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We know that solutions will come only through authentic partnerships within communities that need the help : Listen to the voices of residents and enlist trusted neighborhood long-timers. That wisdom comes from the Oak Cliff-based Momentous Institute , funded by the Salesmanship Club and long in the business of improving the social-emotional health of children and their families. Momentous devises easily digestible strategies that teachers can use to help all of its 248 students, most of...

A study released in May by Voices for Utah Children found black, Hispanic and American Indian students have been disproportionately disciplined in schools throughout the state. The report looked at the 2013–14 school year and found 6 percent of all students of color received a disciplinary action, compared with 3 percent of their white counterparts. In Northern Utah area school districts, the Weber School District was among those to have higher-than-expected discipline rates for students of...

Cheyney University, the Pennsylvania's state-owned historically black university is launching a new program this summer to train teachers on the ins and outs of helping traumatized children to learn. The certificate program “Trauma-informed Education,” or TIES will be offered at Cheyney's Center City campus in Philadelphia. Its launch comes as Cheyney, which boasts an identity as the nation's oldest historically black post-secondary education institution, struggles to climb out of a downward...

Positive Tomorrows is a small, privately funded school in the heart of Oklahoma City, designed to meet the needs of homeless children. The future of these students hinges on the one constant in their lives: the school, which addresses both education and basic needs. The educational challenges associated with homelessness are broad and extend to every corner of a child's life. Without consistent access to adequate food, shelter and safety, students are often too hungry, tired and stressed to...

Powerful and surprisingly prevalent horrors are blocking access to education and ravaging children’s lives. Sadly, they remain the elephant in the classroom: adverse childhood experiences . Adverse childhood experiences include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, including bullying; physical and emotional neglect; a missing parent, due to separation, divorce, incarceration, or death; witnessing household substance abuse, violence, or mental illness; and witnessing environmental violence.

If schools are to be guided by data, the data says more than 2 of 3 children experience at least one ACE: children of all incomes, all colors, all social levels, all educational levels. It is all of us. Is your school trauma-informed?

As Daniela Orozco picks off excess plastic bordering a 3D-printed box, she recalls how many homeless people she saw on her way to school when she was a high school freshman. In the San Fernando Valley, homelessness increased 36% to 7,094 people last year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency's annual count. Daniela and her friends wanted to help, but giving money wasn't an option. That was the starting point for their invention: a solar-powered tent that folds up into a...

House Bill 497 by Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport, which would have completely banned corporal punishment in public schools, cleared a House committee but was soundly defeated by the full House. Norton said she hopes Foil's bill is an incremental step in the eventual prohibition of paddling. "It doesn't work today; it didn't work yesterday," Norton said again Monday in her oft-repeated assessment. She plans to try again next year for a complete ban. Opponents said completely removing the option...

Chronic stress and uncertainty, not to mention missed meals and restless nights, make it physically and mentally difficult for children to concentrate or form trusting bonds with adults. They become hypervigilant, prone to emotional meltdowns, with bodies thrown into fight-or-flight mode at the slightest disturbance. "There's a body of knowledge that is not a hypothesis, it's a fact," says Dr. Pamela Cantor, the founder of Turnaround for Children. "Adversity alters how children develop as...

You’ve worked through the questions in our infographic “ What Lies Beneath Behavior? ” and instead of judging or punishing you’ve figured out the child is just trying to do the best they can to communicate whatever pain or distress lives inside of them… “So now what do I do?” you ask. As promised, we have produced a second infographic to provide you with a step-by-step guide to a trauma-informed response. The bad news is that there is no manualized program, no one-size fits all solution, no...

The Encinitas Union School District's Farm Lab and Nutrition Program have teamed up to bring healthier fare to its students. The District has been successfully operating its Farm to School program since 2013 and secured its organic certification in 2016, making it the first certified organic school district in the country to grow for its own lunch program! The Farm to School Program harvested 5000 pounds of produce and enough lettuce each week to supply all nine daily salad bars in the...

When Heather Kiausas was seven weeks pregnant, one of her third graders punched her in the stomach. After the punching incident, however, her school principal took discipline to the next level and suspended the boy for several days. Much later, Kiausas learned what might have been behind the punch. There was a lot of trauma happening at home [for the student], she wrote in an email. But we were not aware of these issues until months later, after the student was placed in another classroom....