Tagged With "United States"
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Study Examines Links Between Early ACEs and Outcomes in Middle Childhood
"Adverse experiences in infancy and toddlerhood: Relations to adaptive behavior and academic status in middle childhood", will be published in the August issue of the journal Child Abuse and Neglect . The study, conducted by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researchers Lorraine McKelvey, Nikki Edge, Glenn R. Mesman, and Leanne Whiteside-Mansell, along with Arizona State University researcher Robert H. Bradley, collected and analyzed interview data from a sample of low-income...
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Study: Investment in prevention, rapid rehousing could end homelessness in Ada County
BOISE — Effectively ending family homelessness is a distant dream in many communities, but local officials believe it could be within reach for Ada County. Last month, a study from Boise State University’s Idaho Policy Institute found that heavy investment in prevention combined with increased spending on supportive housing could end the wait list for housing services for families in Idaho’s most populous county by 2025. The goal city officials and local nonprofits are chasing is to get Ada...
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Supporters Cheer Focus on Child Health and Wellbeing in Newsom’s Budget [calhealthreport.org]
Efforts to improve the health and education of California’s children would get a giant funding boost under Governor Gavin Newsom’s budget, a prospect that’s generating a swell of excitement among child advocacy groups. The governor’s first budget proposal, released Jan. 10, offers numerous supports aimed directly at bolstering childhood health, including $105 million to pay for developmental and mental health screenings for low-income children, almost $110 million to expand home visiting...
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Supporting Young Children Experiencing Separation and Trauma [zerotothree.org]
Young children and their families can be tremendously affected by trauma, with significant implications for well-being well into the future. And while young children can be very expressive, they often do not have the skills or ability to use words to express how they are feeling. Adults may notice a variety of unexpected, atypical behaviors, and may need help understanding and nurturing infants and toddlers who have been affected. Fortunately, there are infant and early childhood mental...
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Teaching Social Skills to Improve Grades and Lives [NYTimes.com]
Re-Posted from ACEs Connection site earlier today. Originally posted by Samantha - thanks Sam! In the early 1990s, about 50 kindergarten teachers were asked to rate the social and communication skills of 753 children in their classrooms. It was...
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The Importance of Positive Emotional Communication Starting From Infancy
“Why do some children become sad, withdrawn, insecure, or angry, whereas others become happy, curious, affectionate, and self-confident?” It has something to do with emotions and emotional communication.
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The Real Costs of Childcare [PSMag.com]
Meredith Sawyer is an early childhood educator in Greensboro, North Carolina, who has been teaching for more than a decade. But as she reflects on the last seven years as a transitional kindergarten teacher in a childcare center that has the highest quality rating the state can offer — five stars — Sawyer realizes she’s grown tired of watching her peers meet life goals while she’s left unrewarded for her accomplishments and hard work. In a word? Sawyer is stuck. “I wait tables part time so I...
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The Relentless School Nurse: When the Health Office Pass Includes Emotions
The collaboration between school counselors and school nurses creates safe spaces for students at school. Building a coalition between school counselors and school nurses creates a safety net for our most complex and challenging students while benefiting the whole school community. Promoting connections through intentional relationship building, and ensuring a school environment that is physically, emotionally and psychologically safe changes the culture and climate. Read about an amazing...
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The State of the Evidence for Intervention and Prevention Programs for Child Welfare-Involved Populations [CEBC]
As of May 2019, the California Evidence-Based Clearing House (CEBC) has reviewed and rated over 450 programs. These programs are organized across 47 unique topic area s and each topic area varies in the number of programs with published peer-reviewed research evidence. The topic areas with the smallest number of research-supported programs are listed in the first table below in order to illustrate where gaps in effective services exist for child welfare-involved populations. The second table...
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To smooth transitions from home to pre-K to kindergarten, states must invest in every aspect of early ed [hechingerreport.org]
By Peggy Barmore, The Hechinger Report, July 8, 2019. LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Shenandoah Cochran, 34, greeted the two teachers at the front door of her elevated house in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, like family friends. Her youngest children, 5-year-old Daniel Pearson and Shenabelle Pearson, 3, abandoned a late-morning snack of fresh-sliced strawberries and mandarin orange pieces to join the trio of adults at the door. “He’s been asking when you all were going to get here,” Cochran said as...
