Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: We are live. Alright, everyone. Welcome back after lunch. 1PM on February 11, and our first order of business is we have representatives from the Provost State Youth Council here to share recommendations with this committee on various policy subjects, and I'm gonna allow our guests to go in the order that they deem necessary because I believe that's continuity to their presentations. So, I will let the gallery send folks up in New York if they wish. How are you?

[Speaker 1]: Good. How about you?

[Speaker 0]: Wonderful. Thank you. Alrighty.

[Speaker 1]: Good afternoon. I'd like to thank you all for having us today. It's great to be back at the state house, representing the youth of our state. Before I begin, I'd also like to mention, that we do have a meeting with government operations in the senate and a half hour. So if it's alright with the chair, we would like to hold questions, if we're able to until the end.

[Speaker 0]: Oh, no. That's more than fine. Thank you.

[Speaker 1]: My name is Aidan Otterman. I live in West Tops in Vermont, and I am the chair of the Rock State Youth Council. Founded in 2022 by legislative act one zero nine, the Rock State Youth Council is grouped now of 27 youth from all walks of life from ages 11 to 18. The council further consists of five subcommittees, equity and anti racism, climate change, youth voice, mental health, and education. Committees are tasked with the creation of recommendations related to the committee focus, which are then voted on by the whole council. From there, the council is tasked with providing these recommendations to the Vermont for the to Vermont's governor and general assembly. Alongside recommendations in specific topics such as the preservation of Vermont's traditions and the future of Vermont's rural character, activities, professions, as well as the participation of young persons in Vermont's economy and keeping young voters in the state. Over the past few years, the council has held a public hearing, sent multiple surveys to Vermont youth, written in revised bylaws, and presented to the general assembly and the governor on two occasions. This year, we have moved forward with a new strategy recommendation creation and presentation, which would better align with the legislative biennium. This strategy consists of presenting recommendations at the start of the legislative biennium, leaving the latter half of the biennium as time to connect with legislators, write bills, and provide testimony. The council has also been ramping up our outreach to youth, youth constituents and are planning to hold several public hearings during and after the current legislative session. The Ramos State Youth Council has also been a key, provider in providing a platform of youth voice in our state. It has allowed youth to have a real impact on each other and the future as their leaders of tomorrow. The recommendations provided by the council are a reflection of the most pressing issues affecting Vermont youth today. I will now hand it over to the education committee, and I will circle back later to close out our testimony. Thank

[Speaker 0]: you. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]: Well, hello. My name is Ezra Tan. I'm 14 years old. I'm a freshman who attends Hartford High School in Hartford, Vermont. I would first like to thank you guys again for taking the time today to listen to these important recommendations from not only the Education Committee, but from all the committees today. I am here today to give you some recommendations based on what the Education Committee thinks will benefit the youth of Vermont in a positive way. So the first recommendation we make is to act 73, the education reform bill. And while we support certain aspects of act 73, such as the funding formula, the council recommends that this law should not continue to be implemented in its current state without having reforms and edits made to it. I would now like to share a couple of concerns we came up with, and these are not all of them, just some of them. The first concern that we see is stress on teachers, staff, administrators, special ed teachers, as well as many others. And by consolidating schools, you make the big decision to change the lives of many of the people who hold those job titles today. Many of them will be laid off and without a job and no chance of teaching in Vermont. The ones who are still employed will be under tons of stress with many new students, bigger classes, and possibly new areas of Vermont they've never been to before, and that can weigh heavy on their mental health. The other example I would like to share today is distance, more specifically bus routes. Two hours on a bus is too long. For one, it prohibits students from participating in after school activities cause they already have a two hour bus ride ahead of them and just have to get home. We think that 45 seems like a more reasonable time to spend on a bus, but even that is a very long time. The second recommendation we would like to make today that we recommend that financial literacy and life skills, home economics classes be required in schools, additionally allowing all high school students access to alternative learning pathways such as tech centers. With access to these classes and alternative learning pathways, you open up the world of possibilities for many students. It's a chance for students who may not possess the skills in the classroom to show off their real talent and give them hope and a sense of belonging. Additionally, the life skills class can be a game changer for a lot of students as it teaches them skills that are a necessity for living after high school. And the third recommendation, and the last one, we would like to make today is an increase in the number of specialist teachers paraeducators, reading, writing, and math interventionists, certified teachers, equity scholars, counselors, clinicians, student assistance providers, translators, and many more in schools. These specialist teachers are necessities for schools everywhere, all over the world. For many students, they can make the difference between effective learning and staring blankly in the space not learning anything from us. The problem here is there isn't enough of these teachers in schools in Vermont, and it's not even close. One statistic I can give you is that there are less than 50 student assistance providers in Vermont. A student assistance provider is a trusted adult in the community who is funded to do prevention with youth like coalition leaders. That means an SAP, or student assistance provider, is vital in a community when we talk about prevention. And since there are less than 50 in the state, many schools are sharing or are without an SAP altogether. And this is concerning because if there's no one to lead prevention in the community, then there will be no prevention, period. And I use this as just one example, and I could speak all day about how these specialized teachers really help, but I just don't have the time right now. So I want to thank you again for taking the time today to listen to me. On behalf of the Education Committee, we really do appreciate your time. So thank you guys. Thank you very much, Heather.

