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Nationwide, public schools identified 1.5 million children experiencing homelessness in the 2017-2018 school year, an increase of 11% from the previous school year, according to a report released in January by the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE). A small portion of those students are living in unsheltered situations, such as cars, parks, streets or bus stations, a segment that more than doubled from the previous school year. Homeless students in emergency shelters or...

“The world of thinking about trauma, the importance of school climate and social-emotional learning is 20, 30, 40 years behind the world of instruction." Joanna Schwartz, a 2nd-grade teacher at Eliza B. Kirkbride Elementary School, was about to take a scheduled break and desperately needed a place to have peace and quiet. But the only place she could find was a broom closet. A few years earlier, in another school, Schwartz said teachers were baffled by a 3rd grader who continually fell...

Thomas Jefferson University's newly formed Department of Counseling and Behavioral Health has generated its first-ever newsletter . If you're interested in trauma-informed training and education , or if you simply want to stay abreast of the work of some great clinicians, researchers, advocates and aspiring professionals, please have a look. The Community and Trauma Counseling program currently has Art Therapy options and is launching two new specializations and certificates this summer: (1)...

I just completed this short piece on Medium. It may help as educators and others reflect on the 2nd anniversary of the Parkland School Shooting. The piece has current and future resources. https://medium.com/@KarenGrossEdu/use-your-heart-today-b0439ab29070

Due to be released March 27, 2020, Classroom180: A Framework for Creating, Sustaining, and Assessing the Trauma-Informed Classroom , by Heather T. Forbes, LCSW is a comprehensive roadmap of what it means to fully create, implement, and sustain a trauma-informed classroom from kindergarten through the twelfth grade. Additionally, Classroom180 includes an assessment tool, the Classroom180 Rubric, that can be used by administrators and others specialists who support teachers on the journey of...

By Lola Duffort, Vermont Digger, February 7, 2020 Half of all high school students in Vermont have tried electronic vapor products like e-cigarettes, up from just 30% in 2015. That’s according to results from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, a study administered statewide to thousands of Vermont students every two years. The YRBS was developed by the Centers for Disease Control in 1990 to monitor behaviors that contribute to the leading causes of death, disease and injury among young...

By Rick Nauert, PsychCentral, January 31, 2020 New research finds that children are more likely to control their immediate impulses when they and a peer rely on each other to get a reward than when they’re left to their own willpower. Investigators say their experiments are the first to show that children are more willing to delay gratification for cooperative reasons than for individual goals. In the study, researchers used a modified version of the “marshmallow test,” a classic...

By Mihir Zaveri, The New York Times, February 3, 2020 Some children lost a stable home when a parent succumbed to opioid addiction. Others were forced to stay in hotels after hurricanes or fires destroyed their homes. Still others fled abuse or neglect. More than 1.5 million public school students nationwide said they were homeless at some point during the 2017-18 school year, the most recent data available, according to a report from the National Center for Homeless Education released last...

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/02/how-to-challenge-the-school-to-prison-pipeline/ There is an abundance of research that has been focusing on the "pipeline to prison" pathway. Policymakers need a clearer understanding of how historical and cultural trauma directly impacts generations of indigenous communities. I applaud Senator Dela Cruz as he is a champion for the cause, but we need more lawmakers to understand that we need to travel "further upstream" of ACEs to address the impact of toxic...

By Megan Ruge, Education Week, January 29, 2020 In 2014, New York City launched a $52 million effort to launch 45 "community schools," part of a nationwide movement to transform schools into neighborhood hubs offering a range of social and health services to students and their families. That investment, which eventually grew to more than 200 schools, is starting to be paying off, according to an independent evaluation of the schools released this week by the RAND Corporation. The evaluation...

Improve Classroom Climate with Dynamic Mindfulness January 2020 We know that challenges with toxic stress and trauma amongst our educators and the youth they serve affect learning readiness, school classroom climate, and teacher burnout. What can we do about it? Many educators are struggling with this question and searching for answers. Niroga Institute's Dynamic Mindfulness (DMind) programs should be considered as a comprehensive solution. Dynamic Mindfulness is a combination of movement,...

Hi Team! I just wanted to share a link to part 1 of 3 webinars directed to educators entitled: Trauma-Informed Practices in Schools and Beyond. It is co-hosted by my company Dovetail Learning and Aperture Education . The first webinar which you can watch here called Trauma 101 : Participants learn the history and context of the science behind Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and the biological/neurobiological effects of toxic stress on children and adults. Feel free to register for the...