The Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles recently unveiled a new program aimed at easing challenges for autistic drivers and the law enforcement officers who engage them.
Some autistic people experience the senses more intensely than neurotypical people: flashing police lights, for example. And there can be differences in communication, which can lead to behaviors being misinterpreted.
The DMV’s Blue Envelope Program is designed to make routine traffic stops feel safer and less stressful.
Vermont Public’s Jenn Jarecki was recently joined in-studio by Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Wanda Minoli to learn more about the program. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
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Jenn Jarecki: So we described it briefly in the introduction, but broadly speaking, what is the state’s new Blue Envelope Program?
Nathaniel Wilson
/
Vermont Public
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Vermont DMV Commissioner Wanda Minoli said the Blue Envelope Program is a tool that can help law enforcement officers and drivers with autism communicate more effectively during roadside stops.
Wanda Minoli: The Blue Envelope Program is really simply about awareness for law enforcement when they do traffic stops, and it’s another form of communication for our residents. Our focus at DMV is customer service, and we’ve had to recognize that we deliver services to every resident at some point in time in the state of Vermont. And you have to be able to adjust and adapt in your communication with them.
Jenn Jarecki: Wanda, I’m curious about how the partnership between the DMV and the University of Vermont Autism Collaborative came about, and what role the Collaborative played in developing the DMV’s Blue Envelope Program.
Wanda Minoli: The Collaborative played the most significant role. They told us how it should be worded, how it should be designed, and what it looked like. And that’s based on their experience and how individuals — with an autistic spectrum of some type — communicate and how they communicate roadside. So they led us and we developed.
Jenn Jarecki: I understand that other states have similar programs, like neighbors in Connecticut and Massachusetts, to name just a couple. How much influence did that existing work have on what’s ultimately been rolled out here in Vermont?
Wanda Minoli: Well, for us, we used the other states’ model of the envelope and started there. Don’t reinvent the wheel. If there’s a successful program out there, then, you know, state to state, we try to model. And that’s really, really important because when you think about this program, and you think about our residents and our New England states, we don’t drive just in Vermont. We may take a vacation to Maine, we may be traveling to Massachusetts for something, and you possibly could be stopped roadside. And what we have now is consistent messaging for all law enforcement, and that applies for people driving into our state. So, when they hand the blue envelope over, all law enforcement is aware. They know exactly what they’re getting and what this document means, and that’s really important, too.
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Jenn Jarecki: I want to press on that just a little bit, Wanda. You’ve said that you hope this program can, and I’m quoting you, “build bridges between law enforcement and the autism community.” Can you say even more about that?
Wanda Minoli: Building the bridges, again, is about awareness and communication. And when law enforcement is stopping someone — and we’re going to use a simple example for roadside — they are not aware. And every spectrum is different, you may not communicate with your eyes. Law enforcement is trained to communicate, you know, be looking at the individual, right, having that eye contact. And keeping it at that simple, simple level of, you know, this allows that officer to be able to do and be aware of the tasks that they have in front of them and the conversation. Because roadside stops are about conversations, generally, that’s where it starts. If you’re not aware at that point, the conversation can easily — for the passenger or the driver or the law enforcement — it can go a different way. And this is about a calming effect. This is about a tool to be able to communicate in a very comfortable manner.
Jenn Jarecki: What has the response from law enforcement been to the Blue Envelope Program?
Wanda Minoli: I have communicated with my team, and with the DMV enforcement team, and they’re very excited about it. Again, it’s awareness and it’s another tool. We sent out a law enforcement bulletin to all law enforcement entities in the state of Vermont: municipalities, Vermont State Police. I have not had any personal or direct conversations with them.
Jenn Jarecki: I’d like to talk about the blue envelope itself. Can you describe it for us, and what is written on the envelope and what its sort of purpose is?
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Wanda Minoli: So the purpose is to put your necessary documents. If you think about it again, at a roadside traffic stop, a law enforcement officer is going to ask for your license, your registration and your proof of insurance. And so the document is something that you put in the envelope, you just place all of these documents in. But more importantly, too, it asks for an individual’s contact information in the event maybe communication is not, you know, going very well. It gives the law enforcement officer another avenue to help the conversation, and it’s as simple as that.
Jenn Jarecki: So, as we mentioned, the program rolled out earlier this month. Have you had any sign-ups yet?
Wanda Minoli: Oh my goodness, yes. I was so excited. I actually checked yesterday afternoon just to see how the requests were coming in and if we’re getting any online requests. And we had 175 as of noon yesterday [Aug. 21], which to me is remarkable. And in addition, we had two requests from other states. And so that alone tells me there’s awareness and individuals want access.
Jenn Jarecki: So for anyone listening, Wanda, who may be interested in getting a blue envelope, you know, what is the cost, and what might be the next steps?
Wanda Minoli: So, there’s no cost. There’s two simple ways to get the envelope. You can stop by any DMV branch office, you can walk in and we have available at the counter, and you can pick one up. Or you can go online, and you can just send us an email, there’s a direct link, and we will mail them to you.
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MONTPELIER — As medical dispensaries dwindle but retailers receive medical use endorsements, a data point sticks out.
