[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAUMA-INFORMED
PRACTICES IN EDUCATION TO ASSIST
STUDENTS IMPACTED BY GUN VIOLENCE
AND OTHER ADVERSITIES
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY,
AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND LABOR
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-38
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: www.govinfo.gov
or
Committee address: https://edlabor.house.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
37-855 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT, Virginia, Chairman
Susan A. Davis, California Virginia Foxx, North Carolina,
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Ranking Member
Joe Courtney, Connecticut David P. Roe, Tennessee
Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Tim Walberg, Michigan
Northern Mariana Islands Brett Guthrie, Kentucky
Frederica S. Wilson, Florida Bradley Byrne, Alabama
Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Mark Takano, California Elise M. Stefanik, New York
Alma S. Adams, North Carolina Rick W. Allen, Georgia
Mark DeSaulnier, California Lloyd Smucker, Pennsylvania
Donald Norcross, New Jersey Jim Banks, Indiana
Pramila Jayapal, Washington Mark Walker, North Carolina
Joseph D. Morelle, New York James Comer, Kentucky
Susan Wild, Pennsylvania Ben Cline, Virginia
Josh Harder, California Russ Fulcher, Idaho
Lucy McBath, Georgia Van Taylor, Texas
Kim Schrier, Washington Steve Watkins, Kansas
Lauren Underwood, Illinois Ron Wright, Texas
Jahana Hayes, Connecticut Daniel Meuser, Pennsylvania
Donna E. Shalala, Florida William R. Timmons, IV, South
Andy Levin, Michigan* Carolina
Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Dusty Johnson, South Dakota
David J. Trone, Maryland Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Haley M. Stevens, Michigan
Susie Lee, Nevada
Lori Trahan, Massachusetts
Joaquin Castro, Texas
* Vice-Chair
Veronique Pluviose, Staff Director
Brandon Renz, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE EARLY CHILDHOOD, ELEMENTARY, AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, Northern Mariana Islands, Chairman
Kim Schrier, Washington Rick W. Allen, Georgia,
Jahana Hayes, Connecticut Ranking Member
Donna E. Shalala, Florida Glenn ``GT'' Thompson,
Susan A. Davis, California Pennsylvania
Frederica S. Wilson, Florida Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Mark DeSaulnier, California Van Taylor, Texas
Joseph D. Morelle, New York William R. Timmons, IV, South
Carolina
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on September 11, 2019............................... 1
Statement of Members:
Allen, Hon. Rick W., Ranking Member, Subcommittee Early
Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education............. 5
Prepared statement of.................................... 6
Sablan, Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho, Chairman, Subcommittee
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education....... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Statement of Witnesses:
Barker, Dr. Ingrida, ED.D., Associate Superintendent,
McDowell County Schools, Welch, WV......................... 22
Prepared statement of.................................... 24
Burke Harris, Dr. Nadine, MD, MPH, FAAP, California Surgeon
General, State of California, San Francisco, CA............ 9
Prepared statement of.................................... 11
Hofmeister, Ms. Joy, Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public
Instruction, Oklahoma State Department of Education,
Oklahoma, OK............................................... 28
Prepared statement of.................................... 30
Jackson, Dr. Janice K., ED.D., CEO, Chicago Public Schools,
Chicago IL................................................. 33
Prepared statement of.................................... 36
Additional Submissions:
Chairman Sablan:.............................................
Research Article: Relationship of Childhood Abuse and
Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of
Death in Adults........................................ 116
Report: Children Affected By Trauma...................... 130
Report: Creating, Supporting, and Sustaining Trauma-
Informed Schools: A System Framework................... 174
Article: The Association Between Adverse Childhood
Experience (ACE) and School Success in Elementary
School Children........................................ 187
Article: Helping Children Cope with Violence and Trauma.. 197
Article: The Impact of Gun Violence on Children and Teens 204
Fact Sheet: Ten Things to Know About Trauma and Learning. 211
Policy Statement: The Impact of Racism on Child and
Adolescent Health...................................... 213
Prepared statement of the National Association of
Secondary School Principals (NASSP).................... 229
Prepared statement of the Alliance For Excellent
Education.............................................. 233
Letter dated September 10, 2019 from the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT)........................... 239
Prepared statement of Binghamton University Community
Schools (BUCS)......................................... 241
Prepared statement of the National Indian Education
Association............................................ 244
Letter from the National Association of School
Psychologists (NASP)................................... 246
Letter dated September 10, 2019 from National Education
Association (NEA)...................................... 257
Shalala, Hon. Donna E., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Florida:..........................................
Report: Care Provider Facilities Described Challenges
Addressing Mental Health Needs of Children in HHS
Custody................................................ 52
Questions submitted for the record by:
Morelle, Hon. Joseph D., a Representative in Congress
from the State of New York............................. 262
Omar, Hon. Ilhan, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Minnesota..................................... 262
Scott, Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'', a Representative in
Congress from the State of Virginia.................... 261
Dr. Barker's response to questions submitted for the record.. 263
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAUMA-INFORMED
PRACTICES IN EDUCATION TO ASSIST
STUDENTS IMPACTED BY GUN VIOLENCE
AND OTHER ADVERSITIES
----------
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education,
Committee on Education and Labor,
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:18 a.m., in
Room 2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Gregorio Kilili
Camacho Sablan (Chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Sablan, Schrier, Hayes, Shalala,
Davis, DeSaulnier, Morelle, Scott, Allen, Thompson, Grothman,
Taylor, Timmons, and Foxx.
Also Present: Representatives McBath, Bonamici, Wild,
Trone, and Lee.
