The deadline for completing a reorganization plan for parts of the Agency of Human Services has been pushed back.
The decision came after an anti-poverty group established by the governor asked for the delay.
The reorganization follows the deaths of two children whose families were being monitored by the Department for Children and Families.
The deaths prompted a legislative committee to hold public hearings on DCF.
The council asked the governor last week to delay the deadline for the reorganization plan in order to give the public a chance to weigh in.
But Christopher Curtis, who co-chairs the Pathways from Poverty Council, says his group is concerned about the ripple effects of any changes, which weren't the focus of the earlier public hearings.
“The Poverty Council’s emphasis is a little different and a little broader,” says Campbell.
“If and when changes are made with respect to child protection, that may have impacts on other families or it may have impacts on families who are currently accessing more than one service, whether its family services or economic services.”
The council asked the governor last week to delay the deadline for the reorganization plan in order to give the public a chance to weigh in.
In response Gov. Peter Shumlin said he is pushing back the deadline from August 1 to October 1.
Curtis says he hopes the Agency of Human Services will hold public hearings and solicit written comments between now and the new deadline.
The Pathways from Poverty Council was created last winter. It grew out of an ad-hoc group of advocates organized in the fall.
Curtis says the group has had success helping bring about changes like doubling the Vermont rental subsidy and eliminating problems with the food stamp program.
