By Sam Douglass
The Vermont House Human Services Committee is putting finishing touches on a bill that will drastically change the experience, legal status, and state oversight of a minor living in independent homelessness.
This week, the House Committee on Human Services has heard testimony on H.657, a bill that changes or establishes multiple practices within the Department of Children and Families (DCF), including overseeing a qualified minor’s social security income, defining the proper use of restraints and transportation for minors, restricting the use of solitary confinement on minors, the use of pregnancy calendars or tracking pregnant individuals, and reforming unaccompanied homelessness for minors.
Information for In Committee news reports are sourced from GoldenDomeVt.com and the General Assembly website. Generative AI has not been used in the writing of this story.
This bill was cobbled together with language from multiple separate pieces of legislation and then packaged into the original H.657, introduced by Representative Jubilee McGill (D-Addision 5). This made the current draft far different from the initially introduced version. With its new language, it has become a miscellaneous bill that covers practices falling under the jurisdiction of the Department of Children and Families.
This process in the legislature is common and allows flexibility for lawmakers to move around language as necessary. There is a risk. If a committee adds in language that isn’t “germane”, or that it differs too substantially from the original bill, the committee’s work on the bill to procedural challenges on the floor and runs the risk of having all their work rejected due to a lack of relevancy.
In the bill, the definition of a homeless minor is broad and encompasses minors 16 and over that have run away from home, been forced out of a home, or have been abandoned. Under that definition, a homeless minor may be provided with certification credentials from DCF if they also “lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.”
These credentials give latitude for minors to manage their own affairs independently. This includes obtaining or receiving: nondriver IDs, learner’s permits, driver’s licenses, vital event certificates (e.g birth and death certificates), healthcare (dental, medical, reproductive, psychiatric, or substance abuse treatment) for them or their child, housing, employment, student loans, bank accounts, enrollment in high school or college, and services for domestic or sexual violence.
For the purposes of obtaining any of these, the state can stand in place of a parent or guardian when necessary and any entity or professional procuring them is granted immunity from liability, except in cases of gross negligence.
In committee testimony, supporters of these policies cite examples of minors living in homelessness who have proven capable of managing their own affairs but lack access to the resources that they would have if they were adults. For Defender General Marshall Pahl, this presents a problem.
“We treat kids who are 16 years old, have a job, have a car, and are kind of getting by on their own without parental engagement the same way that we treat a 12 year old who does not have parental support. And that’s where I think we really miss the boat,” Pahl told the committee on Thursday.
The bill also includes provisions regarding current DCF policies that have been the subject of legal action over allegations of malfeasance. In January 2025, the ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging that Vermont DCF made false statements to a state court about a resident’s pregnancy status to obtain legal right of control of the fetus, attempted to force the resident into an involuntary cesarean, and then took custody of the newborn for several months. This litigation is still pending. Discussion in the committee appears to indicate that these provisions will undergo significant change or removal due to the ongoing lawsuit. Continuing testimony on H.657 is scheduled for Friday this week.