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Toxic Schools Worsening Toxic Stress: The Destructive Reign of Universal Standards, Pathology, Medication and Behaviorism
This post is the first chapter of a book. The names HAVE NOT been changed, as each individual profoundly impacted the author's growth and development. She wants their identities to remain intact. I did not realize that my first years in public education would profoundly shape my trauma-informed journey and what I would do nearly twenty years later. But I clearly remember the late fall of 2001. I was completing my second year in a master’s program for school counseling at the University of...
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Trauma-Informed Care as a Universal Precaution: Beyond the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire [jamanetwork.com]
By Nicole Racine, Teresa Killam, and Sheri Madigan, JAMA Pediatrics, November 4, 2019 Experiences of childhood adversity are common, with more than 50% of adults reporting having experienced at least 1 adversity as children and more than 6% exposed to 4 or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). There is currently a controversial debate in the medical field as to whether the ACEs questionnaire, which asks about abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction before age 18 years, should be...
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Two New Grant Opportunities for Youth Development and Diversion Services
In 2019, more than $40 million will become available to fund community-based, culturally rooted, trauma-informed services for youth in California as alternatives to arrest and incarceration. Thousands of California youth are arrested every year for low-level offenses. Youth who are arrested or incarcerated for low-level offenses are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to suffer negative health-outcomes, and more likely to have later contact with the justice system.
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Universal free lunch is linked to better test scores in New York City, new report finds [chalkbeat.org]
Offering all students free lunch helps boost academic performance, a new report, which looked at meal programs in New York City middle schools, shows. The study, out of Syracuse University’s Center for Policy Research, assessed the impact of universal free lunch on students who previously didn’t have access to such a meals program. Researchers found “statistically significant” bumps in reading and math state test scores once students attended schools with universal free lunch. One way to...
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Upcoming Hope Forums via Kids at Hope
Kids at Hope, in partnership with Arizona State University's Center for the Advanced Study and Practice of Hope, is keeping hope at the forefront of our minds with their Hope Forums - the next two coming up on April 1st and 8th! On April 1st, founder Rick Miller will be joined by: Special Guest: Erin Gruwell , an American teacher known for her unique teaching method, which led to the publication of New York Times bestselling book, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used...
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Using Infant and Toddler Data to Support State Policymaking [NSCL Blog]
Brain development in the first years of life provides the foundation for all future learning and development, and yet the randomness of where a child is born or lives often determines whether they have access to the services they need to thrive in their earliest years. So how are infants and toddlers doing in your state? ZERO TO THREE and Child Trends has produced a first-of-its-kind publication to answer how the 12 million infants and toddlers are faring in the United States. The State of...
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Victims of Teacher Misconduct Say Schools Should Go Beyond Checking Boxes [voiceofsandiego.org]
By Ashly McGlone, Voice of San Diego, November 4, 2019 “Just so you know, no one else has ever made a complaint,” a Chula Vista High graduate recalls being told by school officials before she complained her show choir teacher was sexually harassing her and groped her repeatedly. “I feel like every adult who was an administrator in my life at the time failed me,” a former Bonita Vista High student sexually abused by his band teacher said. “I had a counselor talk to me for 10 minutes and then...
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We Have to Better Understand What Foster Parents Need [chronicleofsocialchange.org]
By Ross Hunter, The Chronicle of Social Change, October 11, 2019 As a new leader in the child welfare space, I thought it would be worth my while to do some listening before I made any big changes. So I went on a tour all over the state of Washington. I talked to caseworkers, foster parents, birth families, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and anyone else I could find who had an opinion. I got an earful. “Everything is broken.” “I had a great experience.” “The caseworker never called...
