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Summary What is already known about this topic? Sociodemographic factors and environmental influences in early childhood have been demonstrated to have significant impact on development, mental health, and overall health throughout the lifespan. What is added by this report? This report provides recent national data documenting significant associations of early childhood mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders (MBDDs) with sociodemographic, health care, family, and community factors.

The third annual Delaware Trauma Matters conference, held on January 28 at Wilmington University, drew a diverse crowd of 200 from around the state and across many sectors, including healthcare, mental health, education, corrections, and child serving agencies among others. While some said this degree of diversity was unusual in the state, the leader of Delaware’s trauma initiative, Leslie Brower (pictured on the right with Aileen Fink serves as community manager along with Brower for...

by David Gorn, California Healthline Sacramento Bureau Thursday, January 28, 2016 As a college student, Rob Bonta had a summer job working as a counselor for troubled kids. Now, two decades later he is bringing legislation to address some of the needs he saw then. "I worked with some of these kids as a counselor out of college, and I'd walk them home and hear some of these stories," Assembly member Bonta (D-Oakland) said. "Shootings they heard. Or shootings they witnessed the night before."...

We welcome guest author Godwin Higa, Principal, Cherokee Point Elementary School City Heights, San Diego whose work with childhood adversity and trauma is making a difference in the lives of children.  At Cherokee Point, located in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood, nearly all of our students deal with some sort of childhood adversity. A hundred percent of our students receive free lunches, and most live under the federal poverty guideline. Many of our students' families face daily...

A recent report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows how states can make sure children living in foster care have the same opportunities as their peers, and Texas is ahead of the curve. In the last session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1407 , a law that makes it easier for children to do things others take for granted, such as playing sports or having an after school job. To read the rest of the story by Eric Galatas, go to:  ...

In the past five years, juvenile justice reform legislation in the United States has grown at a remarkable pace. The recent shift in juvenile justice policy marks a clear departure from laws enacted 20 years ago. To read the rest of the article, click...

  My thinking about the nature vs. nurture debate was jolted Monday during a meeting at The Family Center on Thompson Lane, where I received a thorough primer on adverse childhood experiences, which have received steadily increasing...

An Alaska interagency workgroup began meeting in 2013 to  put together this report , which has a large section on the effect of ACEs on Alaska's citizens to demonstrate the urgency for resilience-building programs. The Public Safety, Health...

  Dr. Scott Grant, a resident at Phoenix Children’s Hospital in Arizona, and Dr. Sara Bode, director of community pediatrics at the hospital, provided an overview of ACEs on Tuesday. The  first 28 minutes of this video...

Grants Project Partnering to Effectively Reduce the Impact of Violence to Children in Kalamazoo (2010 to 2016) Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Safe Start Promising Approaches Initiative   ...

  In my 12-plus years as an urban superintendent in California, parents often spent more time talking to me about school safety than about teaching and learning. Perhaps that’s just common-sense recognition that the latter can’t take...

  AP Teenage girls in a classroom at Yuma High School in eastern Colorado. The state’s teen birthrate dropped 40 percent between 2009 and 2013, driven largely by a public health initiative that gives low-income young women long-acting...