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Dear Colleagues, Wanted to share my new study out in Exceptional Children . I look at maltreatment patterns & their consequences for child welfare-involved children in special education. Findings can inform how educators support these youth, who are often overlooked. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0014402919870830?journalCode=ecxc If you don't have journal access, feel free to email me for a copy of the study: kagee@ucdavis.edu . Regards, Kevin Kevin A. Gee, Ed.D. Associate...

By Nicole Gaudiano, Politico, October 10, 2019 Substance abuse and mental health problems surged following last year’s deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., while test scores tanked. More kids are said to be anxious, depressed and cutting school. In Santa Fe, Texas, where eight students and two teachers were killed in May of last year, it’s a similar story, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. A growing number of students need support from...

I am please to announce that the Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast is live and currently has episodes featuring Jim Sporleder, Claudia Roodt, and Ingrid Cockhren. The podcast was established out of the Trauma Informed Schools Network, a Facebook group with nearly 17,000 members from 100+ different countries. The network is designed to connect educators and practitioners around the world to share ideas, gain new ideas, and share resources! Here is the podcast:...

By Naaz Modan, Education Dive, October 10, 2019 Dive Brief: A new study from the University of California, Los Angeles' Center for the Transformation of Schools finds a student's quality of life is linked to his or her academic performance. Where they live, access to healthy food, and quality of air and healthcare are among factors that influence academic performance and the schools they attend. Black students in Los Angeles — who are already faced with higher suspension rates, attend...

By Joshua Bote, USA Today, October 14, 2019 A bill signed Saturday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to cut the recent trend in schools of "lunch shaming." SB 265, which was originally introduced by California state Sen. Robert Hertzberg, will require that all public school students have a "state reimbursable" meal provided by the school "even if their parent or guardian has unpaid meal fees." It amends the Child Hunger Prevention and Fair Treatment Act of 2017, which previously stated...

The numbers of Los Angeles children who need the meals have been rising sharply in recent years. In 2015-2016, 72.4% or 405,338 LAUSD students qualified for the free or reduced price meals, according to a 2017 Food Research Action Center report. “We have the highest participation of students who are served breakfast in the classroom,” said Monica Garcia, a member of the LAUSD School Board. “Also, most of our schools (75%) are in the Community Eligibility Program, where all students get all...

Black people, including youth, are less likely to receive adequate care for mental health issues for a number of reasons: disparities in access to care, stigma about mental illness and lack of culturally competent mental health practitioners. According to a study published in the International Journal of Health Services , black children are about half as likely as white children to get mental health treatment. As the CBC task force, mental health experts and policy makers mull over ideas to...

Many of us take the ability to read for granted. Because for those with dyslexia or another learning disorder, the struggle to read can be frustrating and create chaos in the classroom. The Sandhills School in Columbia is flipping the script and the entire learning environment. The school is reimagining learning through the power of sporadic movement during the day. Rather than cutting recess and making kids sit and try harder, they are incorporating specific movement to help them focus and...

By Ashley Ruano, Fix School Discipline, October 1, 2019 The #StudentNotSuspects coalition has long worked in Los Angeles to end the random searches policy that discriminate against students and create a hostile campus environment for students to learn. For many years, Los Angeles Unified School District implemented mandatory random metal detector searches in middle and high schools. The searches did not make campus environments more secure. Instead, the policy targeted, and criminalized...

By Joie Tyrrell joie.tyrrell@newsday.com @JoieTyrrell Updated September 29, 2019 District officials are touting a newly created wellness room at Ward Melville High School as a lesson in serenity, where the surroundings help teachers and staff de-stress over the course of a hectic workday. The "WellVille" classroom, part of the wellness program in the Three Village school district, has been transformed into an "experience," with soft lighting, relaxing music and lounge chairs, school...

By NINA AGRAWAL, SONALI KOHLI, OCT. 1, 2019, LA Times In middle school, Anthony Avila would stand up in class, talk to friends when he wasn’t supposed to and sling his legs across a second chair. His disruptive behavior got him sent to the office a lot, where he would sit in silence, often stewing. In high school, Avila’s math teacher used another tactic. She kept him in class when he acted up and opened her room early so they could talk. When other teachers still sent him to the office, the...