[Speaker 3]: Hi, good afternoon everyone. My name is Haley Heung. I am 17 years old and I live in Williston, Vermont. I am the chair of our Equity and Anti Racism Committee. We believe that all Vermont youth deserve to experience belonging and have equitable access to opportunities. We recognize that many Vermonters, largely those with multiple marginalised identities, encounter systemic and cultural and interpersonal barriers to access these rights. Our first recommendation was influenced by the DEI report presented by the Executive Director Racial Equity for the State of Vermont on 01/15/2024. We wanted to reiterate a few of these recommendations that may have slipped through the cracks. The first one is to require the Secretary of Education to work with the Ethics and Social Equity Standard in school advisory working group to develop and maintain a model curriculum on teaching against hate speech and hateful imagery symbols, enabling students to recognize discrimination and to provide teaching materials, technical assistance, and coordination to school districts and superintendents to implement. As a committee, we recommend that schools be required to state of curriculum that these topics as part of a required class. Another is to task the ethics and social equity standards in school advisory working group, as mentioned previously with developing a model curriculum on hateful imagery and a model policy on racial equity. Another is to require school boards to adopt a policy on racial equity at least as stringent as the policy to be developed by the Secretary of Education. Additionally, the Council recommends the General Assembly to adopt the statewide equity plan as recommended in the 2024 report of the Executive Director of Racial Equity to the General Assembly. Our next recommendation is relating to requiring schools to define the appropriate response for any incident of any level that occurs due to bias or prejudice. Using both disciplinary and restorative actions. These consequences should be suggested by individuals trained in diversity, equity, and inclusion. This can include lessons, presentations, workshops, and restorative justice practices dialogues relating to the topic of discrimination. The Council recommends that this swell effort to change the pattern of bias and prejudice actions without requiring requiring victims to speak with their discriminator. We also recommend passing legislation that requires schools to provide and maintain a feeling of comfort and obligation for students when reporting discrimination they experience and witness, as well as require schools to provide an alternative way of reporting incidents other than verbally reporting them to a teacher. Some of these examples include a box where a student could write their report and drop them in, and another being an email to a designated administrator or staff member. To conclude, we recommend you please prioritize the marginalized youth of Vermont when making legislative decisions and actions. Thank you. And I'll be taking this off to Youth Mental Health.

