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Thousands of parents, pediatricians, social workers, educators, community advocates, kids, judges, police, district attorneys know exactly what led to Salvador Rolando Ramos running into a school and slaughtering 19 kids and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. And what could have derailed his path, as well as the path of all other recent mass shooters. To people educated about the consequences of too many childhood adversities and too few positive experiences, what happened in Uvalde is not a...

Are you ready to transform your school to become a trauma-informed and healing-centered environment? Join us for the PACEsConnection virtual Trauma-Informed School Leadership Institute. This institute is specifically tailored for school leaders and leadership teams who want to understand the HOW of trauma-informed schools. Speakers will include current and former building leaders engaged in the work as well as other national experts supporting schools through this transformation process.

With the end of the academic year in sight, an overwhelming number of educators are planning to close the book on their teaching career. Much of this stems from post-pandemic classroom behavioral challenges with students and ongoing staffing shortages that have created an excessive workload for teachers . Many educators who have 25 years or more under their belt are opting to retire, but even less seasoned ones are walking away and choosing a different career path. Back in February, the...

By Turnaround For Children, May 2022 Again this week we have been faced with a horrific reminder that the schools we send our children to each day, the schools where the educators and support staff we depend on show up every morning, are not safe. The impact will spread far beyond the immediate communities where they occurred. Students, educators, families, and entire school communities across the country are feeling the stress and fear. Moving forward is not going to be easy, and we won’t...

By Linda Jacobson, Image: Courtesy of Staci Boehlke, The 74, May 16, 2022 O n a rainy Monday before winter break, the hallways at Fruit Valley Elementary School in Vancouver, Washington, were unusually quiet. The pandemic had cut enrollment nearly in half, but that didn’t deter Staci Boehlke, who runs the school’s resource center. She welcomed police officers into the colorful, light-filled space as they dropped off bags of donated toys. She spoke with a parent whose landlord sent a warning...

Staggering numbers of children have been subjected to adverse life experiences, leaving a lasting impact on our youngest members of society. This trauma often presents itself in outward behaviors. As numbers continue to increase, our education system has the ability to utilize early intervention to combat this trauma and build resiliency. TWI, The Wordsmith Initiative, is looking for one rural Virginia or North Carolina school district to pilot a whole-child, trauma-sensitive program . Our...

From San Diego County Office of Education, May 16, 2022 There was a series of horrific mass shootings across our country this weekend that our young people may be talking, wondering, and worrying about. The tragic shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, is sadly the latest in a number of horrifying murders. In this case, the shooter targeted the Black community after posting a racist and antisemitic manifesto. Our students want and need to talk about what they see, remember, and...

PACEs Connection and the Essentials for Childhood (EfC) Initiative, a project of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) have developed two new resources, “Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families” Report and the “Digital Divide Brief: Community Strategies to Address California’s Digital Divide and Its Impact on Children and Families”

By Mary Ann Wolf, Photo: Liz Bell/Education NC, EdNC, May 16, 2022 I have had the opportunity to work with hundreds and hundreds of principals over the years, and I am often reminded about the very unique — and often lonely position — that principals have as school leaders. They are the only one in their building with their role, and they are the one who students, teachers, parents, and community members turn to when they’re concerned about what’s going on within a school. Principals are...

By Jennifer Horgan, Photo: Larry Cummins, Irish Examiner, May 13, 2022 I sometimes imagine my classroom as something else — as a neighbourhood square or a small green in the centre of a quadrangle. The classroom walls are terraced houses — each house has a different coloured door. The image jolts me into remembering my students have their own individual stories and histories. It’s obvious, but sometimes the most obvious is the easiest to forget. So, I visualise different houses, different...

By Anna Merod, Photo: Jon Cherry/Getty Images, K-12 Dive, May 5, 2022 In San Antonio, Texas, traumatic experiences involving domestic violence and drive-by shootings are increasingly shaping the lives of students. As a result, the San Antonio Independent School District has turned to a support model, known as Handle With Care, to support children and teens exposed to traumatic events. Since the 2019-20 school year, Handle With Care has helped San Antonio schools quickly connect students to...

Lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, hand-washing facilities and/or waste management, also known as period poverty, has been an issue for decent number of young females in the past decade, but the situation additionally worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic began leaving almost a quarter of U.S. students struggling to access period products. In the last couple of years, dozens of states tried, but only a few successfully managed to pass bills which will...