Vermont Parents’ Right to Know: Reform Access to the Child Protection Registry

 

To the Vermont Legislature and State of Vermont:

 

We, the undersigned, ask Vermont lawmakers to reform access to Vermont’s Child Protection Registry so that parents and guardians have a meaningful way to determine whether an adult who will have significant access to their child has a substantiated finding of child abuse or neglect.

 

Currently, information contained within Vermont’s Child Protection Registry is highly confidential. While protecting the privacy of children and families is critically important, this confidentiality can leave parents without information that may be directly relevant to their child’s safety.

 

A person with a substantiated finding may never voluntarily disclose that history to a new partner, household member, or other parent.

 

That creates a serious problem:

 

How can parents make fully informed decisions about who they allow around their children when potentially significant child-safety information is unavailable to them?

 

This petition is not asking Vermont to release children's identities, reporter information, victim statements, medical records, investigative evidence, addresses, or complete DCF case files.

 

Instead, we ask the Vermont Legislature to establish a carefully regulated system allowing parents and guardians to obtain limited information about substantiated child-abuse or neglect findings when necessary to protect a child.

 

Possible safeguards could include:

 

- Disclosure only after applicable administrative appeal rights have been exhausted.

- Clear identification that a DCF substantiation is an administrative finding and not necessarily a criminal conviction.

- Protection of the identity and personal information of every child involved.

- No disclosure of reporters, witnesses, medical information, interviews, photographs, or underlying DCF investigative records.

- Procedures allowing individuals to challenge inaccurate information and ensuring overturned findings are not disclosed.

- Consideration of a secure parent/guardian inquiry system rather than unrestricted access to sensitive DCF records.

 

Parents routinely make decisions about babysitters, household members, romantic partners, caregivers, and other adults who may have significant access to their children.

 

Parents deserve a meaningful way to make those decisions with relevant child-safety information.

 

The privacy of abused children must remain protected. At the same time, protecting a child's privacy should not necessarily require keeping every aspect of a substantiated finding inaccessible to another parent trying to protect their own child.

 

We ask Vermont lawmakers to examine the current law, hear testimony from survivors, parents, child-welfare professionals, advocates, attorneys, and individuals affected by registry decisions, and create a system that appropriately balances child safety, victim privacy, and due process.

 

Our request

 

We call upon the Vermont Legislature to introduce and consider legislation establishing a limited, carefully safeguarded method for parents and guardians to determine whether an adult with substantial access to their child has a final substantiated child-abuse or neglect finding on Vermont’s Child Protection Registry.

 

Protect children's identities. Protect due process. Give parents the information they need to protect their children.

 

Why This Matters to Me

 

I never imagined I would become a parent advocating for changes to Vermont’s Child Protection Registry. I came to this issue because of what happened to my own child.

 

My young daughter was harmed by someone I had trusted around her.

 

I did what a parent is supposed to do. I reported what happened. I cooperated with the investigation. I provided the information and evidence I had, and Vermont DCF ultimately substantiated a finding of child abuse.

 

That finding meant something to me. It meant that what happened to my child had been taken seriously by the system.

 

But it also made me realize something that I cannot stop thinking about:

 

What about the next child?

 

The person who was substantiated can enter another relationship. He can meet another parent. He can become part of another household where children live.

 

And that parent may have no idea that DCF previously substantiated a child-abuse finding involving him.

 

Unless he chooses to tell them.

 

That realization terrified me.

 

A parent can ask a new partner whether they have ever hurt a child. They can ask whether DCF has ever been involved. But a system that relies on someone voluntarily disclosing information that could cause a partner to leave does not give parents a reliable way to protect their children.

 

I understand why DCF records are confidential. My daughter's identity, her experiences, her statements and the intimate details of what happened to her should never become public information simply because she was harmed.

 

I want her privacy protected.

 

But protecting my daughter’s privacy and allowing another parent to learn that an adult has a final substantiated child-abuse finding do not have to be mutually exclusive.

 

I am not asking Vermont to publish my child's name.

 

I am not asking for her interviews, photographs, medical information or case file to become public.

 

I am not asking the state to treat a DCF substantiation as a criminal conviction.

 

I am asking Vermont to find a responsible way to tell parents information that could help prevent another child from being harmed.

 

There should be safeguards. There should be due process. Findings that are successfully appealed should not follow someone unfairly. Children's identities should remain fiercely protected.

 

But once those protections are in place, I believe parents deserve a meaningful way to determine whether someone they are trusting with access to their child has a substantiated history of harming or neglecting a child.

 

I cannot change what happened to my daughter.

 

But I can try to make what happened to her matter.

 

If speaking up leads Vermont to create a system that gives even one parent information that helps them recognize a danger before their child is harmed, then speaking up is worth it.

 

This isn't about revenge.

 

It isn't about publicly humiliating anyone.

 

It's about giving parents the opportunity to protect their children before there is another victim.

 

Children should not have to be harmed before the adults responsible for protecting them are finally given information that could have helped keep them safe.