“The number of medical patients continues to grow,” Olga Fitch, executive director of the Cannabis Control Board, said at the Dec. 17 board meeting.
About 3,043 patients were registered for the program at the time of the meeting, according to a slide show presentation. More than 40 patients were added to the count since the November board meeting, Fitch said.
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Looking at data starting in 2011, Fitch said the medical program peaked around 2018 with 5,300 patients. She noted November 2023 is the last time, before now, that the state recorded more than 3,000 patients.
Vermont now has 20 retailers with medical use endorsements. They’re in Bennington, Brattleboro, Manchester Center, Middlebury, Montpelier, Rutland, St. Johnsbury, South Hero, Bethel, Brandon, Burlington, Essex, Essex Junction, Johnson, White River Junction, Winooski and Woodstock. Five of them received the endorsement in December.
A law passed this year by the Vermont Legislature established the program, which allows approved retailers the opportunity to sell higher potency products and offer curbside, delivery and drive-thru services to patients. Registered medical cannabis patients in Vermont are also exempt from paying the state’s cannabis excise tax and the standard sales tax.
Retail establishments with the medical use endorsement are gearing up for the new initiative.
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The first Enhanced Budtender Education course was held during the first week of December, a CCB newsletter stated, “paving the way for medical cannabis sales at medical-use-endorsed retailers.”
The CCB thanked “the budtenders and licensees who took the time to register, attend, and successfully complete the multi-hour course.”
“We are excited to roll out better access for patients and caregivers in the Medical Cannabis Program,” the CCB said.
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At least one employee at an endorsed retailer is required to go through enhanced budtender training, which is offered through a contract with Cannify. To qualify, retailers must be in good standing for six months, with a clean compliance record and up-to-date tax payments.
Volunteers from across the region gathered at the Canadian Club in Barre to pack 30,000 meals for families facing food insecurity, according to a community announcement.
The Jan. 10 event, organized by Vermont Lions Clubs, brought together club members and volunteers to assemble meals for local food shelves and community partners, according to the announcement.
The project has been running in Vermont for nine years, starting with 10,000 meals in 2017.
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Carol Greene, organizer for Vermont Lions, said the project reflects a longstanding commitment to hunger relief from the organization.
Volunteers worked in assembly-line fashion, scooping, weighing, sealing and boxing meals. Teams cheered each other on and paused to recognize milestones.
The event included volunteers from Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut, who came to learn how to bring the meal-pack program to their own communities.
“This is what Lions do best: serve together and multiply impact,” according to the announcement.
This story was created by reporter Beth McDermott, bmcdermott1@usatodayco.com, with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
Theo Wells-Spackman is a Report for America corps member who reports for VTDigger.
Vermont has received a nearly $13 million federal grant to strengthen its child care and pre-Kindergarten programs, among other early childhood services, officials said Monday.
The grant comes from the Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has supported parts of Vermont’s early childhood landscape for a decade, advocates said. This year’s award is the largest one-time amount the state has received.
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It’s a separate award from the regular $28 million in funding that Vermont receives via the federal Child Care and Development Fund, monies President Donald Trump’s administration sought to withhold from five Democratic-led states this month. Vermont Department for Children and Families Deputy Commissioner Janet McLaughlin said Monday that the state has not received such warnings, though a memo last week increased her team’s reporting requirements when accessing the funds.
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Both the application process and the birth-through-five grant itself were much more compressed than usual, according to Morgan Crossman, the executive director of the childhood policy nonprofit Building Bright Futures.
“Generally, these grants take three months to write,” she said. “We wrote it in six days.”
A 12-month clock for the funding means that the state will be without the standard window for planning and engaging contractors, Crossman added. Nonetheless, she called the funding “critical” in a year where state lawmakers face especially tough budgeting decisions.
This new allocation will help Vermont build child care capacity, improve data management and facilitate cooperation between state agencies, advocates, and local providers, according to McLaughlin.
“We’re thrilled to have these resources right now,” said McLaughlin, adding that her team was working with “urgency and focus” to “draw down every dollar that we can.”
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The grant comes in a period of fast change for Vermont’s child care ecosystem. The 2023 passage of Act 76 allowed thousands of kids to newly enroll in the state’s expanded child care tuition assistance program, and over 100 new care providers have launched statewide.
But aside from these central investments, McLaughlin said there was a “long list of projects” that could continue to expand and improve the state’s care offerings for young children and families.
Two priorities will be ensuring that child care providers have the business planning assistance necessary to survive or expand, and developing a workforce in Vermont that keeps pace with the industry’s expansion, McLaughlin said.
The state’s focus on workforce will include improvements to data and technology. The grant will allow the state to update its fingerprint-supported background-check system, delays in which have caused years of headaches for child care providers. The upgrades should “dramatically reduce the turnaround times” for checks, McLaughlin said.
Crossman said sharing information effectively between agencies and providers improves the experience of individual families, and also allows her team to do its job monitoring progress in areas like child care coverage, literacy and use of public aid programs. Vermont’s Early Childhood Data and Policy Center, a division of Crossman’s organization, is tasked with making data-based childhood policy recommendations to lawmakers based on such information.
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“We’re making sure that we’re centralizing data and making it publicly available,” Crossman said.
