Policies in Vermont

Vermont Family Time Policy

The Vermont Department of Children and Family Services policy on Family Time supports the use of Family Time Coaching as the primary method of maintaining, strengthening or developing relationships between children and their parents when it is necessary to build parental capacity to meet children’s needs. When this is not the case, the social worker and the supervisor will explore the appropriateness of supporting family time without a Family Time Coach or a monitor. Consideration will be given to the extended family, friends, community supports helping to support familytime. It is also important for parents to continue to be involved with medical and dental appointments as well as attending school meetings or events when this can be done safely.

See the policy for more details.

Diligent Recruitment Navigator (Vermont)

Vermont used the Diligent Recruitment Navigator and technical assistance from the National Resource Center on Diligent Recruitment to develop its diligent recruitment plan. The plan emphasizes the importance of data access, collection and analysis but notes that access to the data is a challenge with the existing IT system. The agency’s QA team was engaged to establish data baselines and identify gaps regarding the three priority areas of increasing retention of kin, foster and adoptive families; improving recruitment by increasing timely system response from inquiry to licensure; and increasing available capacity of kin, foster and adoptive families. The state’s goals include using data to select the most effective recruitment activities, increasing consistency in data collection and providing diligent recruitment data to districts to support planning.

See Vermont's diligent recruitment plan for more information.

Vermont's Core Team

Vermont created a vision for recruitment and retention that includes a theory of change, organizational culture change, infrastructure elements, major action priorities and a detailed action plan. The Core Team identified five key diligent recruitment and retention infrastructure elements: 1) responsive model of engagement and support; 2) community engagement; 3) unified policy and procedures; 4) training and development; and 5) a unified data model. The agency is also working on organizational culture change to ensure that all staff have a role to play in recruitment and retention. Vermont’s Diligent Recruitment plan also calls for coordination with other state agencies, including the Departments of Mental Health, Aging and Independent Living and the Agency of Education.

See Vermont's diligent recruitment plan for more information