The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
001
:
POLICY, ORGANIZATION, POWERS, AND DUTIES
(Cite as: 33 V.S.A. § 101)
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§ 101. Policy
It is the policy of the State of Vermont that:
(1) Its social and child welfare programs shall provide assistance and benefits to persons
of the State in proven need thereof and eligible for such assistance and benefits
under the provisions of this title.
(2) It is the purpose of its social and child welfare laws to establish and support programs
that contribute to the prevention of dependency and social maladjustment and contribute
to the rehabilitation and protection of persons of the State.
(3) Assistance and benefits shall be administered promptly, with due regard for the preservation
of family life, and without restriction of individual rights or discrimination on
account of race, religion, political affiliation, or place of residence within the
State.
(4) Assistance and benefits shall be so administered as to maintain and encourage dignity,
self-respect, and self-reliance. It is the legislative intent that assistance granted
shall be adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of health and decency based on
current cost of living indices. Notwithstanding this subdivision, the Department will
amend rules that establish new maximum Reach Up grant amounts only when the General
Assembly has taken affirmative action to increase or decrease the Reach Up financial
assistance appropriation.
(5) The programs of the Department for Children and Families shall be designed to strengthen
family life for the care and protection of children; to assist and encourage the use
by any family of all available personal and reasonable community resources to this
end; and to provide substitute care of children only when the family, with the use
of available resources, is unable to provide the necessary care and protection to
ensure the right of any child to sound health and to normal physical, mental, spiritual,
and moral development. (Added 1967, No. 147, § 1; amended 1973, No. 152 (Adj. Sess.), § 10, eff. April 14, 1974; 1975, No. 132 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. Feb. 5, 1976; 2003, No. 122 (Adj. Sess.), § 139a; 2013, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 2, eff. May 20, 2014.)