When Jessica Giacherio went to the Department for Children and Families seeking help for her daughter in 2017, her entire world was turned upside down.

“I turned to (the department) because I didn’t know what else to do,” Giacherio said in her testimony to the House Committee on Human Services last month. “That turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”

Instead of receiving help with her daughter, who she said had become “unmanageable” due to mental health issues, DCF staff began investigating her for child abuse. By the time the investigation was closed, Giacherio not only lost custody of her children, but she also lost her nursing license and her job as a nursing assistant at the Vermont Department of Mental Health.

Based on DCF’s findings, Giacherio’s name was put on Vermont’s Child Protection Registry. The registry, aimed at protecting children from abuse and neglect, is a database that collects the personal information of people against whom abuse and neglect allegations have been substantiated.

“The registry is an important tool, but it is also something that impacts the people’s ability to earn a living,” Rep. Theresa Wood, D-Waterbury, said in the House Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday.

Wood and Rep. Rey Garofano, D-Essex Town, were briefing their colleagues on H.661, which won final approval in the House in a unanimous vote Thursday. The bill aims to ensure that investigations into abuse and neglect are more thorough and evidence-based.

On the House floor on Wednesday, Garofano said the legislation was the product of a collaborative effort among various stakeholders, including DCF and the Vermont Parent Representation Center.

Names on the registry are not open to the public but are visible to employers who can ask for a background check. Being on the registry impacts lives and livelihoods, unjustly so, when DCF gets it wrong, advocates from the Vermont Parent Representation Center concluded in a 2022 report.

“Being a parent of a child with mental health struggles is extremely difficult, especially with the lack of understanding by undertrained DCF workers,” Giacherio told lawmakers. “It’s easier for them to substantiate than it is for them to understand some of the moves and behaviors that children like this might exhibit.”

Giacherio received help in her case from the parent representation center. After two years, her case was overturned and her children returned to her. She has since moved out of Vermont and got her nursing license back. She told lawmakers she lost around $100,000 in wages and now has post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Vermont Parent Representation Center believes that there are many cases on the registry, such as Giacherio’s, that are there due to faulty investigations and could be overturned.

This year, their calls for change have finally gained traction in the Statehouse.

At the Tuesday caucus, Garofano told lawmakers: “A recent analysis identified there were systemic problems in this process that was associated with the current system of identifying child abuse and neglect and putting individuals on the child protection registry.

“This bill addresses these problems in a fair and balanced way and ensures that we still protect children and families,” she continued.

In particular, the legislation would change the current standard that DCF investigations are based on — whether a “reasonable person” believes it is abuse or neglect — to whether there is “preponderance of the evidence necessary to support the allegation.”

Moreover, the bill would require the department to make a greater effort to notify people about the results of an investigation. Currently, the practice is to send a letter in the mail notifying parents. The bill would also give parents more time — a month instead of two weeks — to appeal the decision.

“We are hopeful that the changes in H. 661 will result in fewer overturns and help us improve our services and interventions when they are needed most,” DCF said in a statement Thursday. “We understand that child protection is in continual need of introspection and refinement and we see H.661 as a good step forward.”

During testimony to lawmakers, Giacherio and another parent also called for more oversight of agencies such as DCF. One person who lost her children due to allegations of neglect that were later overturned compared the power of the department to that of the police.

“There is so much talk about the police right now and checks and balances for the police, but the police have some oversight. The police get in trouble when they break the law,” said the woman, who testified anonymously to the Legislature and requested anonymity in an interview with VTDigger as she works in the human services field and is afraid of reprisals at her job. With DCF, she said, “there’s no repercussions.”

Asked about concerns with DCF’s past investigations, the department said in a statement: “It is incredibly important that we lean in and listen closely to the experiences of those who have interfaced with our system and have come away feeling confused or harmed. While we find ourselves in a place of hearing these hard stories and not being able to respond due to confidentiality rules, the content and importance of the message is not lost.”

The new bill would not address concerns about oversight of DCF, but it does aim to create some standardization by calling for procedures for how the department’s central office determines substantiation. It would also provide more transparency for parents about the allegations against them and require the department to codify rules for when someone is put on the registry.

“The bill enables a tiered approach in terms of investigations,” Wood told her colleagues.

“It does enable the finding of substantiation without being put on the registry.”

At the caucus, lawmakers asserted that the bill would ensure that the names that do make it on the registry pose an actual threat to children.