About Child Abuse & Neglect

In our neighborhoods, in our schools – or our children’s or grandchildren’s schools – there are:

• Children who are scared because home is not a safe place for  them
  
• Children who are hungry because they don’t have enough to eat
  
• Children who are exhausted because they can’t sleep at night  because there is violence in their home
  
• Children whose parents can’t safely care for them because they  are struggling with substance abuse, or mental health, or  incarceration, or domestic violence, poverty, or maybe they need  help in learning how to parent.

Abuse and neglect can happen at any income level, and affect children and teens at any age.

2021 Report on Child Protection in Vermont, VT Department for Children and Families

• In 2021, 18,507 reports of suspected maltreatment were made to the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF) Child Protection Line. 2,785 more than in 2020.
• VT DCF receives a report of suspected child abuse and neglect about once every 25 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We know that many situations go unreported.
• VT DCF Family Services opened 4,423 child safety interventions: 1,966 investigations and 2,457 assessments.  876 cases were opened for ongoing services.  During the last quarter of 2021, there were a total of 1,061 children/youth in state custody, and 469 in conditional custody in the care of a parent, relative, or other caregiver.

The potential toll is "serious and long-lasting impact on children—affecting their development, ability to learn, and future. Children who have been abused and neglected are more likely than other children to experience suicide, depression, poverty, illness, incarceration, and unwanted pregnancy."

- Dave Yacovone, Former DCF Commissioner

We cannot afford to let a single child experience this trauma.