A Report from the 2016 California Adverse Childhood Experiences Conference
For many children, middle childhood marks the entrance into the formal education system.
Three speakers at the 2016 California Adverse Childhood Experiences Conference in San Francisco, held Oct. 19-21, spoke at a breakout session on ways that schools can play a critical role in identifying and supporting children who have been exposed to adversity. The conference was hosted by the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco and sponsored by the California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, and Genentech.
Dr. Chris Blodgett, director of the Child and Family Research Unit at Washington State University, said that the unit’s research into 1,600 families whose children attend Head Start shows that for children with ACE scores of 4 or more, 50 percent experienced academic and/or behavioral problems.
Head Start had introduced a voluntary ACEs screen, and 80 percent of the parents consented to the screen, not only for their children but also for themselves. In the survey, one out of two parents had experienced 4 or more ACEs.
“ACEs is a multi-generational problem, not just a child problem,” confirmed Blodgett.
The other issue, he said, is that “teachers are ill prepared to deal with behavioral problems,” and three out of five teachers exit the field within a few years as a result.
Blodgett said that many schools in Washington State are integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs science. Using the CLEAR one-on-one consultation model, which has been used successfully by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change behaviors of those living with AIDS, the state is placing trauma specialists in schools for two days a month.
“This intervention is moving academic outcomes,” he said. “We still need to develop a standard of evidence critical to move this forward.”
Dr. Joyce Dorado is co-founder and director of the UCSF Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools (HEARTS), which is working with CLEAR California on a grant from the California Endowment to develop trauma-informed principles for promoting school and community success.
Brain science shows that “trauma wears a groove in the brain,” she said. A fight, flight or freeze response that’s created by adverse childhood experiences prevents the child’s ability to learn. Chronic stress and trauma can also occur in organizations, such as schools, she pointed out.
In a trauma-informed school, Dorado said, HEARTS promotes a four-step process to deal with trauma: realize, recognize, respond, and resist re-traumatization.
She encouraged schools to practice cultural humility and responsiveness, and adopt “communal reflection to analyze the root causes of suffering.” These cultural considerations include inequality based on race and gender as well issues of justice.
Derek Smith is the chief program officer for Turnaround for Children, which helps prepare children for their adult lives by raising awareness about and addressing the challenges that affect any school facing adversity, particularly those in high-poverty communities.
The problem with schools, he says, is that “we have a K-12 system that assumes people are coming in ready to learn.” Yet, according the latest U.S. Census, 51 percent of school children come from low-income homes and are not ready for learning. These students may be two to four years behind grade level and live in what Smith identifies as an unhealthy culture.
And teaching staff and administration are unprepared to deal with this crisis.
Turnaround for Children provides schools full support by engaging leadership, training teachers, providing a team for student support services, and partnering with mental health services for students and parents.
Behind these efforts is the belief that “relationships we build with each other and the kids is core to dealing with ACEs,” Smith said.
The next step, he added, is to ask what success would look like. “We need progress indicators because the destination is far out.”
In the meantime, he said, we need to work on attaining “little wins, like getting Jamal not to run out of class more than three times a week.”
“We need people who can relate to kids,” he concluded. Then schools can develop proven methods that develop healing and resilience in school systems and in kids.
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