Staff Present: Tylease Alli, Chief Clerk; Ramon Carranza,
Education Policy Fellow; Emma Eatman, Press Assistant; Mishawn
Freeman, Staff Assistant; Christian Haines, General Counsel;
Stephanie Lalle, Deputy Communications Director; Andre Lindsay,
Staff Assistant; Jaria Martin, Clerk/Assistant to the Staff
Director; Max Moore, Office Aide; Jacque Mosley, Director of
Education Policy; Veronique Pluviose, Staff Director; Lakeisha
Steele, Professional Staff; Loredana Valtierra, Education
Policy Counsel; Joshua Weisz, Communications Director; Ashley
White, Education Policy Fellow; Cyrus Artz, Minority
Parliamentarian; Kelsey Avino, Minority Fellow; Courtney
Butcher, Minority Director of Member Services and Coalitions;
Bridget Handy, Minority Communications Assistant; Dean Johnson,
Minority Staff Assistant; Amy Raaf Jones, Minority Director of
Education and Human Resources Policy; Hannah Matesic, Minority
Director of Operations; Audra McGeorge, Minority Communications
Director; Carlton Norwood, Minority Press Secretary; Brandon
Renz, Minority Staff Director; Chance Russell, Minority
Legislative Assistant; Mandy Schaumburg, Minority Chief Counsel
and Deputy Director of Education Policy; and Brad Thomas,
Minority Senior Education Policy Advisor.
Chairman Sablan. Good morning. The Committee on Education
and Labor will come to order. Welcome, everyone.
I note that a quorum is present.
The committee is meeting today in a legislative hearing to
hear testimony on the importance of trauma-informed practices
in education to assist students impacted by gun violence and
other adversities.
I note for the subcommittee that Ms. Bonamici of Oregon,
Mrs. McBath of Georgia, Ms. Omar of Minnesota, Mr. Trone of
Maryland, Mrs. Lee of Nevada, Ms. Wild of Pennsylvania and Mr.
Castro of Texas are permitted to participate in today's
hearing, with the understanding that their questions will come
only after all Members of the subcommittee on both sides of the
aisle who are present have had an opportunity to question the
witnesses.
Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(c), opening statements are
limited to the Chair and the Ranking Member. This allows us to
hear from our witnesses sooner and provides all Members with
adequate time to ask questions.
Can you hear me? Can you hear me all right?
I recognize myself now for the purpose of making an opening
statement. I want to begin by acknowledging that this morning
marks 18 years since the terrorist attacks that struck New
York, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Let
us please take a moment to remember the 2,977 lives lost in
those attacks.
[Moment of silence.]
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. This morning, we are here to
discuss the Federal Government's responsibility to ensure that
every child from the Marianas to Maine has a nurturing learning
environment.
Today, many children are prevented from reaching their full
potential because they are suffering from the significant long-
term effects of trauma. In fact, 34 million children, or 45
percent of children, have endured an adverse childhood
experience that can hinder their ability to learn and grow.
Extensive research show that children who have experienced
trauma and toxic stress are more likely to be forced into fight
or flight mode. In school, this can often manifest in trouble,
paying attention, an impulse to fight and depression or anger.
These challenges can be further compounded by harsh school
discipline instead of helpful support if a school is unaware of
the science of trauma and toxic stress. My third grade teacher
should have known this.
But seriously, the trauma and stress of natural disasters
have also affected student learning and well-being. For the
over 950 Hopwood Middle School students in my district who lost
their campus to Super-Typhoon Yutu, starting the new school
year in FEMA-built tents is certainly not an ideal learning
environment, especially when the students themselves have their
homes lost or damaged.
Damages from the storm have also forced schools to send
their students to attend half-day sessions at other school
campuses, robbing them of a full day of learning and the
emotional security of having a campus community of their own.
While we do not yet fully understand how the students will
fare over time under these circumstances, studies show that
over a lifetime, victims of trauma can face a higher risk of
drug and alcohol abuse, greater risk of suicide, and shorter
lifespan.
Dr. Robert Block, a former president of the American
Academy of Pediatrics, has been widely quoted as saying, quote:
``Adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest
unaddressed public health threat facing our Nation today,'' end
quote.
Children across the world experience trauma; the United
States is not unique in that regard. But there are specific
preventable forms of trauma that our children experience more
frequently than anywhere else in the world. The most notable
example is gun violence. America's gun homicide rate for 15- to
24-year-olds is nearly 50 times higher than in other high-
income countries, 50 times.
According to a database maintained by the Washington Post,
228,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since
the Colombine tragedy in 1999, 228,000 students. Americans, of
course, are not 50 times more violent than citizens of other
developed countries, of course not. But what distinguishes us
from other developed nations is that we have failed to pass
basic gun violence prevention laws that are supported by an
overwhelming share of our constituents.
The consequences of that failure are felt in communities
like Odessa, El Paso, Dayton, and Virginia Beach, which have
all experienced mass shootings in the past 3 months. They are
also felt by residents in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and
other cities where families live under the constant threat of
gun violence.
And while this hearing is about implementing trauma-
informed school practices, we cannot ignore the reality that
most of this trauma is preventable. Reducing gun violence,
ending family separations, improving access to mental
healthcare, quickly rebuilding schools lost to natural
disasters, addressing poverty are some of the many challenges
we can make to improve the quality of life for children across
the country.
But given that we have shown little ability to address
these issues, the very least we can do is help schools educate
children who shoulder the burden of our inaction. More than 70
percent of children who need mental health services do not
receive the appropriate care. Low-income students of color, who
are more likely to experience trauma, are often concentrated in
segregated public schools that cannot afford critical mental
health resources; and as a result, children of color
disproportionately suffer the physical and emotional effects of
trauma.
In addition, the report by the Government Accountability
Office found that States are facing numerous issues supporting
children affected by trauma, including funding challenges. And
to make matters worse, President Trump and the congressional
Republicans are further restricting mental healthcare at
schools by repeatedly moving to slash funding for K to 12
education. This includes the elimination of Title II funding
for teachers' professional development and the critical Title
IV-A program, which is designed to improve school conditions
for student learning.
The experts here today will broaden our understanding of
how trauma-informed care can be integrated into learning
practices, student discipline, and support services, to improve
graduation rates, student achievement, and school climate. They
will also help us understand how Congress can support trauma-
informed practices that are proven to help students succeed.
Today's discussion is an important step towards addressing
a pervasive public health issue that is affecting communities
throughout and across the country. Thank you to all the
witnesses for being here. I now yield to the Ranking Member,
Mr. Allen, for his opening statement.
[The statement of Chairman Sablan follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Chairman,
Subcommittee Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
I want to begin by acknowledging that this morning marks eighteen
years since the terrorist attacks that struck New York, Pennsylvania,
and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Let us please take a moment to
remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost in those attacks. Thank you.
