Schatz said.
DCF is dealing with a higher rates of cases involving opiates than ever before, especially among cases involving young children. The department reported a 68 percent increase in the number of children under age 6 coming into state custody in 2014 — an increase driven in part by substance abuse.
The department makes an effort to keep staff members educated in the face of new trends, Schatz said. In March, DCF held a workshop to bring family services division workers up to speed in best practices for serving the influx of young children coming into contact with the state.
“I’m glad to have the attention focus on this issue,” Schatz said. “There is more that can be done.”
