Tagged With "education reform"

Greetings! I will be out of the office starting 7/8/16 through 7/17/16 returning 7/18/16. If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact Barbara Wilhelmy at bwilhelmy@pottstowncluster.org . Otherwise I will respond to your emails as soon as possible upon my return. Warm Regards, Jenn Brown PCRC, Director of Support Services

Thank you for presenting this testimony to City Council. I'd love to know how they reacted, and what type of questions they may have had for you.

Hello Nick, City Council reacted with much interest, and maybe a little surprise, and (I am hoping) eventually some follow through and action. Time will tell. Their questions to-date are all about statistics, or quantitative research learning. I take the fact that they are even asking questions, as a hopeful positive signal. Daun

Thanks, Daun. This does sound hopeful; I wonder if if/how our ACES community can help maintain some momentum with keeping local politicians engaged?

Great question ! Not sure yet. Thinking . . . I'm a little sensitive about being too aggressive, too fast.

Daun, This letter is an incredible example of how we should and can engage in policy change while educating our elected officials and the general public. The way in which you outlined the role of childhood trauma, in particular ACEs, and the implications for education, is incredible! Thank you so much for providing such a great example for those of us wanting to engage in trauma informed policy work!

Wow ! I'm humbled. Thank you Aniela.

Thanks for sharing, Leslie. I loved this video done by the kids, sharing their perspective on things. And so great to see that it caught the attention of DHS and their voices are being heard.

"It is critical to hear from educators, experts and individuals with direct knowledge of how trauma affects a student’s ability to learn and become a productive member of the commonwealth’s workforce,” https://lucidwitness.com/2016/...ve-education-reform/ PEEK INSIDE A CLASSROOM: EFFECTIVE EDUCATION REFORM

Quoting: "This bill would instill trauma-informed and focused policies, procedures and practices inside the classroom, such as requiring newly elected school board members, educators and other school staff members who have direct contact with children to complete training on trauma-informed approaches to education." Hmmm, great start towards the goal ! Meanwhile, we must all realize that State "requirements" imply a large cascade of change at ground level. We all need to acknowledge, up...

Daun, Your comments are very important. While we would all like to see our schools move towards being trauma-informed and sensitive environments for children, as well as for the adults who are with them each day, it is no simple task to accomplish. It can be done poorly and incompletely with limited and temporary results if not approached with the right attitudes, resources, and implementation strategies. Indeed, "training" is likely to be a small part of the solution, since being "informed"...

Teachers, counselors, parents, and national activists added their voices to students’ call for “police-free schools” at a general public hearing held by Philadelphia’s Board of Education on Thursday. The board holds two of these hearings annually, as the City Charter mandates; the only agenda for the meetings is to hear speakers. At the hearing and at a virtual “rally” held during the hour before, members of the Philadelphia Student Union and their allies repeatedly said that reform of the...

July 27, 2020 As a companion to Governor Tom Wolf’s multi-agency effort and anti-stigma initiative, Reach Out PA: Your Mental Health Matters, the Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR) is releasing the “Trauma-Informed PA” plan to guide the commonwealth and service providers statewide on what it means to be trauma-informed and healing-centered in PA. This plan is the result of four months of work from OAR and the Trauma-Informed PA Think Tank, formed in February. The think tank was made up of...

When students came to class in person, the private St. Malachy School in North Philadelphia was equipped with a robust emotional support program to help kids deal with trauma. The 11th and Thompson building offered its 275 students access to a space called the Peace Room. It was stocked with bean bag chairs, books, music, snacks — even an elliptical, in case they needed to get some energy out. There were two full-time staffers working the room at all times, one of whom is a counselor. When...

To mark the anniversary of the passage of the landmark legislation of the Georgia Mental Health Parity Act, we are sharing a letter written a year ago by Roland Behm, Co-founder of the Georgia Mental Health Policy Partnership, Board Member and Former Board Chair, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) Georgia Chapter. The letter is to his son, Kyle, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2010 as a junior in college and died by suicide in August 2019.

CHILD USAdvocacy continues working closely with survivors, legislators, and advocates on the ground to pass a child sex abuse revival window for civil claims. The Pennsylvania House and the Senate have passed different versions of window legislation. The House has passed HB2 , which is a legislative window, and HB1 , which is a window via constitutional amendment. The Senate passed SB1 , which bundled the window with two other unrelated constitutional amendments. We support a stand alone...