This morning, we are here to discuss the federal government's
responsibility to ensure that every child--from the Marianas to Maine--
has a nurturing learning environment.
Today, many children are prevented from reaching their full
potential because they are suffering from the significant, long-term
effects of trauma. In fact, 34 million children, or 45 percent of
children, have endured an adverse childhood experience that can hinder
their ability to learn and grow.
Extensive research shows that children who have experienced trauma
and toxic stress are more likely to be forced into ``fight-or-flight''
mode.
In school, this can often manifest in trouble paying attention, an
impulse to fight, and depression or anger.
These challenges can be further compounded by harsh school
discipline, instead of helpful support, if a school is unaware of the
science of trauma and toxic stress.
The trauma and stress of natural disasters has also affected
student learning and well-being.
For the over 950 Hopwood Middle School students in my district who
lost their campus to Super Typhoon Yutu, starting the new school year
in FEMA-built tents is certainly not an ideal learning environment
especially when the students themselves had their homes lost or
damaged.
Damage from the storm has also forced schools to send their
students to attend half-day sessions at other schools, robbing them of
a full day of learning and the emotional security of having a campus
community of their own.
While we do not yet fully understand how these students will fare
over time under these circumstances, studies show that over a lifetime,
victims of trauma can face a higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse,
greater risk of suicide, and shorter lifespan.
Dr. Robert Block, former president of the American Academy of
Pediatrics, has been widely quoted as saying, ``Adverse childhood
experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat
facing our nation today.''
Children across the world experience trauma; the United States is
not unique in that regard. But there are specific, preventable forms of
trauma that our children experience more frequently than anywhere else
in the world.
The most notable example is gun violence. America's gun homicide
rate for 15-24-year-olds is nearly 50 times higher than in other high-
income countries.
According to a database maintained by the Washington Post, 228,000
students have experienced gun violence at school since the Columbine
tragedy in 1999. 228,000 students.
Americans, of course, are not 50 times more violent than citizens
of other developed nations.
What distinguishes us from other developed nations is that we have
failed to pass basic gun violence prevention laws that are supported by
an overwhelming share of our constituents.
The consequences of that failure are felt in communities like
Odessa, El Paso, Dayton, and Virginia Beach, which have all experienced
mass shootings in the past three months.
They are also felt by residents in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and
other cities where families live under the constant threat of gun
violence.
While this hearing is about implementing trauma-informed school
practices, we cannot ignore the reality that much of this trauma is
preventable.
Reducing gun violence, ending family separations, improving access
to mental health care, quickly rebuilding schools lost to natural
disasters addressing poverty, are some of the many changes we can make
to improve the quality of life for children across the country.
But - given that we have shown little ability to address these
issues - the very least, we can do is help schools educate children who
shoulder the burden of our inaction.
More than 70% of children who need mental health services do not
receive the appropriate care.
Low-income students of color, who are more likely to experience
trauma, are often concentrated at segregated public schools that cannot
afford critical mental health resources.
As a result, children of color disproportionally suffer the
physical and emotional effects of trauma.
A recent report by the Government Accountability Office found that
states are facing numerous issues supporting children affected by
trauma, including funding challenges.
To make matters worse, President Trump and Congressional
Republicans are further restricting mental healthcare at schools by
repeatedly moving to slash funding for K-12 education.
This includes the elimination of Title II funding for teachers'
professional development and the critical Title IV- A program, which is
designed to improve school conditions for student learning.
The experts here today will broaden our understanding of how
trauma-informed care can be integrated into learning practices, student
discipline, and support services to improve graduation rates, student
achievement, and school climate.
They will also help us understand how Congress can support trauma-
informed practices that are proven to help students succeed.
Today's discussion is an important step towards addressing a
pervasive public health issue that is affecting communities across the
country.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here. I now yield to the
Ranking Member, Mr. Allen, for his opening statement.
______
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for
recognizing the anniversary of 9/11, and note that this
discussion is particularly poignant, given this day. Sadly, far
too many children are affected by trauma. Because of their age
and reliance on adults to keep them safe, children are more
vulnerable to trauma. Studies show that 26 percent of children
in the United States will witness or experience a traumatic
event before they turn four, and more than two-thirds of
children reported at least one traumatic event by age 16.
Even more disturbing are the statistics surrounding
children in the welfare system. Ninety-five percent of children
reported psychological and physical abuse, and 99 percent
reported psychological and sexual abuse. This is absolutely
heart-breaking. Trauma can include any variety of frightening
event, such as physical and sexual abuse, cyberbullying,
bullying, or the death of a loved one. These can be caused by
events at home, in the community, or around the world.
Children that face more than two traumatic experiences in
their life can develop reactions that negatively impact their
daily life. In fact, trauma can affect a child's education and
impair their learning. Research shows that there is a
correlation between traumatic events and cognitive and
behavioral issues.
A study of more than 1,000 children from 20 large cities in
the United States found that traumatic events in early
childhood were associated with below-average academic and
literacy skills. In fact, I have been told in my district that
if a child isn't reading at the level of third grade by the
time they finish the third grade, he is more likely to drop out
of school and he has an 85 percent chance of being
incarcerated.
Educators and school staff can serve as a critical support
system for traumatized children and their families. If a
student is acting out, failing tests, or having difficulty
concentrating, it may be a sign of trauma. If teachers
understand what is a traumatized student and what they are
facing, they can better accommodate and address those child's
needs in the classroom.
However, teachers in the education system are no
replacement for family and faith. Moms and dads and grandpas
and grandmas cannot be replaced in the life of a child. Faith
cannot be replaced in the life of a child. Education is just
one piece of supporting and shaping children. All of us in this
room today want to see our Nation's children and make sure that
they are loved, happy, safe and successful. In fact, my goal
when I ran for office, it is time to quit losing our children.
There is not a person here that does not care deeply about
their futures. That is why we shouldn't turn any kind of trauma
experienced by a child into a political platform. Instead, we
should focus on equipping families, schools, and communities
with the tools they need to shape young Americans to be
successful leaders. After all, we have a vested and sincere
interest in the well-being of our Nation's children. They are
our future.
This hearing will examine the effects of trauma on school
children and how to identify and address them and, most
importantly, how we can help students have access to a safe,
supportive, and healthy learning environment.