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We Must Address the Surge in Adverse Childhood Experiences [medium.com]
From the National Head Start Association, February 19, 2020 Day in and day out, in nearly every U.S. community, the nation’s 1,600 Head Start programs tirelessly serve children from at-risk backgrounds ages birth to five and their families with a comprehensive model specifically designed to strengthen families, promote school readiness, and improve child health. Head Start programs are heralded for their outcomes by researchers, praised by families, and widely-supported in their communities.
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We Need a Healing Movement
What if you had developed a cure for the most painful and costly public health problem in America, you had proven that it worked, and you were offering it for free, but could not reach those who need it most because no one wants to talk about the problem? Tragically, this is my reality and the truth about human nature. It is easier to suffer in silence than acknowledge the painful things that happen to us. Over 20 years ago, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser...
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WEBINAR: Amplify Impact from National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation on 8/29
High-quality early childhood education (ECE) has an enormous positive impact on lifelong health, serving as a protective factor against adult disease and disability. Children who receive high-quality ECE stay in school longer and earn more income as adults, helping to close the income inequality gap. Yet parents sometimes struggle to access or pay for available programs, and only about 16% of children who were eligible for federal childcare subsidies in 2015 received them. Given the high...
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What do we invest in the country’s youngest? Little to nothing (hechingerreport.org)
Research has shown that unrelenting stress at a young age, known as toxic stress, causes long-lasting brain damage . The worse the damage, the harder it is for children to pay attention, absorb new information or trust adults — all skills critical for success in school — as they get older. The U.S. has even provided universal public preschool before , for a few years during World War II. That program ended in 1946. Since then, a growing body of research has demonstrated the value of...
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What Exactly is a Toddler Tantrum?
Several years ago NPR had a story about temper tantrums, describing a study showing that the sounds children make during a tantrum indicate that they are primarily sad rather than angry. The written version of the story opens with description of tantrums as " the cause of profound helplessness among parents." I thought this was an interesting choice of words, as I have always thought of tantrums as representing a sense of helplessness in children. In fact, in my over 20 years of practicing...
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When Parents Fear "It's All My Fault"
Many of my colleagues in the field of early childhood mental health work with what are termed "high risk" populations. Children of drug addicted parents, victims of child abuse, and families in abject poverty. While the challenges these families face are daunting, I find myself feeling some envy for my colleagues whose clients are in such obvious distress that the need for intensive treatment of parent and infant is not in question. In my rural, small-town population things are not so clear.
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Where Childcare Is an Economic Engine [TheAtlantic.com]
At the end of a long day of work at a small sports-marketing firm in Atlanta, a very pregnant Micki Velmer is driving to pick up her 3-year-old son, Burke, from childcare when her car overheats and breaks down. Velmer’s husband, Jason, soon swings by to get her and then get both of them to the Frazer Center before it closes and starts charging late fees. Still, Velmer is uneasy. In just a few short weeks, once their second child is born, the Velmers will be paying more than $2,800 a...
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Why Does America Hate Its Children? [nytimes.com]
By Paul Krugman, The New York Times, January 16, 2020 The other day a correspondent asked me a good question: What important issue aren’t we talking about? My answer, after some reflection, is the state of America’s children. Now, it’s not entirely fair to say that we’re ignoring the plight of our children. Elizabeth Warren, characteristically, has laid out a comprehensive, fully financed plan for universal child care. Bernie Sanders, also characteristically, says he’s for it but hasn’t...
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Why Parents Are Being Forced to Find Childcare Underground [TheAtlantic.com]
The front door of Nora Nivia Nevarez’s adobe-like house in suburban Albuquerque, New Mexico, opens to blocks and children’s books scattered around the brightly colored carpet, shaped like a puzzle piece. Throughout the afternoon, she keeps a careful eye on her four small charges, ages 4 months to 10 years, by turns reading books and helping them with puzzles. One little boy named Javier cries as his guardian, Guadalupe, picks him up. He’s tired and ready to go home. “I love caring for...
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How Cities and Counties Are Taking the Lead on Child Care
Absent federal action, local jurisdictions are increasingly looking for ways to help working parents. America is waking up to child care as a major political issue. Back in January, President Obama discussed it at length for the first time in his...
