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Join PACEs Connection's Lara Kain and other leaders to discuss policy perspectives on trauma informed strategies in schools, including an update on California's $4.1 billion investment in Community Schools.

PACEs Connection's interactive sessions focus on trauma-informed education and the impact of policy and system changes. This course will be facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEs Connection's educational consultant, and will be a combination of lecture, discussion, and collaboration. This session will use the RYSE center Interacting Layers of Trauma and Healing as a framework. Policy and Systems, Trauma-Informed Education and your Community PACEs Initiative Outline the importance of including...

On July 3, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 188 also known as the Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act. The CROWN Act amends the California Education Code and the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s definition of race to include traits historically associated with race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles. Protective hairstyles include, but are not limited to, “braids, locks, and twists.” The legislation makes California the...

“Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are a powerful movement, and collectively we are making a difference,” says Lara Kain, PACEs Connection education consultant. She joins this week’s History. Culture. Trauma. podcast with fellow educators and hosts, PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren, and director of communities, Mathew Portell. Cockhren and Portell are focused on the start of the 2022-2023 school year, and welcome colleague Kain o n Thursday, August 25 at 1 p.m. PT, 4 p.m. ET, when...

For the past three years, Karen Bacigalupo, as assistant principal at Fall-Hamilton Elementary, part of the Metro Nashville Public Schools, worked with former principal Mathew Portell to integrate PACEs into their school. Bacigalupo took over as principal last March when Portell joined PACEs Connection as director of communities. Although she had heard about the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences through social media and in her research over the past six years, it was only...

Please join us for our series Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn. This series features a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant, with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system. August Session,...

Photo: Rachel Zein for the Texas Tribune Author: Brian Lopez, August 11, 2022 Author of 'Critical Race Theory' Ban Says Texas School Can Still Teach About Racism For the past year, Texas educators have struggled with a new law targeting how history and race are taught in the state’s public schools. Now, eight months after the enactment of a law designed to de-emphasize the role of slavery and racism in American history in Texas social studies classes, state Sen. Bryan Hughes , R-Mineola, the...

(Congratulations to Dr. Audrey Hokoda and Dr. Shulamit Ritblatt for their steadfast dedication as Editors of this textbook. Long-standing San Diego Trauma-Informed Guide Team (SDTIGT) member, there are more SDTIGT members who are co-authors. Congratulations to all contributors!) From Trauma to Resiliency: Trauma-Informed Practices for Working with Children, Families, Schools, and Communities Edited by Shulamit Natan Ritblatt, San Diego State University, California, USA and Audrey Hokoda ,...

By Asher Lehrer-Small, The 74, July 27, 2022 Students who miss at least 10% of school days are more likely to face reading difficulties by third grade, less likely to earn a high school diploma and are at higher risk of juvenile delinquency . There’s a word to describe when students surpass this troubling threshold: chronic absenteeism. It makes intuitive sense. Students who spend less time in the classroom have a harder time keeping up with their peers and may face difficulties developing...

By California Supportive Schools, July 2022 School districts that implement whole-community supports incorporate the needs of families and caregivers in their approach to student well-being. In this audiocast, you’ll hear about how Pajaro Valley Unified School District prioritizes community voice to provide responsive supports that promote multi-generational wellness through their Family Engagement and Wellness Center. [ Please click here to listen to the audiocast .] [ Please click here to...

By Jennifer A. Kingson, Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios, Axios, July 28, 2022 A landmark California law requiring high schools to start at 8:30am or later is jump-starting similar efforts nationwide after years of intense debate over schools' starting bells. Why it matters: Most teens don't get enough sleep — yet school start times are a hot-button political issue that divide communities, pitting teachers, parents, bus drivers, and administrators against one another. Pediatricians say...

Standing on top of Ogun Mountain, in the Sacred City of 41 Mountains, West Africa, I knew my life would forever change. The women from the royal house danced for me. The men drummed me into a trance. They called me by my African name as they welcomed me home. On the soil of my ancestors, the healing began. I am a black woman born in the 1970’s. Nine generations ago, my ancestors were on the continent of Africa inhabiting the Kingdom of Dahomey. We were thriving. Unbeknownst to most, we were...