I had as a point of personal privilege, I had the
opportunity while we were on our district work period to visit
with many school officials. I will not name the superintendent,
but had the opportunity to visit with him as tears came to his
eyes and he described three suicides of young people in that
school system last year. And I asked him why. And he said, they
are without hope. Where is the hope?
It is interesting too that I was given a book at a meeting
two weekends ago. It is called Death on Hold. I never thought
somebody on death row would teach me what this gentleman,
Mitch, taught me in reading this book about what he went
through as a child, what he experienced in the streets, why he
was on death row, and why now he is making an impact on so many
lives, particularly young people who are making bad choices. I
highly recommend this book. It is required reading for Members
of Congress, because I think they will see where the real
problem lies.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I look forward to hearing our
witnesses today.
[The statement of Mr. Allen follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Rick W. Allen, Ranking Member, Subcommittee
Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
Thank you for yielding.
Sadly, far too many children are affected by trauma. Because of
their age and reliance on adults to keep them safe, children are more
vulnerable to trauma. Studies show that 26 percent of children in the
United States will witness or experience a traumatic event before they
turn four, and more than two thirds of children reported at least one
traumatic event by age 16. Even more disturbing are the statistics
surrounding children in the welfare system. Ninety-five percent of
children reported psychological and physical abuse, and 99 percent
reported psychological and sexual abuse. This is absolutely
heartbreaking.
Trauma can include any variety of frightening events such as
physical and sexual abuse, cyber bullying, or the death of a loved one.
These can be caused by events at home, in the community, or around the
world. Children that face more than two traumatic experiences in their
life can develop reactions that negatively impact their daily life.
In fact, trauma can affect a child's education and impair their
learning. Research shows that there is a correlation between traumatic
events and cognitive and behavioral issues. A study of more than 1000
children from 20 large cities in the United States found that traumatic
events in early childhood were associated with below-average academic
and literacy skills. In fact, I have been told in my district that if a
child isn't reading at level by third grade, he is more likely to drop
out of high school and be incarcerated.
Educators and school staff can serve as a critical support system
for traumatized children and their families. If a student is acting
out, failing tests, or having difficulty concentrating it may be a sign
of trauma. If teachers understand what a traumatized student is facing,
they can better accommodate and address those child's needs in the
classroom. However, teachers and the education system are no
replacement for family and faith. Moms' and dads' and grandmas' and
grandpas' cannot be replaced in the life of a child. Faith cannot be
replaced in the life of a child. Education is just one piece of
supporting and shaping children.
All of us in this room today want to see our nation's children are
loved, happy, safe, and successful. There's not a person here who
doesn't care deeply about their futures. Which is why we shouldn't turn
any kind of trauma experienced by a child into a political platform.
Instead we should focus on equipping families, schools, and communities
with the tools they need to shape young Americans to be successful
leaders. After all, we have a vested and sincere interest in the
wellbeing of our nation's children - they are our future.
This hearing will examine the effects of trauma on school children,
how to identify and address them, and most importantly, how we can help
students have access to a safe, supportive, and healthy learning
environment. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today.
I yield back.
______
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Ranking Member Allen.
Without objection, all other Members who wish to insert
written statements into the record may do so by submitting them
to the Committee Clerk electronically in Microsoft Word format
by 5 p.m. on September 25th.
I will now introduce our witnesses. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris
is the surgeon general of California. She is also an award-
winning physician, researcher, and advocate dedicated to
changing the way our society responds to one of the most
serious, expensive, and widespread public health crises of our
time: Childhood trauma.
Previously, she founded the Center for Youth Wellness and
subsequently grew the organization to be a national leader in
the effort to advance pediatric medicine, raise public
awareness, and transform the way society responds to children
exposed to adverse childhood experiences and the toxic stress.
She also founded the Bay Area Research Consortium on Toxic
Stress and Health, to advance scientific screening and
treatment of toxic stress. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris has
published academic articles on adverse childhood experiences
and trauma. She also published a book entitled The Deepest
Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity.
Wow, you've been busy, Dr. Harris.
Next, Dr. Ingrida Barker is the associate superintendent of
McDowell County Schools in West Virginia. She is in her 16th
year as an educator, 6 of which were dedicated to teaching at
Sandy River Middle School, and 3 spent as a high school
administrator in charge of the curriculum and instructions at
River View High School. Two of my youngest happen to be public
school teachers, so Dr. Barker.
Currently, Dr. Barker works as an associate superintendent
in McDowell County Schools. She also serves as the county's
testing and Title IX coordinator and works extensively to
support the development of comprehensive student supports in
the county. Dr. Barker earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from
Latvia in English and French, and completed a Master of Arts
degree from West Virginia University in secondary education.
And Dr. Barker received a doctoral degree in leadership studies
at Marshall University.
Ms. Joy Hofmeister--I got that right? Ms. Hofmeister is the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Oklahoma. She was
originally elected to serve as State Superintendent of Public
Instruction in November 2014, and began her second term as
Oklahoma State Superintendent in January of this year. Since
taking office, the State has repealed its ineffective State
exams, released a more meaningful and new user-friendly
accountability system, and bolstered student safety.
With an emphasis on collaboration and a focus on ensuring
Oklahoma students have access to opportunities to achieve
academic success, Hofmeister has strengthened academic
standards and testing, revamped teacher evaluation, and brought
statewide attention to the need for trauma-informed
instructional practices that meet children where they are.
And finally, but not the least, Dr. Janice Jackson is the
chief executive officer of Chicago's Public School system.
Archer. She has been immersed in CPS her entire life, as a
former student, teacher, principal, network chief, chief
education officer, and now as a parent to CPS students.
As CEO of the third largest school district in the country,
Dr. Jackson is a forward-thinking educator who is focused on
improving excellence, equity, and access in all CPS schools.
Her efforts, along with those of Chicago's dedicated teachers
and principals, have propelled CPS students to record-breaking
academic gains, and education experts from across the country
regard Chicago as a national leader in urban education. She
holds a master's degree in leadership and administration and a
doctorate in urban school leadership from the University of
Illinois at Chicago.
Welcome, all of you. We appreciate all the witnesses for
being here today and look forward to your testimony. Let me
just remind the witnesses that we have read your written
statements, and they will appear in full in the hearing
records.