[Speaker 4]: Hello. My name is Claire Zantstra. I'm 15 years old. I live in Topsland, Vermont, and I'm the chair of the Vermont State Youth Council's Youth Mental Health Committee. Thank you for having us. The Vermont State Youth Council's Youth Mental Health Committee's vision is to establish at least one inpatient eating disorder facility within the state. Our audience is teens from 11 to 15 with severe eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Due to the fact that there are currently no eating disorder facilities for people 15 in the state, and that the ones that we do have have chronically long waiting lists, we, on the Youth Mental Health Committee and the Vermont State Youth Council as a whole, recommend that the General Assembly pass legislation to have an inpatient eating disorder facility built within the state that accepts people from the ages of 11 to 17. Our first action point is we would like you to help fund the building of an inpatient eating disorder facility within the state. And then if that is too much to ask for this biennium, we would strongly encourage that you help fundbuild the expansion of the comm center in Burlington, which is an outpatient eating disorder facility that's looking to include younger members. And our second recommendation today is on mental health days. Our vision is to instate three excused mental health days per semester for middle and high school students within the state of Vermont. Students who have a diagnosis from a certified clinician would have five mental health days per semester. In schools that have a trimester system, there would be two days for students without a diagnosis and three to four for students that have a clinical diagnosis. Having mental health days would help Vermont students learn in a space where they feel safe and can feel that they can get their needs met. If students don't have a home where they feel safe to be for a day, or they don't have parents who accept that mental health days are important, the student should have the option to take the day in the principal or guidance counselor's office. Some opposers of this would say that kids who don't want to be in schools would abuse this privilege. We on the Vermont State Youth Council understand that concern, but we also, from experience of being in schools, know that these people will skip anyways. Even if this gives people skipping a free getaway, it will also give a disproportionate amount of help to the rest of the people so that they can get the rest necessary to work hard in school the rest of the time. A precaution for this worry would be that you couldn't take multiple mental health days in a row. Depending on the student's teacher, they could also be asked to make up the day's work as homework, or during the day they are taking, but not as part of the class. Due to the thoughts and feelings we have placed before you today, and the fact that according to a study, seventy four percent of parents think that kids should have mental health days, and seventy seven percent of parents who have let their student have a mental health day said that it was beneficial, According to the CBNC on Mental Health Days, the Vermont State Youth Council recommends that the General Assembly pass legislation to allow students to take three excused mental health days per semester, two per trimester, and allow students with a clinical diagnosis to take five mental health days per semester, three to four per trimester. These mental health days would not turn over into the next semester, and could be taken in the guidance counselor or principal's office. Students would be expected to make up work that was given that day, but given extra time, the same as a core sick day. Thank you for having us.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you.

[Speaker 5]: Hello. My name is Finster. I'm 15. I live in St. Albans, Vermont, and, I'm representing the climate change committee. Human induced climate change affects all of us here in Vermont and across the globe. Though impacts vary by region, Vermont is already experiencing dramatic consequences. July 2023 was the warmest July ever recorded worldwide. And that same month, our state endured catastrophic flooding, showing how climate related disasters are becoming more frequent and severe. These events affect our communities, wildlife ecosystems, and natural landscapes central to Vermont's identity. As youth who will inherit this world, we believe we must take part in shaping solutions. Vermont might be small, but we have the capacity to lead through practical community driven action. The Vermont State Youth Council therefore recommends that the general assembly offers tax incentives for co ops, garden centers, and other outdoor businesses to accept compost for free and benefit from selling the resulting soil, and also providing residents with compost buckets and establishing a statewide combined map of compost drop off locations, and also to support and expand youth environmental stewardship opportunities, engaging young Vermonters in trail work, forestry, conservation, and environmental monitoring. By advancing these actions, Vermont can reduce its negative environmental impact, protect the landscapes we cherish, and safeguard a resilient future for the next generation. The youth council looks forward to working with lawmakers to move these efforts forward. Respectfully, the Vermont State Youth Council. Thank you.

