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High court seeks new approach as child abuse, neglect cases rise
Chief Justice Paul Reiber will head the Vermont Judicial Commission on Family Treatment Courts. File photo by Erin Mansfield/VTDigger Vermont’s top court is forming a task force to find ways to help...
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Father of slain toddler loses case in Supreme Court
Patricia Holden and her niece, Dezirae Sheldon. Holden’s brother Willis Sheldon is Dezirae’s father. Courtesy photo A father whose 2-year-old daughter was murdered in a case that sparked an overhaul of...
View ArticleRedmond: Documentary shows how children get a chance to start over in foster...
Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Mark Redmond, executive director of Spectrum Youth and Family Services in Burlington and author of “The Goodness Within.” It originally appeared on the Huffington Post...
View ArticleDanville School Board expresses support for principal cited for failure to...
(Editor’s note: This story was written by Todd Wellington of The Caledonian-Record, which first published it July 10, 2013.) The Danville School Board voted 4-0 Tuesday night to express support for...
View ArticleDanville superintendent wants failure-to-report Charges Thrown Out
Editor’s note: This article is by Todd Wellington of The Caledonian Record, in which it was first published Oct. 9, 2013. Danville School Superintendent Martha Tucker wants the court to throw out the...
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Senate panel to probe DCF after 2-year-old’s death
A panel of seven senators will attempt to discern whether policy changes could help prevent child deaths like that of 2-year-old Dezirae Sheldon in Poultney last week, Senate Pro Tempore John Campbell...
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Errors discovered in criminal record of slain toddler’s mother
Windsor County State’s Attorney Michael Kainen testifies Wednesday before the Senate Review Panel on Child Protection. Agency of Human Services Secretary Doug Racine (second from left) also attended....
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DCF not responsible for second toddler death, commissioner says
DCF Commissioner Dave Yacovone. VTDigger file photo The Department for Children and Families is not to blame for the deaths of two children in its caseload that occurred less than two months apart, the...
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Shumlin announces steps to strengthen DCF
In the wake of the homicides of two toddlers in the Department for Children and Families caseload less than two months apart, Gov. Peter Shumlin announced Wednesday measures to protect vulnerable...
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Mother of slain Winooski toddler pleads not guilty to second degree murder
Nytosha Laforce, 28, of Winooski pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in Chittenden Superior Court in Burlington on Wednesday. She was charged in the death of her 15-month-old son, Peighton...
View ArticleCyrus Patten: Vermont kids deserve better
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Cyrus Patten, who is a licensed social worker and executive director of Campaign for Vermont, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization. He lives in Monkton....
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No conflict of interest seen in Rutland DCF appointment
Lynne Klamm, who has been tapped to straighten out the Rutland office of the Department for Children and Families is married to the county’s top juvenile prosecutor, but that connection is not a...
View ArticleRobert Luce: Protect children by supporting families
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Robert Luce, who is a trial lawyer at Downs Rachlin Martin and adviser to Vermont Parent Representation Center Inc. The recent deaths of two child abuse victims...
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AG urges more access to child protection proceedings
Dave Yacovone (left), commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, and Doug Racine, secretary of the Agency of Human Services, testify before a committee looking into problems at DCF....
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Child abuse/neglect cases spiked in 2014, data shows
The number of alleged child abuse or neglect cases filed in courts across Vermont last year grew 21 percent from the year before, according to data from the state. In some counties, the number of cases...
View ArticleDCF rolls out new policies for people required to report suspected child abuse
The Department for Children and Families is reaching out to mandated reporters of child abuse across the state to inform them of policy changes related to the implementation of Act 60. The new law,...
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State divided over confidentiality rules in child abuse cases
Attorney General Bill Sorrell. Photo by John Herrick/VTDigger Attorney General Bill Sorrell says that limiting confidentiality around family court could improve transparency and accountability in the...
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Gathering explores keys to child abuse prevention
Gov. Peter Shumlin speaks Thursday at an event focusing on child abuse prevention. Photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDiggerGov. Peter Shumlin identified opiate addiction as the greatest challenge to the...
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Suit claims DCF failed to protect children from years of abuse
Vermont Department for Families and Children offices in Waterbury. Google Street View The grandparents of two children are suing the state’s Department for Children and Families for ignoring what they...
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Abuse case tied to former Vermont photographer closes without criminal charges
The Washington (D.C.) Hebrew Congregation has been sued by a group of parents over alleged child sex abuse. Congregation photo A child abuse investigation in Washington, D.C., involving former Vermont...
View ArticleChild abuse reports drop, raising alarm
VTDigger posts regular coronavirus updates on this page. You can also subscribe here for daily coronavirus news. Please send your Covid-19 questions to coronavirus@vtdigger.org At first glance, the...
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Under state pressure, Kurn Hattin gives up license
A sign outside Westminster’s Kurn Hattin Homes for Children notes its founding in 1894. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger After a yearlong investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and...
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‘Culture of abuse’ alleged at Kurn Hattin over 80 years
The original building of Kurn Hattin Homes for Children in Westminster. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger Growing up on the family farm in North Walpole, New Hampshire, Carolyn Blake Bradshaw lived on...
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House backs bill dropping deadline for child physical abuse claims
Burlington’s former St. Joseph’s Orphanage, which housed children from 1854 to 1974, is now an apartment building. Photo by Kevin O’Connor/VTDigger The Vermont House has joined the Senate in advancing...
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Lawsuit alleges ‘conscience-shocking’ use of force at Vermont’s now-shuttered...
Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Essex, now closed. Photo by Mark Johnson/VTDigger Updated at 6:13 p.m. A lawsuit filed on behalf of several youth who had been placed in Vermont’s now-closed...
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Online child exploitation tips jumped 37% during 2 years of the pandemic
One evening last December, a team of law enforcement officers carrying a search warrant knocked on an apartment door in Claremont, New Hampshire. After speaking with the tenants, the police seized...
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Youth organization founder facing new child sexual abuse charges
Wayne Miller is being held at Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger The founder of a youth mentoring organization is facing a spate of new child...
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Senate panel gets first look at bill to scrap clergy exemptions for reporting...
Sen. Robert Norris, R-Franklin, listens to testimony as the Senate Judiciary Committee considers repealing the exception for clergy to report child abuse and neglects at the Statehouse in Montpelier...
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Clergy reporting bill fails to make key legislative deadline over...
Christopher Coyne, bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, center, answers a question from Sen. Phil Baruth, D-Chittenden Central, left, as the Senate Judiciary Committee considers a bill repealing an...
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Special report: ‘This never ends for him’
Editor’s note: VTDigger does not publish the names of alleged child sexual abuse victims or their families and has used pseudonyms to protect the identities of the parents, partners and child in this...
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