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How do these pediatricians do ACEs screening? Early adopters tell all.
Last week, three pediatricians — with a combined experience of 15 years integrating ACEs science into their practices — reflected on the urgency they felt several years ago that prompted them to begin screening patients for childhood adversity and resilience when there was practically no guidance at all. Along their journey , they accumulated a list of lessons learned for other pediatricians and family clinics to use. The three pediatricians participated in the ACEs Connection webinar,...
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In a County with More Babies Than Any Other, Childcare Comes at a Cost - And Not Just for Parents (newamericamedia.org)
In California, childcare for infants costs as much as tuition in the University of California (UC) system, according to new data from the Lucile Packard Foundation of Children’s Health. In 2014, parents of infants in California spent an average of more than $13,300 on childcare. That year, UC tuition and fees were just over $13,200. Achievement gaps start early. According to a report this year from the Economic Policy Institute , children from more affluent backgrounds tend to perform better...
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In push to expand universal preschool, lessons to be learned from California's class size reduction program [edsource.org]
The rapid rollout of a hugely ambitious plan to reduce elementary school class sizes in California over two decades ago should serve as a cautionary tale for how quickly the state should implement universal preschool, a long-sought-after goal of children’s advocates and their allies in the Legislature. It may also give incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom some cover for not moving aggressively to implement universal preschool, which he said he was committed to on the campaign trail. He articulated...
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In School Suspensions the Answer to School Discipline? Not Necessarily, Experts Say [edsource.org]
By Carolyn Jones, EdSource, October 29, 2019 More California schools are allowing disruptive students to serve suspensions on campus instead of sending them home. But experts said educators need to provide those students with high-quality behavior counseling for that approach to be successful. Schools throughout the state have embraced in-school suspensions in recent years, as studies have shown that traditional out-of-school suspensions can hurt students’ academic performance and actually...
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Is This as Good as Childcare Gets? [TheAtlantic.com]
“Money has been a constant struggle,” says Kim Silva of her 30 years as an early-education teacher in Massachusetts. “One unexpected expense can put you in the hole for months.” Silva, 46, is the lead teacher in a preschool classroom at NorthStar, a childcare center in New Bedford, Massachusetts, that largely serves children whose parents’ income is low enough that they are eligible to receive financial subsidies from the state to help pay for care. Silva has worked there since she was 15,...
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Kids of Color Often Shut Out of High-Quality State Preschool, Research Says [blogs.edweek.org]
By Andrew Ujifusa, Education Week, November 6, 2019 A study of 26 states and their preschool programs finds that as of roughly two years ago, a mere 1 percent of Latino children and just 4 percent of black children in those states were enrolled in "high-quality" state-backed early-learning opportunities. That's one main conclusion from a new report from the Education Trust, an education civil rights advocacy group. "Young Learners, Missed Opportunities: Ensuring That Black and Latino...
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Lack Of Child Care Rating Systems Leaves Parents In A Bind [NPR.org]
There are rating systems for hospitals, nursing homes and doctors. So why is it so hard to compare providers of child care? Part of the reason is that there are no nationally agreed-upon standards for what determines the quality of child care. The standards that do exist are formulated in each state, and they vary widely. For example, some states require that child care workers have a teaching certificate. Others require certain college courses. Some have strict ratios of how many caregivers...
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Low wages undermine efforts to improve the quality of preschools, federal report says [EdSource.org]
Efforts in California and other states to raise the quality of child care and preschool programs are being undermined by the low wages that workers earn in jobs that now require more skills and education, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education released Tuesday. In California, preschool teachers were paid an average salary of $31,720 in 2015, about half of what California kindergarten teachers earned that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report said.
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New Report Calls on Governors to Lead the Charge for Early-Childhood Education [Education Week]
Next month, 20 new governors and 16 re-elected governors will start their terms. Many of them made early-childhood education a part of their campaigns, and the Center for American Progress (CAP) released a report Thursday with recommendations for an early-childhood agenda for these new leaders in 2019. The report lists several things governors should do during their first 100 days in office to show a commitment to early-childhood education. "We think it's really important to set this from...