[Speaker 6]: Hi all. I'm Elizabeth Bailey. I'm 18 years old. I was born and raised in Johnson, Vermont, I'm a senior at Lamoille Union High School. This is my second year with the Youth Council, and I serve as the Youth Voice Chair. I just wanted to say on behalf of the Youth Voice Committee, thank you all for your time. Our first recommendation is that the Council recommends the General Assembly pass a resolution allowing municipalities across the state to extend voting rights to 16 and or 17 year olds in local elections and town meetings. This resolution would provide youth with a direct voice in local government, giving way to a generation of youth with a stronger sense of civic responsibility. Our second recommendation is the Council recommending the General Assembly to adopt S-eight as introduced to expand eligibility for coverage under the Doctor. Dinosaur program to all Vermont residents 26 years of age or below 312% of the federal poverty level. This expansion would provide a safety net toward those who may not have access to employer sponsored insurance or those transitioning through differing educational and professional stages, which would ensure their continuity of care during a formative stage of personal and professional development. Youth Voice's last recommendation is that the General Assembly refrains from pushing back the implementation of the Raise the Age initiative and to follow through with a 07/01/2027 date outlined in Act four. The Raise the Age initiative acknowledges that the human brain is not fully developed at the age of 18 and that poor decision making on the part of young adults should not be met with punitive, often harsh punishments that follow them for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, it promotes restorative justice practices, which is a form of justice that is oftentimes more effective in dealing with low stake instances instead of lawbreaking. Thank you so much for your time.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you. So yeah, having held questions, committees or, oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm more coming. Okay. I thought it was in on my list. Never mind.

[Speaker 3]: Hello. My name is Harmony Bell Depot. I'm 16 years old. I'm a junior at Harvard Union High School. I'm the chair, vice chair of the Vermont City Youth Council, and I'm on the Equity and Anti Racism Committee, and I live in Warren. Each year, the council is required to present recommendations on youth in Vermont's economy and keeping youth in the state. Our first recommendation for this is we request that the council's federal funding be replaced by an appropriation of $140,000 in state funds for fiscal year 2027 to ensure youth council members have the right to fully express their identity and experiences without federal limits so they can truly represent the diversity and perspectives of young Vermonters. The total includes $47,000 in youth stipends, menu expenses and mileage reimbursement for in person meetings, and costs associated with the administrative and technical assistance of Vermont Afterschool in support of the Council. The council also recommends the General Assembly create a state fund for affordable housing in the state. To support this fund, the General Assembly should consider installing an inheritance tax of 5% to be applied to promoters receiving an inheritance of $250,000 or more. Another consideration would be to use revenue from the already existing estate tax for the affordable housing fund. This tax money will go into state fund for affordable housing using different strategies, such as using abandoned buildings and dorms when empty or building up instead of out. To uphold Vermont's tradition of being a direct democracy at the town level, we also recommend Vermont public schools be required to educate students on the history and importance of town meeting day in the days and weeks leading up to it and strongly encourage students to attend. To improve the health and food security of Vermont youth and to support Vermont's farming traditions, the council recommends that Vermont's public schools are to be required and assisted to provide free school meals to all k through 12 students and to use a certain amount of food from local farms in these school units. As you reflect on our recommendations in order to incorporate them into policymaking, we ask you to please notice if there are any recommendations you could do any of the following with at this time in the legislative session: Introduce it as a short form bill, if the committee could take a bill off the wall and add the language for the recommendation in, or if there is a bill you are working on in committee that this language could fit into, vote it as an amendment to any related bills. If your committee is unable to do this, please let legislators of any other committees know. If so, please reach out to any of us, and if it would be useful, we would be happy to work on incorporating our recommendations into a bill with legislators. We'd also be happy to look at any bills you or any committees want feedback or support on and endorse it or come in and testify for it. Going forward, we are planning to share our recommendations with legislators before the session begins. In order to find champions to introduce bills based on our recommendations and then advocate, testify, and lobby for them during the legislative session. Thank you. I'll now pass it to Council Chair Aidan Ottoman to close out.

[Speaker 1]: Hello again. As you can see behind me, I have a few, bills that are re officially endorsed as the State Youth Council, including Age 30, an act relating to the use of seclusion and restraint on children and youth in the custody of the Department of for Children and Families, h one ninety two, an act relating to prohibiting solitary confinement for children, h five one one, an act relating to admittance of federal immigration authorities into schools, and h six forty, an act relating to adding voting student members to district school boards. I'd like to thank the committee for again for having us today. We look forward to continuing our work together for a better future for Vermont's youth.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. Have a hand from Representative Hango.

