U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) gave impassioned remarks (attached) on the Senate floor yesterday on the critical need for schools to address trauma and toxic stress so that all children will have an equal opportunity for academic success. She made the remarks in support of her amendment (#2171-attached) addressing mental health in schools as part of the debate on the Elementary and Secondary Reauthorization Act (S. 1177, Every Child Achieves Act, an overhaul of No Child Left Behind). The amendment was narrowly defeated (although it had more than a dozen Republican votes) by a vote of 58-39. A final vote on the bill is expected on Friday or early next week. A conference committee comprised of House members and Senators will be convened to attempt to resolve the very different versions of the legislation. The House version passed last week.
The final two minutes (7:00 – 9:00) of her floor speech includes a searing story that a school principal shared with her about intergenerational violence. Senator Heitkamp concludes that schools are unprepared to “dealt with the trauma of that life (children living with domestic violence)” and yet they are first responders. I’d recommend listening to the entire speech. The text of the final two minutes follows below:
“Just for a moment let me tell you a quick story. The first year I was elected, I had an opportunity to visit with a lot of North Dakota constituents who come into my office and I remember distinctly the day that the grade school principals came to visit me and I got all prepared for this meeting on No Child Left Behind because I shared a lot of their concerns… That's not what they wanted to talk about.
One principal told me a story about two young boys in second or third grade who had ridden the bus that morning and beat up two little girls and when they got to school the principal asked them why they would ever do that and they said “you understand last night my dad beat up my mom and he went to jail and I wanted to visit my dad.” How prepared is a school district to deal with that? If we do not engage the mental health community, our schools will continue to be those first responders ill-prepared to deal with the trauma of that life. We have to begin to integrate these programs and we have to look at what is happening with trauma and stress and the effect that trauma and stress have on learning and the ability to succeed.
So I can understand and completely support the idea that we need to streamline programs. I think this is a program whose time has come. We should fund this program; that's a conversation for the Appropriations Committee but we have to begin to emphasize the conditions to which children live in if we are going to educate all of our children equally. Mr. President, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this amendment. I also request that Futures Without Violence report “Safe, Healthy, and Ready to Learn” is entered into the Congressional Record.”
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