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Instead of sending children to stand outside the classroom, or go to the principal's office every time they misbehave, they get sent to the 'Mindful Moment Room'.

School violence is rapidly becoming a top-of-mind issue, with instances of bullying, dating violence, and suicide on the rise in recent years. According to the CDC, 20.2% of students reported being bullied on school property, 6.0% said they had been threatened or injured with a weapon, and 7.8% reported being in a physical fight on school property in 2015. Additionally, 17.7% of students reported that they seriously considered attempting suicide that same year. The correlation between school...

School violence is rapidly becoming a top-of-mind issue, with instances of bullying, dating violence, and suicide on the rise in recent years. According to the CDC, 20.2% of students reported being bullied on school property, 6.0% said they had been threatened or injured with a weapon, and 7.8% reported being in a physical fight on school property in 2015. Additionally, 17.7% of students reported that they seriously considered attempting suicide that same year. The correlation between school...

Gov. Jerry Brown must decide by October 1 whether to approve a bill that will expand up through grade 8 the current law that eliminated suspensions in grades K-3 for disruption or defiance of school authorities. In 2014, his approval of the law reflected a combination of his attention to research, as well as listening to superintendents, teachers, civil rights advocates and others. A new report that I co-authored shows that suspensions for disruption or defiance have nearly been eliminated...

When Marquita, a Memphis mother of six, became homeless, her children began to struggle in school. “The kids were just out of control,” she said. “Their grades weren’t the same.” “What people don’t understand is what adults go through, kids go through it too,” she said. “I didn’t know kids get depressed until I went through this situation.” Marquita, who asked that her last name be withheld to discuss her living situation and her children’s mental health, said she became homeless because she...

Young people are raising their voices to create safer, healthier communities—even if they’re not old enough to vote yet. From #NeverAgain to #MeToo, young people have been at the forefront of advocacy movements for decades, their passion and idealism sparking millions of people to take action. How can we channel that energy in a way that can lead to concrete public policy change? We created Pathways to Policy to answer that question—and to support young people in their pursuit of a better...

Teachers should look out for physical health problems among quieter, well-behaved children, as these could be the only signs that they have suffered trauma, a major conference in Scotland has heard. US paediatrician @Nadine Burke Harris said that, while there was a growing understanding that misbehaviour was a sign of trauma or “adverse childhood experiences” (ACEs) , there were also other types of symptoms. “Behaviour is the canary in the coalmine,” said Dr Burke Harris at Making...

Roughly half of American school children have experienced at least some form of trauma — from neglect, to abuse, to violence. In response, educators often find themselves having to take on the role of counselors, supporting the emotional healing of their students, not just their academic growth. In a growing number of professions, including firefighters, law enforcement, trauma doctors and nurses, child welfare workers, and therapists and case managers, it is now understood that working with...

Sharing a resource to support school/educator efforts. https://mytraumainformedschool.com/aceing-your-parent-student-teacher-conference/

In the spring of 2013, approximately 12,000 children in Chicago received notice that their last day of school would be not only the final day of the year, but also the final day of their school’s very existence. The nation’s third largest school district would eventually shutter 53 schools, citing budget limitations, building underutilization, and concerns about academic performance. Of the thousands of displaced students, 94% were low-income and 88% were African-American, leading critics to...

The change can be baffling to many parents: Their young girls are masters of the universe, full of gutsy fire. But as puberty sets in, their confidence nosedives, and those same daughters can transform into unrecognizably timid, cautious, risk-averse versions of their former selves. Over the course of writing our latest book , we spoke with hundreds of tween and teen girls, who detailed a striking number of things they don’t feel confident about: “making new friends,” “the way I dress,”...

The Advancement Project and the Alliance for Educational Justice want police out of schools, according to their new report . The advocacy groups believe school police officers create a hostile environment for Black and Brown students and contribute to the trauma many experience outside of school. Philadelphia was among the cities featured in the report, but the idea of removing school police for some city parents is just unthinkable. Terri Seward, whose daughter attends Bartram High School...