Washington State is a strong national leader in our work around ACEs and public awareness. We see trauma informed practice in our social agencies within our communities. However, our state legislators with the support of the state board of education and the state superintendent of instruction, passed the most punitive graduation policy in the nation. When I confronted the issue in 2013, the legislators would not confirm the ACE Study. To date, Washington State has forced over 8,000 students into dropout over one state math exam. The media won't touch it, the senate blocked an emergency vote when it was well known that many inequities and injustice to our poor and minority's students were fragrant across the state. There is no evidenced based research to back up such a punitive policy. Kids with 3.6 GPA's were denied their diploma over one state algebra exam. To this day we do not have the ethnicity report since this policy went into effect. No one with any resources has challenged our state superintendent to produce those records. One legislator's response to me when I challenged her and used the brain research as a reference that some students can not physiologically do abstract. Her response was that she was tired of hearing excuses. I reminded her that the research was not grounded in excuses and her ending comment was to tell me to go put them back on an IEP.  Therefore we continue to suck the hope right out of those that put their trust in the system and then receive the same consequence of those who actually choose to drop out of school.