October 2021

Please join us for our new series Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series will feature 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.

After educators’ experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2014 approach to school health has gained even greater urgency. Under this model, a student's physical health is considered to be inseparable from their mental and social health. Moreover, it assumes that school climate, family engagement, community involvement, and, importantly, the health of school staff are all integral to the health of students. Researchers with ChildTrends recently released a report using metrics based on this...

He is sprawled out on the sidewalk, motionless, flushed cheeks framed by high cheekbones. He’s slender, probably in his mid-20s, his straight, coal black hair pulled back, and his orange t-shirt twisted up over his stomach. “He’s OD’ing on fentanyl!” shouts a guy holding a skateboard.

From Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, October 4, 2021 Today, Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 65, the California Momnibus Act , designed to improve maternal and infant outcomes – particularly for families of color. Authored by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) with support from maternal health and racial justice groups across the state, the bill will improve research and data collection on racial and socio-economic factors that contribute to higher rates of maternal and infant mortality in...

Register here! https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApcuGuqjssGNCWSrzGLRqi4kfzDwQ-h4y3

By Keith Burbank, Local News Matters Bay Area, October 4, 2021 Oakland is expanding a pilot program aimed at recruiting and retaining specialized teachers of color in the city’s schools via help with housing. The program called Teachers Rooted in Oakland offers subsidized housing or stipends to educators, some of whom are graduate students earning their teaching credential. Oakland schools are trying to attract teachers who specialize in subjects such as math, science and special education...

By Julie Reynolds Martinez, The Imprint, September 28, 2021 J.P. Solorio is a community college student at the Correctional Training Facility, a prison in Soledad, California. Locked up at age 15 for his role in a teen gang shootout, he’s been slowly working toward a college degree since he was sent to adult prison in 2003. In addition to his college courses, Solorio, 35, is active in a program that trains puppies to become service dogs for first responders and veterans with post-traumatic...

By Linda Darling-Hammond, EdSource, October 4, 2021 O n Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom made California the first state in the nation to announce a Covid-19 vaccination requirement for all schoolchildren and staff participating in in-person instruction, adding the Covid-19 vaccine to the list of required school vaccinations that prevent such infectious diseases as polio, diphtheria, measles, mumps and rubella. The new requirement will be effective at the start of the school semester following full...

PC Reacts is a new series by PACEs Connection in which we look at current events through a trauma-informed and PACEs science lens. In the next episode in this series, we will respectfully and mindfully discuss issues related to the recent national fascination with the missing person and murder case of Gabby Petito, who was found at Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming on September 19th. While this case has seen hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces of media coverage over the past weeks, it...

Through the news media, Americans are served an almost-daily dose of violence caused by guns. This year to date, more than 33,929 people in the United States have been killed and another 30,000+ have been injured by guns. The U.S. homicide rate for firearms is 22 times greater than that of the European Union, even though the European population is 35% larger. But to Dr. Garen Wintemute , the statistics on injuries and deaths are only one part of the story. To reverse those appalling numbers,...

Dropping October 11th! Listen to Dr. B and her Co-host Seth Creekmore in conversation with Jane Stevens, Founder and Publisher of PACEs Connection. [ Please click here to access the podcast .]

Community schools have been an effective school improvement strategy for over a century, implemented in both urban and rural areas across the country — yet many people have never heard of this dynamic approach to school design. Whole districts have invested in this model over the past several decades, from Oakland to New York City, from Duluth, Minnesota to Tulsa, Oklahoma. California recently approved $2.8 billion in the 2022 fiscal year budget for the implementation of community schools...