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Are you ready to transform your school to become a trauma-informed and healing-centered environment? An institute specifically tailored for school leaders and leadership teams who want to understand the HOW of trauma-informed schools. Join us for an encore of PACEsConnection Trauma-Informed School Leadership Institute. Speakers included current and former building leaders engaged in the work as well as other national experts supporting schools through this transformation process.

By Giles Bruce, Photo: Giles Bruce/Kaiser Health News, National Public Radio, June 10, 2022 Linnea Sorensen falls into a funk whenever her girlfriend of four years leaves for her six-month stints with the Marines, and the high school junior has trouble concentrating on her classwork. "I'm somebody who struggles with my mental health quite a bit," said the 17-year-old, who attends school in Schaumburg, Ill., a suburb of about 77,000 people northwest of Chicago. "When you're in school and not...

By Janie Har, Photo: Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP Photo, Associated Press, July 15, 2022 San Francisco Bay Area high school teacher Lisa Raskin moved out of a cramped apartment she was sharing with a roommate and into her own place this month, paying a deeply discounted $1,500 a month for a one-bedroom with expansive views within walking distance to work. It was once an impossible dream in an exorbitantly priced region hostile to new housing. But her employer, a 4,000-student school district...

Learn4Life high school students participate in a culinary skills career technical education course and Camryn (pictured below), shows off the baking creation she made during class. National Culinary Month highlights the importance of teaching foodservice and cooking skills to high schoolers who make up a big part of the restaurant industry workforce. LOS ANGELES (July 8, 2022) – Why does it take so long to get your order when you go out to eat? The number one problem is a decline in...

Image: © Provided by The Daily Beast Facebook/James Whitfield A member of a school board in Texas has said the quiet part out loud, admitting that a beloved Black high school principal who shared his stance on racism in the wake of George Floyd’s death was pushed out of the job for being a “total activist.” Dr. James Whitfield , who became Colleyville High School’s first Black principal in 2020, wrote a letter to the school community about police brutality after Floyd’s murder, which led to...

In April 2022, the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) organized more than 170 advocates across 36 states to sign a coalition letter urging Congress to invest $1 billion in this year’s federal budget to increase trauma-informed resources and improve access to mental health professionals in America’s schools. This work has paid off. In June, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee released their draft Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) spending legislation, which included CTIPP’s...

By Donna St. George, Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP, The Washington Post, July 6, 2022 The data, collected as the 2021-2022 school year was winding down, also showed that more than 70 percent of schools saw increases in chronic student absenteeism since the onset of the pandemic and about half of schools reported increased acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff. “The survey paints a remarkably coherent picture,” said Kevin Welner, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and...

By Jo Napolitano, Image: UnidosUS , The74, July 11, 2022 After a decade of gains in academics and a marked boost in high school graduation rates and college attendance, Latino students suffered significant setbacks during the pandemic as many attended underfunded schools and had limited internet access at home, a new report shows. Some of these children also struggled with a language barrier — as did their parents — making the switch to remote learning even tougher, according to UnidosUS,...

June was quite a month for learning, connecting, reflecting, and inspiration around issues of transforming the education system. I started the month off by attending the 2022 National Community Schools and Family Engagement Conference here in my hometown of Los Angeles. Over 3,000 attendees from across the country gathered to learn from each other and share their expertise around developing authentic community-driven Community Schools. (If you want to dive deeper into what community schools...

By Steve Snyder, Image: Screenshot from article, The 74, June 30, 2022 After two years of pandemic chaos, classroom disruptions and trauma, this spring has seen school communities across the country rally their way back to something approximating normal. At the center of these efforts are inspiring teachers, school staffers and neighborhood leaders who for years now have put their time and energy into guiding students, families and wider school communities through a time of unprecedented...

By Donna St. George, Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP, The Washington Post, July 6, 2022 The data, collected as the 2021-2022 school year was winding down, also showed that more than 70 percent of schools saw increases in chronic student absenteeism since the onset of the pandemic and about half of schools reported increased acts of disrespect toward teachers and staff. “The survey paints a remarkably coherent picture,” said Kevin Welner, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and...

Several South Florida high school educators are alarmed that a new state civics initiative designed to prepare students to be “virtuous citizens” is infused with a Christian and conservative ideology after a three-day training session in Broward County last week. Teachers who spoke to the Times/Herald said they don’t object to the state’s new standards for civics, but they do take issue with how the state wants them to be taught. “It was very skewed,” said Barbara Segal, a 12th-grade...