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New Report Explores Paid Family Leave: How Much Time is Enough?
A growing body of research is finding that, on the whole, job-protected paid family leaves of adequate duration and wage replacement lead to more income and gender equality, significant reductions in infant, maternal and even paternal mortality, improved physical and mental health for children and parents, greater family stability and economic security, business productivity, and economic growth.
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New Report: Holding Policymakers Accountable for Kids' Well-Being
New Report: Today’s shifting political sands have put kids at risk, and it’s urgent that policymakers put kids’ needs front and center. We all have the power to hold policymakers accountable for prioritizing the needs of children, and our friends at the child advocacy group Kids Impact have charted a course on how. In their new report, “Accelerating Policymaker Accountability for U.S. Kids’ Well-Being: Charting the Course & A Call to Action,” they help define a collective “True North”...
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Newsom's cradle-to-career plan for education is ambitious — and expensive [edsource.org]
Newly elected governor Gavin Newsom’s big campaign promises on education could cost billions of dollars if fully realized. The governor-elect has pledged to establish a cradle-to-career system of education in California and made it a central tenet of his education platform. To improve educational outcomes, the former San Francisco mayor argues that the state needs to begin offering services in early childhood with interventions continuing throughout school and college. [For more on this...
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On the Street: Network Leaders Plus Sesame Street Resources Boost Community Engagement
Guadalupe Mendoza used to drop off her kids for pre-school, then make a quick and silent retreat. “I hid away,” says Mendoza, mother of five children aged 18 to 5; all but the oldest attended the Head Start/ECEAP (Early Childhood Education Assistance Program) at Walla Walla’s Blue Ridge Elementary School. “I didn’t allow myself to have a connection with the staff.” Three years ago, Mendoza began volunteering with the pre-school. Then she attended a moms’ group. Still, she shied away from the...
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Online On Demand trauma awareness training for early care and education professionals
Penn State Better Kid Care offers an online, On Demand trauma awareness training geared specifically for early care and education professionals. This 2-hr training promotes the awareness and understanding of trauma in young children and families, and addresses the role of early care and education professionals in nurturing resilience in the children and families in their care who have experienced ACEs. More information and how to access the module is included in the attached handout.
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Only a fraction of California children eligible receive subsidized child care [EdSource.com]
As Gov. Gavin Newsom pushes to expand subsidized childcare in California, a new report indicates that the state still has a long way to go to reach a substantial share of its neediest children. Only 1 in 9 children eligible for subsidized childcare and preschool programs in California were enrolled in a program that provided full-day, year-round care in 2017, according to an analysis by the California Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan organization that analyzes how budget and tax...
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Overdose and suicide among top causes of death for new moms in California, study finds [Sacramento Bee]
By Elizabeth Shwe, The Sacramento Bee, June 14, 2019 Drug overdose and suicide are leading causes of death among California mothers within the first year after delivery, a recent study shows. Professor Sidra Goldman-Mellor of UC Merced and Professor Claire Margerison of Michigan State University found that drug overdoses were the second-leading cause of postpartum death and suicide was the seventh in California. Both constitute around 20% of all California postpartum deaths from 2010-2012.
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Plymouth County Schools Receiving Trauma Informed Training
This opportunity is for schools and districts to receive training to develop an awareness of the prevalence of traumatic experience, its impact on academic behavior and relations and the need for a whole school approach. For the 2019-2020 school year, Carver, Marshfield, Rockland, Scituate and Silver Lake qualified to receive free training from TLPI.
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Professional development: How regional teachers continue their training [Press Connects NY]
Parents thought teachers graded papers on those days off during the year. District officials set the record straight on professional development. What's your child's teacher up to on those days marked for "professional development" on the school calendar? Across the board, parents we polled had the same answer: grading papers and completing lesson plans. Not even close, district officials say. Professional development means training, education and advanced professional learning intended to...