Pursuant to Committee Rule 7(d) and committee practice,
each of you is asked to limit your oral presentation to a five-
minute summary of your written statement. Let me remind the
witnesses that, pursuant to Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Section
1001, it is illegal to knowingly and willfully falsify any
statement, representation, writing, document, or material fact
presented to Congress or otherwise conceal or cover up a
material fact.
Before you begin your testimony, please remember to press
the button on the microphone--we ourselves forget doing that
once in a while--the microphone in front of you, so that it
will turn on and the Members can hear you. And as you begin to
speak, the light in front of you will turn green. After 4
minutes, the light will turn yellow to signal that you have 1
minute remaining. When the light turns red, your five minutes
have expired and we ask that you please wrap up.
We will let the entire panel make their presentations
before we move to Member questions. When answering a question,
please remember to once again turn your microphone on.
I will first recognize Dr. Nadine Burke Harris. You have
five minutes.
STATEMENT OF NADINE BURKE HARRIS, MD, MPH, FAAP, CALIFORNIA
SURGEON GENERAL, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Dr. Burke Harris. Good morning and thank you for the
opportunity to participate in this hearing on trauma-informed
practices. A robust body of literature demonstrates that
adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are highly prevalent,
strongly associated with poor childhood and adult health,
mental health, behavioral and social outcomes, and demonstrate
a pattern of high rates of intergenerational transmission.
High levels of adversity, without the buffering protections
of a trusted caregiver and safe, stable environments, lead to
overactivity of the biological stress response and changes in
brain structure and function, how genes are read, the
functioning of the immune and inflammatory systems, and changes
in growth and development. These changes are what comprise what
is now known as a toxic stress response.
Sixty-two percent of American adults have experienced at
least one ACE and 15 percent have experienced four or more.
Those with four or more face double the risk of seven out of
ten of the leading causes of death in the United States,
including heart disease, stroke, and cancer. And the original
CDC research was done in a population that was 70 percent
Caucasian, 70 percent college-educated. There is no
sociodemographic or geographic group that is spared.
The higher the ACE score, the more likely an individual is
to also struggle with depression, PTSD, sleep and eating
disorders and substance abuse. A national study of more than
35,000 adults found that even after adjusting for the impact of
sociodemographics and substance use, ACEs are independently
associated with as much as four times the risk of
incarceration. Similarly, research has indicated that a common
factor among individuals committing mass shootings is a history
of multiple ACEs.
Among the most notable and perhaps well-studied effect of
ACEs are the impact on learning and behavior. Compared to
children with no ACEs, kids with four or more ACEs are as much
as 32 times as likely to experience learning and behavior
problems and are 3 times as likely to repeat a grade.
The science is clear; adverse childhood experiences are a
public health crisis that require coordinated, cross-sector
response. Scientific consensus supports two core principles:
One, early detection and early intervention improves outcomes;
and two, safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and
environments are healing. Schools and our educators are a
critical part of an ecological and public health response to
ACEs and toxic stress.
Trauma-informed practices in schools involves ensuring that
all personnel are trained to understand that disruptive
behaviors may be possible symptoms of toxic stress and respond
with compassionate buffering care. In addition, trauma-informed
training and practices and policies include establishing
systems that enable safety, including predictable routines and
social interactions, a calm physical environment, transparent
and predictable rules, having clear nonpunitive consequences
for violating rules, teaching social and emotional skills,
participatory decision-making by students in school policies,
and explicit family and community involvement, including
support for families who are managing stress.
Restorative disciplinary practices and programs to prevent
retraumatization should be the norm. Programs to support
vulnerable children and youth can align with the six pillars of
mitigating the toxic stress physiology, which include promoting
healthy nutrition, physical exercise, mindfulness, mental
health, sleep hygiene, and supportive relationships.
In addition, prevention of vicarious traumatization and
supports for educator well-being are essential elements for
trauma-informed educational environments. Important elements
also include workforce training, dissemination of best
practices, data reporting and rigorous evaluation.
As noted by authors in a recent commentary in the journal
Pediatrics, both the World Health Organization and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention recognize that schools are
not only places to transmit academic knowledge, but also a
place for vulnerable children to connect with supportive adults
and peers outside of their families. Supportive relationships
with peers, teachers, and coaches as well as school
connectedness and belonging have been shown to protect against
depression, substance use, and other risky behaviors and also
support and promote academic success.
The opportunity ahead of us is about the true intersection
of healthcare and education. Thank you for this opportunity to
share the science, and I urge you to use this information to
inform your actions on behalf of the American people.
[The statement of Ms. Burke Harris follows:]
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Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Dr. Burke Harris.
I would like to now recognize Dr. Barker for five minutes,
please.
STATEMENT OF INGRIDA BARKER, ED.D., ASSOCIATE SUPERINTENDENT,
MCDOWELL COUNTY SCHOOLS, WELCH, WV
Ms. Barker. Good morning. I work in one of the poorest
districts in the United States. According to the 2019 Kids
Count data, we face the highest rates of children living in
poverty, low birth weight babies, and children in kinship care
or children living with grandparents. These numbers alongside
mounting drug overdose rates create the perfect storm of issues
that impedes our students' well-being and subsequently their
academic achievement.
Besides battling the issues associated with drug misuse, we
face the challenges brought to us by generational poverty,
ranging from kinship care issues to generational trauma our
students' families face. The schools see the adverse impact of
these challenges on student attendance, behavior, and
academics. For many students whose main focus is on survival
and managing their basic needs, all the mental capacity is used
up on managing the stress in their lives. Instead of thinking
about reading or doing math, they need to think about their
physical and emotional health needs.
Stability and social structures lack in many of our
students' lives, and that is why our schools face increasingly
challenging behaviors and have to use a variety of resources to
provide continuous learning opportunities for all of our
students. Hence, the importance of trauma-informed practices
and health supports in our schools. The need to help our
students overcome trauma and focus on learning is immediate,
overwhelming, and complex.
It is known that students who are born to low socioeconomic
status tends to lag behind academically when they enter our
schools. They also come to us with several ACE scores. Many of
our kids witness abuse, parent drug overdose, parent
incarceration and violence early on. Schools can break the
cycle of chronic stress and trauma by helping provide
protective factors, such as strengthening social connections,
providing concrete support in the time of need, and helping
children develop social and emotional competence.
