Legislators packed into Room 9 to hear testimony about the increasing prevalence and severity of student mental health needs, and the decreasing ability of Vermont’s service providers to respond.
Designated agencies — the regional nonprofits that traditionally contract with schools or supervisory unions for mental health services — can help connect students or their families to a broad array of social services outside of school hours, in addition to working inside schools. But increasingly, those designated agencies are unable to meet schools’ needs, according to Tiffiny Moore, director of school-based services at Washington County Mental Health Services.
“I have over 30 students on a waitlist,” waiting for a one-on-one staff person, Moore said.
Anne Paradiso, director of school programs at the Howard Center, said nearby Burlington Bagel Bakery is able to pay better than the nonprofit, and offers a lower stress work environment.
“You don’t have to get spit on,” Paradiso said. “You don’t have to get hit.”
With schools facing an immediate challenge and designated agencies unable to immediately respond, schools have turned to hiring their own clinicians or contracting with private companies that pay higher wages.
Despite the need, officials from the Department of Mental Health and Agency of Education told lawmakers that the education system is missing out on millions of dollars that could be spent on mental health.
The most recent state data suggested that more than $10 million budgeted for school mental health through Medicaid’s Success Beyond Six program went unutilized. Staffing struggles — whether administrative or mental health specific — likely contributed to the gap, officials said.
At the same time, schools are seeing students with more severe behavioral problems.
“These are students who were once in hospitals, right? In residential facilities,” Moore said. Because of a reduction of available beds, “they show up in their public school every day.”
— Ethan Weinstein
In the know
At a wide-ranging joint hearing, lawmakers heard testimony at the intersection of public safety, drug addiction, and homelessness.
Along with claims of rising retail theft and drug-related violence, legislators heard from homelessness advocates who argued that the state’s wind-down of the pandemic-era motel program has pushed hundreds of people out of shelter – and onto the streets.
Sarah Russell, Burlington’s special assistant to end homelessness, said Chittenden County has seen a massive increase in the number of people living unsheltered since the state began kicking people out of motels last summer.
Russell said she expects the county will see an even greater uptick if the state moves hundreds more people out of the program this spring – without enough shelter space to accommodate them. Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger is advocating for the state to keep people in the Covid-era program until July, when local officials believe all households currently in the program in Chittenden County can be connected with permanent housing.
Russell emphasized that people living outside are more vulnerable to violence and crime.
“Without the safety of a home, people living unsheltered are far more likely to be the victims of theft and assault, which are dangers they must confront on a daily basis,” she said.
— Carly Berlin
On the move
Proposal 1, a proposed constitutional amendment concerning elected county officials, is headed to the Senate floor.
The amendment, which had been under review in the Senate Government Operations Committee, proposes that the Legislature be allowed to craft laws that set qualifications for sheriffs, state’s attorneys and assistant judges — qualifications which currently don’t exist. This would also create a mechanism for removing office holders for failing to meet those qualifications. Right now, these county officials can be removed only through impeachment.
Proposal 1 started out as an effort to create a way of overseeing sheriffs, after multiple sheriffs departments became embroiled in a range of scandals since 2022. Among them is Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore, who is charged with assaulting a man in shackles and is currently being investigated by a Vermont House impeachment committee.
The Vermont Sheriffs’ Association has called on Grismore to resign, but opposes Proposal 1. Windham County Sheriff Mark Anderson, the association president, told the committee: “We cannot forecast what a future Legislature would contemplate as appropriate qualifications or factors of eligibility, retention, removal or even abolishment.”
Proposal 1 cleared the committee with all members voting yes, except for Sen. Robert Norris, R-Franklin, a former sheriff.
The proposed amendment also suggests removing the high bailiff as a constitutionally mandated county official. The committee said its research showed that legislators working on a 1974 constitutional amendment had intended to accomplish that task, but a “drafting error” retained mention of the high bailiff in the Vermont Constitution.
— Tiffany Tan
On the hill
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday evening unsuccessfully implored his colleagues to support a measure he authored that would have compelled the U.S. State Department to provide Congress a human rights report on Israel as its war against Hamas in Gaza rages on.
The resolution, which Sanders dubbed a “simple request for information,” failed to pass, with 72 senators voting to table it. Only 11 supported it, including Sanders and his colleague from Vermont, Sen. Peter Welch, a Democrat.
Special announcements
Before heading to the Statehouse on Wednesday, Sen. Nader Hashim, D-Windham, swung by the Vermont Supreme Court next door to be sworn in as licensed attorney in the state of Vermont. [Insert joke here about Vermonters needing yet another attorney in the Legislature.]
Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, filling in at the dais for Lt. Gov. Dave Zuckerman, announced Hashim’s new gig at the start of the Senate’s floor session Wednesday afternoon with much fanfare.
“Sen. Nader Hashim should now have ‘esquire’ added to his name,” Baruth said. “He was sworn in as an attorney in the state of Vermont earlier today, which would call for applause if that were allowed.”
Much to Secretary John Bloomer’s chagrin, I’m sure, the rowdy Senate broke into laughter and applause. Blasphemy!
“Horrible breach of decorum,” Baruth joked, as if he himself hadn’t egged it on. “We will have to discuss that later. Congratulations, Sen. Hashim.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
What we’re reading
State gets pushback as it looks to alternatives for housing justice-involved youth, VTDigger
Lawmakers consider measures to preserve cash payments in stores, Seven Days
Putney paper mill shuts down, eliminating jobs for 127 workers, The Commons News
