Tagged With "Great Recession"

In the late afternoon on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H. Res. 443 , a resolution recognizing the importance and effectiveness of trauma-informed care and calling for a national trauma awareness month and trauma-informed awareness day. The impetus for the resolution resides with the First Lady of Wisconsin, Tonette Walker, who has taken a strong leadership role in advancing trauma-informed policy and practice statewide through Fostering Futures , and has elevated...

Five of the bills that the California Campaign to Counter Childhood Adversity (4CA) was tracking this legislative session were signed or incorporated into law! They are: Assembly Bill 741 (Kalra), which requires the Department of Health Care Services to provide trainings for personnel who administer trauma screenings in a pediatric or primary care providing setting for children in Medi-Cal. The substance of this bill was included in the Governor’s May Revise budget, and funded at $50 million...

By Louis Freedberg, EdSource, April 14, 2020 Gov. Gavin Newsom says it is too soon to ease up on restrictions keeping millions of students out of school, but when they do return, possibly in the fall, they would likely come back to schools organized in radically different ways in order to protect students, staff and families. Currently over 6 million students in California are out of school, and school districts are struggling to provide them with “distance learning” that will hold their...

By Jenn Lukens April 17, 2019 It was late July 2018 when the Mendocino Complex wildfire broke out in rural Lake County, California. It burned more than 450,000 acres and destroyed 280 structures before it was contained. Ana Santana managed to fill some storage bins with sentimental items – her kids’ blankets, pictures, and art projects – before fleeing her home. Santana is the facilitator of the Lake County Children’s Council and Program Director for Healthy Start Youth and Family Services ,...

Students start each day with meditation During her first year as principal of Suisun Elementary in Suisun City, Calif., in 2014 Ann Marie Neubert suspended 102 students — out of a student population of 550 —for disrupting their classes. It was a serious problem, but the school’s teachers didn’t know what to do. “[Teachers] felt like they were using all the tools in their toolbox and it wasn’t changing behavior,” she recalls. Ann Marie Neubert Too many students were spending too much time out...

Researchers have documented what childhood trauma translates to later in life. Studies carried out by Kaiser Permanente call these incidences adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. Like a scorecard for a patient's health history, the higher ACE score an individual has, the more health problems they're likely to develop as adults, with higher likelihood of everything from heart disease to chronic depression to attempting suicide . Increasingly, teachers are asking that in addition to...

Below is an updated table of bills that address childhood adversity in the Legislature in 2019. The list is not exhaustive, so please email Kelly Hardy with Children Now if you think a bill is missing and/or if you have any questions. Email: khardy @childrennow.org . Here are key dates for the remainder of the legislative session: July 10 = last day for bills to pass out of policy committees July 12 – August 12 = Summer recess August 30 = last day for fiscal bills to pass out of committee...

By Jeff Pack, Valley News, February 11, 2020 When he took to the podium at the Temecula City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 4, Alex Capelouto’s father looked shaken, but he took a deep breath, adjusted his glasses and began to read from a speech he had written. “I’m Alex’s dad,” the man said. “I’m here on behalf of Jacob Alexander, 2017 graduate of Chaparral High School. Dec. 3, 2019, dead. I’m here on behalf of Caleb Dunlap, senior at Great Oak High School, Dec. 15, 2019, dead. I’m here on...

Room erupts in applause for the grandmother of witness William Kellibrew during July 11 House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. The power of personal stories from witnesses and committee members fueled the July 11 hearing on childhood trauma in the House Oversight and Reform Committee* throughout the nearly four hours of often emotional and searing testimony and member questions and statements (Click here for 3:47 hour video). The hearing was organized into a two panels—testimony from...

Dr. Elizabeth Grady is a pediatrician at the South San Francisco Clinic, a community clinic of San Mateo Medical Center. She and Susana Flores , a senior public health nurse with San Mateo County Health, spoke with me about how the clinic and other health agencies in San Mateo have been able to craft ways to work together to prevent and heal toxic stress in children. Grady also talked about how she and Flores have been working with the Resilient Beginnings Collaborative (RBC), a group of...

By Hans Johnson and Marisol Cuellar Mejia, Public Policy Institute of California, May 29, 2020 The COVID-19 recession has already led to much larger declines in employment than occurred throughout the Great Recession, and jobs have been lost much more quickly. As with past recessions, less-educated workers are bearing the brunt of these declines. Nationwide, almost 20 million workers lost jobs between February and April this year (among adults age 25 and over). Employment declined by about 7...

By Diana Lambert, Ed Source, July 17, 2020 Eureka Union School District’s seven campuses in Placer County may seem a little unfamiliar to students when they return to school on Aug. 13. The district, which serves 3,345 students at schools in Granite Bay and Roseville, will reopen its campuses — barring any major spikes in the number of coronavirus cases in their communities. But things will be a lot different from years past. Students will have lunch and spend recess with the same group of...

The pandemic created an extraordinary legislative calendar beginning in the spring of 2020 in Sacramento. In addition to the legislature currently being out for summer recess and staff working remotely, a new budget shortfall ended many promising policy bills and budget requests. As of this writing, the legislature is planning on resuming at the end of July through the end of August with a compressed calendar. Regarding the budget, California had a surplus of $6 billion in January 2020 when...

Now that the July 4 th congressional recess has ended, negotiations around the fourth major COVID relief bill are underway between the Congress and the Administration. How the chasm between Congress and the White House will be bridged is a path uncertain, with massive differences between the House and Senate complicating the work. As the pandemic rages across the U.S., there is now at least a consensus that action is needed. But no agreement exists on a payroll tax cut, unemployment...

Playworks believes in a trauma-sensitive approach Educators should focus on providing a trauma-sensitive approach to the reopening of school. Students are all having different experiences right now. For some students, the shutdown of schools due to COVID has provided them with a welcome reprieve from toxic situations or stressors. For others, it has created an increased chance that they’re experiencing Adverse Childhood Experiences or new stressors. “A trauma-sensitive school is one in which...

California legislative update – Fall 2019 (updated Oct, 2019) Below is an updated table of bills that address childhood adversity in the Legislature in 2021. The list is not exhaustive, so please email Kelly Hardy with Children Now if you think a bill is missing and/or if you have any questions. Email: khardy@childrennow.org . Here are key dates for the remainder of the 2021 session: June 15 = budget bill must be passed by midnight July 14 = last day for bills to pass out of policy...

As we look towards the reopening of in-person instruction in the fall, planning and reimagining for a restorative restart to our school systems that emphasizes student and educator mental health is a priority. In addition, there is a windfall of one-time funding coming to districts from federal and local funds for just this purpose. Recently a wise educator said to me, ‘you know, if you want to get to the hearts and minds of school leaders to make changes for the fall you need to do so by...

As Congress heads toward the August recess, President Biden’s major domestic priorities are included in the framework announced on July 14 along with Democratic congressional leaders. Biden and party leaders agreed on a top-level number of $3.5 trillion for major programs including an extension of the child tax credit, universal pre-K, two years of free community college, child care support, climate provisions, expansion of the Affordable Care Act, and more. The path to enactment is far from...

March marks the final month of the granting period for the CRC Accelerator. Here are the next steps for certification or a certificate of participation.