The head of Vermont’s Department for Children and Families is retiring this month after six years in the job.
Ken Schatz, who has led the department since 2014, is leaving at the end of June. Sean Brown, currently a deputy commissioner with DCF, will replace him, heading up one of the largest departments in state government that oversees child protection services, the child care system, and economic benefits ranging from food access to home weatherization.
When Schatz first stepped into the role, the state’s child protection system was under fire following the deaths of two young children who had ties to DCF. Schatz led the department through an effort to reform the child protection system as the state’s opioid crisis was deepening. In 2015, Lara Sobel, a social worker with DCF, was shot and killed as she walked to her car after work by a woman who had lost custody of her child.
Schatz said Thursday that he believes Vermont’s system to protect children from abuse and neglect has been improved by the reforms.
“I do think that we have made considerable progress since that tumultuous time to improve our practices, improve our approach to support families, to protect children,” Schatz said. “I’m actually quite proud of that — but it’s a work in progress. There is always room to improve, and I am sure that will continue as we go forward.”
Schatz said he is particularly proud of the work the department has done on juvenile justice. On July 1, a law is set to go into effect that will make Vermont the first state in the nation to handle criminal cases against 18-year-olds in family, rather than criminal, court.
By moving 18-year-olds’ cases to the family court system, “we remove the taint of criminality so that they wouldn’t have an adult criminal conviction which can hamper their ability to get jobs, to get higher education, to go into the armed forces,” Schatz said.
Working to improve the system for helping homeless Vermonters access stable housing is also one of Schatz’s points of pride. DCF worked to reduce reliance on a motel voucher system, building up connections with shelters and other community partners, he said. However, he noted, the effort was somewhat disrupted when the coronavirus reached Vermont in March, making the congregated conditions of shelters incompatible with social distancing recommendations to reduce the spread of the illness.
In the past two months, DCF has shifted to providing motels as housing for those in need as a short-term approach.
“Homeless people are a really vulnerable population with respect to Covid-19. And we were able to move very quickly to support those individuals and families by moving them into hotels and avoided the spread of the pandemic to that population,” he said.
During the Covid-19 crisis, the department has been a key part of the state’s response — working to expand food access to families through 3SquaresVT, and implementing programs to provide child care to essential workers, and attempting to prop up the struggling child care sector through the crisis.
Before heading up DCF, Schatz worked as general counsel for the Agency of Human Services, a Burlington city attorney, deputy defender general and a juvenile defender. He said he is looking forward to some down time in retirement.
Brown will take over as commissioner of the department on June 29. Schatz said he was “thrilled” with Brown’s selection as his successor.
Brown has led the economic services division of DCF since 2014, which oversees benefits programs including 3SquaresVT, home weatherization and Reach Up.