We as educators have a choice: Wait for somebody else to
come and help our families and children, or we can do something
now while we have our kids in our schools. In McDowell County
Schools, we choose the latter. Of course, the school staff
cannot do the job alone. We have degrees in education, not in
mental health, psychiatry, or social work. Therefore, we are
applying community school strategy to leverage and coordinate
resources with the school and the community providers to help
our kids. School community strategy is also an equity strategy.
It creates collaborative partnerships with various community
organizations to meet the unique needs of the whole child,
including family and kinship supports. Of course, building and
maintaining so many partnerships requires the full-time
position of the community schools coordinator, as the
principals or central office staff struggle to find time to do
this in addition to their direct instructional duties.
Southside K8 in our district has been using community
school strategy for several years, and now we see that we can
keep our teachers. Instead of having a 40 percent turnover
every year, we have very few teachers leaving. So it
contributes to that stable environment and great culture in the
school.
As a district, we have an emphasis on securing
collaborative partnership on a district level, because we are
so remote and the schools frequently don't have the
opportunities to get on the partnerships themselves. But
funding for all these positions in addition to the graduation
coaches, nurses, social workers is a challenge for a rural
county with a diminishing tax base. Therefore, increases in the
funding formula for education, like Title I and IDEA as well as
Title IV, is needed.
When faced with choices of directing these funds to meet
students' needs, we should not have to choose between helping
students to learn and do math and hiring nurses, mental health
therapists and social workers. Both types of services are vital
for our students to succeed, as the schools have become hubs of
community and, therefore, have to meet the needs of the whole
child instead of engaging in a piecemeal approach, having to
choose between funding academics or social and emotional
supports.
The implementation of trauma-focused practices and
wraparound services serves as a solid strategy to prevent
students from engaging in destructive behaviors of drug misuse,
violence, and risky behavior. These practices also can break
the cycle of generational poverty and generational trauma in
our students' lives, because their parents often coped with
that trauma themselves and cannot help our students as much as
they could.
Thank you so much for your time to listen to my statement.
[The statement of Ms. Barker follows:]
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Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Dr. Barker.
Now I recognize Ms. Hofmeister for five minutes, please.
STATEMENT OF JOY HOFMEISTER. OKLAHOMA STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF
PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, OKLAHOMA STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
OKLAHOMA, OK
Ms. Hofmeister. Good morning. Thank you, Chairman Sablan,
Ranking Member Allen, and Members of the committee. My name is
Joy Hofmeister. I was elected State Superintendent of Public
Instruction in 2014 by the good people of Oklahoma and
reelected in 2018. Thank you for the opportunity to appear
before you to discuss the effects of childhood trauma on
student academic performance and the social-emotional growth of
our school children.
Oklahoma has made tremendous strides in various fronts in
public education: Academic standards, national comparability,
accountability and more. But these improvements cannot remedy
every challenge. There are, of course, the stark realities of
poverty, childhood hunger, domestic strife and more. The world
outside the classroom has an undeniable impact on the world
inside the classroom.
A recent national survey of children's health reports that
Oklahoma's youngest children suffer more trauma than those in
any other State. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation,
Oklahoma ranks 42nd in the Nation in child well-being. Seventy-
five percent of our students suffer moderate or serious
depression and a growing number admit to a low commitment to
school and a high risk for drug abuse.
Bearing this in mind, how can we equip teachers to move
students toward resilience and a bright future? We believe the
key is trauma-sensitive instruction. Recent work on the science
of hope makes clear that the connection with a stable, caring
adult is a common factor in moving our children from trauma to
hope.
In October 2018 and February 2019, through grant
assistance, Title IV funding, and community and agency
partners, the Oklahoma State Department of Education held two
statewide trauma summits. Both were heavily attended. Next
February, we will hold another trauma-focused opportunity for
all educators in the State. With approximately 42,000 classroom
teachers, we expect to serve 10,000 at that event.
Providing increased support to address the implications of
trauma among our State's youth is a priority of our State
agency. The agency provides professional development
opportunities for educators to better understand the connection
between trauma, the science of the brain, and the negative
impact on student performance.
In addition, we began a more cross-agency collaboration to
address trauma and its connectedness to student academic
performance, chronic absenteeism, and behavior. Our Office of
Student Support provides on-site interventions and professional
development to schools and districts. Developed last spring, it
consists of directors of social-emotional counseling, academic
counseling, prevention services, college and career readiness,
work-based learning, family and community engagement, and
suicide prevention. We will soon add a specialist devoted to
bullying prevention and a statewide crisis response team. Since
July, our student support team has provided educational
opportunities and classroom interventions for more than 4,000
Oklahoma educators.
Through our work toward college and career readiness, a new
focus on Individual Career Academic Planning, or ICAP, we are
learning that students who intentionally plan for their future
are more hopeful and resilient. The results can mitigate the
negative implications of trauma. ICAP is required statewide
beginning this school year, but already students in our ICAP
pilot study tell us that their friends are coming to school
more, feeling more purposeful in their work and more optimistic
about life after high school.
Through heightened trauma awareness among our educators, we
see rich learning environments and increased trust and support
between teachers and students. Trauma-informed instruction is
working. One teacher said, ``After attending trauma-informed
instruction professional development, our school brought back
classroom intervention strategies. We started implementing them
in a few of our classrooms and noticed that student discipline
referrals went to zero with these teachers. We are already
seeing the change in our student behaviors and test scores.''
Such results are hardly surprising. When we ask students
what they need from their teachers, their message is
consistent: Get to know us. Connect with us. Care about us as
people. When we empower teachers with evidence-based strategies
and greater awareness of trauma, we allow them to harness their
creativity to develop positive connections with students.
In closing, the trauma expert Peter A. Levine said: Trauma
is a fact of life; it doesn't have to be a life sentence. And
we believe we can move our children from trauma to hope.
[The statement of Ms. Hofmeister follows:]
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Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Ms. Hofmeister.
And now I would like to recognize Dr. Jackson for five
minutes.