[Speaker 7]: Thank you, ma'am. Thanks for presenting to us today. Do you have an official budget letter for us that you could a memo that you could write to us? Requesting $140,000 and breaking down what that is. We heard $47,000 was for stipends, mileage, and other administrative costs. But the other approximately, almost $100,000 would be helpful to have delineated as well.

[Speaker 1]: Yeah, definitely. Nicole, our executive director, would be great to talk to you on that.

[Speaker 7]: Great. Thank you. If you could just email that to our committee assistant, Nick, that will be wonderful.

[Speaker 0]: Do you have any other questions for our guests here? And so you're presenting to senate government operations after this. Are you visiting any other committees for this presentation? Not today. Okay. Yeah. It's just, the reason I'm asking is a lot of the subject matter, as you cited in the slide deck, is relevant to other committees and bill activity in there. So I wasn't sure if you were having this conversation with other folks today.

[Speaker 1]: Yeah, not today, but we will probably be working with them in the future.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. No, very good. No, thank you so much. I mean, this is a program that, you know, I was very enthusiastic when you saw it get set up some years ago, and now to actually see it in execution definitely, you know, makes me very encouraged for the future. So thank you.

[Speaker 1]: Thank you.

[Speaker 7]: Yeah, sorry. I guess I just have one quick question. I know that you do these meetings with the legislature for advocacy. Do you do other events that you're advocating at?

[Speaker 1]: We held a public hearing last week, I believe, or maybe two weeks ago now, for youth to come and advocate for their own personal causes. We also, as we said, talked with the governor, and I believe we're meeting with him sometime in April about, our recommendations that we shared today. But other than that, I don't think I'm missing anything. Newsletter. We've also I forgot to mention that in my testimony that, we have actually put out a newsletter, our first newsletter, back in January. And we're going to continue, I believe, on a trimester scale, three times a year or maybe during three times three times during the legislative session.

[Speaker 7]: And who does that go to?

[Speaker 1]: That goes to people who have gone to our website and have signed up or have been recommended to sign up to us somewhere else or had the link sent to them.

[Speaker 7]: So no activities in the community that you all go out as group and to? I wouldn't say so no, other than just the public hearings.

[Speaker 1]: But we're looking into I know we've been talking about doing more community based stuff.

[Speaker 7]: Okay. Thank you.

[Speaker 2]: I mean, I guess I think I

[Speaker 0]: got one more question for you now, since we got a couple of minutes here. It is relevant to one of the bills. So, the one six forty after relating to adding voting student members to school districts and boards. Have you worked with the municipalities, the select boards and city councils on that type of concept of any public outreach or input?

[Speaker 1]: No, I don't believe so. No. I mean, we're probably as, individuals, I can't speak on behalf of every council member, but they might have spoken to theirs on a more personal basis.

[Speaker 0]: Okay. No, thank you. Anything else? I got a quick one. Oh, please remember.

[Speaker 2]: Where are guys all going to college? Well,

[Speaker 1]: I have a secret career coming up here soon that I can't announce yet. But I'm sure the other guys would like to.

[Speaker 5]: Anybody else? I've got a brief idea. Here he is.

[Speaker 3]: Hey, hometown. I'll probably

[Speaker 6]: be heading to Bates College in the fall. Excellent.

[Speaker 0]: That's CAC.

[Speaker 1]: Maybe IBOs.

[Speaker 4]: 15 and have not made it to the Bates

[Speaker 0]: That's a very solid answer. Totally solid, solid answer.

[Speaker 3]: I'm striving for

[Speaker 2]: I don't know what the secret is.

[Speaker 1]: Now you know an FBI agent. Just keep your eye on the news. Cool. All right. Congratulations.

[Speaker 0]: Thank you very much. And thank you. We are not scheduled to get until 01:45. So we will go offline until 01:45. Will be picking up our continued work on the miscellaneous alcohol bill. Nick, take us off, please.