Vermont gets `F' for transparency on child abuse role
MONTPELIER, Vt. --Vermont and nine other states get F's in a report examining how forthcoming states are in releasing information about their roles in cases of severe child abuse.
The report, "State Secrecy and Child Deaths in the U.S.," says most states don't release adequate information about fatal and life-threatening child abuse cases because of policies that put confidentiality above child welfare.
"It's deeply troubling," said Sheila Reed, legislative and community advocacy coordinator for Voices for Vermont's Children in Montpelier. "It's always a balance between the privacy of individuals, especially in a rural state, where everybody knows everybody. However, it's important for people to see how state systems that protect children are being managed."
Reed commented Monday after reading the report.
Steve Dale, head of the Department of Children and Families, said the state's policies are aimed at protecting the identity of survivors who could be publicly humiliated by the release of information about their cases.
Two national child advocacy groups -- First Star and the University of San Diego School of Law's Children's Advocacy Institute -- issued the report Tuesday. They found that only a handful of states comply with the spirit of federal laws mandating public disclosure of what public agencies did in abuse and neglect cases that end with a child's death or near-death.
Most states withhold information that could prevent future tragedies and hold child welfare systems accountable, according to the authors, who were to release the findings on Capitol Hill.
All states investigate serious child abuse to see if criminal charges are warranted. The report grades states based on their laws about disclosing the role of public agencies in child deaths and near-deaths.
In addition to Vermont, the states that flunked were Georgia, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah.
Vermont lost points for not having a policy for the release of information about child abuse cases in which the victim suffers near-fatal injuries, and for allowing -- but not requiring -- Dale's department to publicly disclose findings or information about cases ending in death.
The authors said Vermont's policy is "vague and unclear" in the scope of information that can be released, and noted that child abuse and neglect proceedings in the state are closed to the public.
Dale said the Legislature wanted to keep information about nonfatal cases confidential, for two reasons.
"One is there was no definition in the federal guidelines about what a `near fatality' meant. What does that exactly mean? How big do you want that door to be?
"If a child survives a situation that serious, being on Page One of the newspaper could be incredibly re-traumatizing for the child, or for the family if someone else was responsible," he said.
Ditto for keeping juvenile proceedings closed, he said.
"We've made a choice as a state, in statute, not to have child abuse and neglect proceedings be public events.
"It all comes down to a choice: Do we want to have family situations that complex and that intimate open to public conversation as they're being processed, or do we not? We've made a choice as a state to keep those closed," Dale said.
Reed said transparency is important.
"We need to know what the system is doing to protect the most vulnerable children," she said. "As a first step, they should tighten the statute regarding deaths, making it mandatory to report. I would support reporting on near-fatalities, too, so people know what the system is doing."
Dale said opening court proceedings or giving information about near-fatal abuse cases could have a harmful effect on surviving victims in their communities or in schools.
"Vermont is a small state, and a pretty intimate one," Dale said. "If we open the near-fatality door, or juvenile court proceedings, those things become a very real part of how a child connects with their local community and the kind of issues they may have to deal with in a public school setting." 