STATEMENT OF JANICE K. JACKSON, ED.D., CEO, CHICAGO PUBLIC
SCHOOLS, CHICAGO, IL
Ms. Jackson. Good morning, Chairman Sablan, Ranking Member
Allen, and Members of the committee. My name is Janice K.
Jackson and I am the Chief Executive Officer for Chicago Public
Schools, which serves 361,000 students and is the third largest
school district in our Nation. I am grateful for this
invitation today to talk about one of the greatest challenges
that we face in Chicago. Many of our students are growing up in
communities that struggle under the weight of poverty and have
been significantly impacted by violence.
The purpose of my testimony today is to explain how
exposure to violence and poverty creates trauma for Chicago's
children, and more importantly, to share the steps that CPS is
taking to combat the damaging effects of trauma.
First, I would like to tell you about two students, Rodney
and Kimyatta. These are children who live in a world where
trust is scarce and anger is overly abundant. They describe
their communities in their own words as places where no one can
be trusted.
For these children, navigating violence and poverty is a
way of life. This can mean that they are exposed to gun
violence, gang activity, substance abuse, incarceration of a
loved one and loss of loved ones. And because of that, they are
far more likely than their peers to experience multiple traumas
during their formative years.
This repeated exposure to trauma can have far-reaching
effects on youth. Like teachers all over the country, Chicago
educators also feel the pain and uncertainty right alongside
the students that they serve every day, and this is referred to
as secondary trauma. For both students and teachers, trauma
becomes a form of toxic stress in their brains when it is left
untreated. For students, it can lead to behavior problems, poor
mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, and unhealthy sexual
behavior, not to mention constant struggles in the classroom.
Children exposed to this type of trauma are at risk for
lower grades, poor attendance, behavior issues and an increased
likelihood of dropping out of school. This sobering fate could
easily have befallen Rodney and Kimyatta, but thanks to one of
the many programs that CPS and the City of Chicago has invested
in, their situation is changing.
This summer, CPS and the City launched a first-of-its-kind
program called Summer for Change, targeting students exactly
like the ones mentioned before, students from underserved urban
communities who are at risk for being impacted by violence.
During the 6-week program, 430 youth participated in enrichment
opportunities and were given access to mentoring and trauma-
informed therapy that they needed.
The program gave these students access to something that
they were missing: Caring and trustworthy adults who they could
open up to. Not one of the 430 students who participated in the
Summer for Change program was a victim of violence this summer.
We also saw an overall reduction of almost 50 percent in gun
violence victimization among students who are enrolled in our
alternative school systems during the summer of 2018.
We hope that the Summer for Change program and programs
just like it contribute to this type of success, and that we
can continue to provide students in Chicago with a safe haven
to avoid some of the outcomes we discussed earlier.
Summer for Change is one of many initiatives that CPS has
launched around social-emotional learning. Others include
restorative discipline practices that are moving us away from
suspensions and expulsions and toward uncovering the root cause
of negative behavior while keeping kids in school where they
belong. This has resulted in a sharp decline in out-of-school
suspensions and expulsions in CPS and has led to the lowest
ever dropout rate in our district's history.
Other targeted trauma-informed intervention support our
students in everything from coping with anxiety and depression
to managing their emotions and taking responsibility for their
choices. And this helps them ensure that they are prepared for
success after high school.
One other example that I would like to share is for a
student whom I will call Cara. She is growing up without her
mother and any other female adult in her home. She struggles
with isolation and was constantly getting into conflicts with
the peers in her school. Cara was recruited to join a
Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic
Stress program, otherwise known as SPARCS, and things have
started to turn around. She is learning to talk through her
emotions and make better decisions, and this is helping her to
develop the coping skills necessary to better manage her
stress.
Chicago has been fortunate to receive Federal grant support
to manage the needs of children exposed to trauma. The impact
of this funding is significant, particularly as our students
continue coping with the stress of poverty and violence. But to
keep this vitally important work going, CPS and other school
districts around the country need additional support. There is
a serious need for increased Federal funding to combat the
effects of trauma on our youth.
Only when our country's leaders unite behind this cause can
the range of quality treatment services for these students
begin to fully meet their needs and put them on the road to
recovery and a productive and fulfilling life.
I thank you for listening to my testimony and your time and
look forward to your questions.
[The statement of Ms. Jackson follows:]
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Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Dr. Jackson. Oh, God,
how much you four make me miss my grandmother growing up.
But under Committee Rule 8(a), we will now question
witnesses under the five-minute rule. As Chair, I have decided
to go at the end, so I will yield to the next senior Member on
our side, the Majority side, who will be followed by the
Ranking Member or his designee, and I would recognize. And so
let's start with Ms. Schrier. You have five minutes.
Ms. Schrier. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you to all
of our witnesses today. I was thrilled to read all of your
testimonies last night and then hear them today, and I am so
grateful that we are talking about this.
I am also a pediatrician, and so I come at this with a
little bit different perspective. And I have been thinking
about kind of how we can really address this, because ACEs are
a particularly difficult problem because so many of the adverse
childhood events happen at home. And so when a patient comes
into the office, we try to partner with parents to make things
better. But when there is so much dysfunction at home, whether
it is hunger or parents are separated or abuse or a parent is
sick with a horrible chronic disease or drug abuse, that makes
it much harder to solve in the exam room. And so a lot of it
really ends up being left, of course, to the schools, which is
the other safe place for kids.
So I wanted to talk--I have a couple questions. One is
going to be for you, Dr. Jackson, about the difference between
expulsion/suspension, kind of traditional responses to
misbehavior in school, and then how that contrasts with now.
But I wanted to first talk with you, Dr. Burke Harris,
about what we can do to help these families and sort of catch
things upstream. And in Washington State, there's a couple
really exemplary programs that meet families where they are. So
it addresses these exact situations to help them build their
children's health.
One of them is called the triple P program or Washington
State's Positive Parenting Program, and it aims to assist
parents in preventing a lot of the serious behavioral and
emotional problems that we are seeing in kids.
The other one is the Guiding Good Choices program that
helps parents of kids 9 to 14-year-old, who are just entering a
really turbulent period, to make good choices through
adolescence.
