Lawmakers hear that Vermont’s "Team 2" crisis‑response training faces cuts as H13 would mandate more hours

Kristen Chandler, coordinator of "Team 2," told the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 25 that the one‑day, scenario‑based training used statewide to prepare law enforcement and crisis clinicians for mental‑health calls faces a budgetary threat because the Department of Mental Health plans to take training in‑house and is not continuing the Team 2 model under its contract. "The Department of Mental Health plans to cut this program from their budget," Chandler said, urging lawmakers to preserve the contract so the training can continue.

Chandler described Team 2 as a 7½‑hour, scenario‑based program offered in five regions since 2014 with about 35 instructors and annual legal updates. She said the training brings law enforcement, clinicians, EMTs, dispatchers and others together to build relationships and shared language for crisis response; a person with lived experience, Christy Hummel, is a regular speaker who, Chandler said, is "a phenomenal speaker." Chandler also said Team 2 has been widely praised at national conferences and, in her words, claimed it is "the only state in the country to do this." She recommended statutory language that requires ongoing retraining be specific — suggesting four hours every two years as a minimum standard used by comparable states.

Committee members and later witnesses raised practical questions. Christopher Berkelman, executive director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, asked who determined that 15 hours is the correct statutory minimum and warned that the bill does not include costs for developing or delivering the training. "There's also the cost to agencies that are going to be mandated...their cost of overtime, their cost of budgets with the staffing that they have," Berkelman told the committee, and he urged removing hour‑based mandates from statute and instead delegating training content and cadence to the Council's Rule 20 so the Council can set competency‑based standards.

Morning Fox, director of mental‑health programs for the Department of Public Safety, said the Department supports more routine retraining and has expanded co‑responder staffing, but cautioned that "when we start to mandate X number of hours, it becomes a checkbox" and urged the committee to focus on measurable competencies rather than fixed hours.

The witnesses agreed on the value of more and better training but differed on how to codify it. Several witnesses urged that retraining be responsive to changing best practices and funded: the current Team 2 model runs on a contract cycle that ends Aug. 1, and witnesses said that Vermont Care Partners has repeatedly won those RFPs and subcontracts to administer the work. Committee members asked for syllabi and training details; Berkelman and Morning Fox said they would provide curriculum information and work with legislative staff.

The committee ended testimony noting the bill will likely be substantially reworked to address funding, statutory language, and whether retraining belongs in statute or Council rules.

The committee adjourned the testimony with plans to continue work on H13 in coming days or the next biennium.