Back to School: News Vermont Families Can Use From 'Seven Days' 

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• File: Diana Bolton

Former Kids VT managing editor Alison Novak now covers K-12 education and childcare for our parent publication, Seven Days. As a former elementary school teacher — and the parent of two teens — Novak draws from firsthand experience to cover her beat.

Here are highlights from a few of her stories this summer, below. Follow Alison's coverage each week in print in Seven Days and online at sevendaysvt.com.

On PCBs

From "Vermont and Its Schools Sued Over PCBs. Will They Win?," July 19, 2023

A year after Vermont embarked on a first-in-the-nation program to test hundreds of schools for toxic airborne chemicals known as PCBs, the findings have already led to several lawsuits.

In mid-June, Vermont Attorney General Charity Clark announced that she was suing Monsanto, the sole U.S. manufacturer of PCBs, over alleged harm to Vermont's natural resources, as well as to its schools. Less than two weeks later, 93 Vermont school districts joined as plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit against the company, seeking payment for costs associated with property damage from PCBs.

The lawsuits, both of which charge that the agrochemical company knew that PCBs were toxic as early as the 1950s yet continued to manufacture and market them, together represent a novel tack in legal maneuvering against the oft-sued agrochemical company: trying to recoup damages for widespread contamination of schools. The latest suits follow two others filed against Monsanto last year: one by the Burlington School District for damages related to contamination of the high school and another by two Burlington High School teachers who say a variety of health problems, including miscarriage and brain fog, were caused by their school-based exposure to PCBs.

On Youth Mental Health

From "Centerpoint, Which Educates and Counsels Hundreds of Teens, Is Poised to Close," July 5, 2023

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• File: Sarah Cronin

Centerpoint Adolescent Treatment Services, which has long provided counseling and educational services to hundreds of at-risk young people, is scheduled to close on September 1 — even as the number of teens needing mental health support soars.

Centerpoint, which also runs a therapeutic school for teens, will shut down unless a new provider steps up, the three organizations that currently operate it said. Howard Center, Northeastern Family Institute Vermont and Matrix Health Systems blamed financial pressures for the closure; by one estimate, Centerpoint has lost $1.5 million over the past two years.

The operating partners "have been working with program leadership over the last several months to develop a new agency that could run Centerpoint," NFI Vermont executive director Chuck Myers said in a statement. "Unfortunately, at this time that has not happened, although efforts are continuing."

He cited "significant financial losses" over the past two years and "multiple decades of chronic underfunding of mental health and substance use services" that have made operating Centerpoint unsustainable.

On Free Food for Kids

From "Program Sends Vermont Parents Debit Cards for Food," July 27, 2023

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• File: James Buck
• Vermont students eating school lunch

Households with school-age kids are receiving Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, which can be used to buy food from grocery stores or farmers markets. The cards — loaded with a minimum of $120 per child — come courtesy of the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which is intended for pandemic recovery.

All children who attend "Community Eligibility Provision" schools — those that provide free meals to all students — are eligible to receive the money, according to Miranda Gray, deputy commissioner of the Department for Children and Families, which is administering the program.

Because of Vermont's Universal School Meals Act of 2022 — which gave free breakfast and lunch to all public-school students, regardless of household income — all public schools in Vermont, and some independent ones, meet the criteria. Through the debit card program, the state will distribute a total of $9.98 million to roughly 80,000 students in 53,000 households by mid-August. Each child will receive $120, plus an additional $8.18 for each day they were absent from school due to COVID-19. The benefit will be loaded onto the card, which is printed with a 16-digit number and the name of a parent or guardian.

Families can use the benefit in one of three ways: to purchase groceries, to buy food at a local farmers market that accepts EBT or "Crop Cash," or to purchase nonperishable food items to donate.

Any money not spent within 274 days will be returned to the federal government. If a family inadvertently throws out their card or needs a new one, they can call DCF's Economic Services Division at 1-800-479-6151, option 7, to request a replacement.