And the triple P's positive outcomes on reducing child
abuse and neglect, limiting out-of-home placements of children,
and academic success are outstanding and result overall in
taxpayer savings of about $1,400 per participant. And the
Guiding Good Choices program demonstrates increases in the
number of positive interactions between parents and children,
lower rates of substance abuse, lower rates of delinquency, and
effects that last even 40 years out.
And so I was going to ask if there are some other programs
that you really like and would recommend, and then maybe even
add what some of the challenges are, other resources in rural
communities.
Dr. Burke Harris. Thank you. So we recognize that when we
are talking about addressing adverse childhood experiences, we
have to break the intergenerational cycle, right? Kids who have
ACEs have parents who have ACEs.
In California, we are implementing universal screening for
adverse childhood experiences in children and adults and
responding with trauma-informed care, and our governor has
allocated $40 million to reimburse providers for doing that and
$60 million over 3 years to train providers on how to do that
and how to respond to trauma-informed care.
So ensuring that adults also have access to mental health
services and supports for vulnerable families who are under
stress, it has to be a two-generation approach.
Ms. Schrier. Thank you very much. And are there particular
programs that I should look into to bring home to my State of
Washington? I love that you are implementing the screening
program, so we in Washington will be learning from you in
California.
Dr. Burke Harris. One program I also recommend is CPP,
Child-Parent Psychotherapy, which is a clinical intervention
that I have used in my clinical practice, and as well as any
trauma-focused therapy that can be used for kids and adults.
Ms. Schrier. Thank you. Then I still have time so, Dr.
Jackson, I just wondered if you could paint a picture for my
colleagues about what it would look like traditionally if you
had a child who was misbehaving so much in school that they
would be sent home--of course, then being sent to a home where
there is drugs or neglect or a sick parent or whatever else--
versus how you handle that in a school that is focused on
trauma-informed behavior modification and education.
Ms. Jackson. Thank you. In short, in Chicago Public
Schools, we first started by looking at the policies that led
to not only outrageous numbers of students being suspended and
expelled from school, but the disparity between African
American students and their peers.
And we changed the policy to make teachers, principals, and
administrators have to go deeper to identify the root cause and
also show an effort to address those root causes through other
practices, such as restorative justice, in some cases giving
students access to mental health professionals, either in the
school or outside of the community.
And what this has resulted in, unlike some of the
skepticism that we heard in the beginning, is fewer students
being suspended and expelled from school resulted in higher
attendance rates, which also had a direct impact on student
achievement, which has been addressed here today.
And I am happy to say that, you know, we have been engaged
in this work for about 6 or 7 years now and now we have the
data to show that when we invest in our students and look
underneath to figure out what is going on and provide them with
the trusted adult or individual, we can really change the
pathway for our students.
So I would recommend those folks listening to think about
the policies first and then make sure that there is an
investment in training for the educators who are working with
students every single day so that they can implement them with
fidelity and care for students.
Ms. Schrier. Thank you.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Dr. Shrier.
At this time, the designee of the Ranking Member, Mr. GT
Thompson of Pennsylvania, is recognized for five minutes, sir.
Mr. Thompson. Chairman, thank you so much. Chairman,
Ranking Member, thank you for really hosting this critical
hearing on a topic that is extremely important to me.
Trauma is such a destructive force from so many different
perspectives of how it impacts a human being when it comes to
impacting our children, who, quite frankly, maybe have not
developed the resiliency, the strategy, the skills to be able
to prevent the real destructive force of trauma long term. I
want to thank each of the Members of this panel for bringing
your professional expertise, your passion--very obvious to me,
from what I have heard and what I have read--to this hearing
today.
And thank you for bringing your best practices too. I have
already heard a lot of information that gives me hope. And the
fact is I love that it was framed the science of hope. That
really is what you all are all about. It is about building and
establishing resiliency within our kids. It is sad what they
have to experience.
And I would argue that there are so many different forms of
trauma, and what has really made it present in absolutely every
school district, I think in every school in the Nation is the
number one public health crisis of our lifetime, which has been
substance abuse and the trauma, the loss of loved ones, you
know, what that does. And so thank you for being here and
sharing.
Ms. Hofmeister, in your testimony you mentioned the
importance of professional development and teacher preparation
programs focusing on trauma-informed instruction. Can you
provide some specific examples as to what this looks like?
Ms. Hofmeister. Yes. It is based on the science of hope.
Dr. Chan Hellman at the University of Oklahoma has done many
studies related to this. And we teach and work with our
teachers through professional development that it is about
relationships. It is about building and fostering trust, trust
and respect between the student and the teacher, between
families and the school.
And when we give our teachers more information to better
understand behavior, recognizing that all behavior has meaning,
sometimes I think teachers have viewed the behavior as
something else when it could be an expression of trauma. And
having new eyes to see that, instead of a child that is
sleeping at the back of the classroom in middle school and a
teacher might ask maybe in the past, what is wrong with that
kid, we want to ask, what has happened and what can we do to
give them confidence and build that relationship?
And when our kids have that strong strengthened
relationship with their teachers, they are going to be able to
be more engaged and also have that one caring adult that we
know is paramount for moving beyond trauma to hope and a
brighter future.
Mr. Thompson. I appreciate those observation skills. It is
a world I come out of in healthcare for 28 years and it is a
method I use here, root cause analysis, really finding out what
is at the root cause of the behavior that you are seeing versus
just condemning the behavior. And I am heartened by the fact
that I have heard that this committee, working in a bipartisan
way, and past Congresses, with the Every Student Succeeds Act,
we have recognized the need. We have authorized programs. I
have heard those mentioned a few times, how they have been
helpful. I think there is obviously more left to be done.
You mentioned a few examples of how this helped your
students and faculty. Can you discuss that in more detail for
us, and specifically what impacts has this had on students,
both in performance outcomes and their overall classroom
experience?
Ms. Hofmeister. What we are seeing is that our students are
more engaged, and we know that student engagement is key for
academic success. This is something, of course, that starts and
begins with teachers, but we also know that there is a
collective impact when there is a strong relationship, and that
community that is created in a classroom that starts with
teachers engaging students. And it can be as simple as the
difference when a teacher greets children at the door, knows
their name, is there to support them as people, not just
teaching a subject. And our students tell us this makes all the
difference in the world.
One of our students on our Student Advisory Council that we
have at the State level told us that she accidentally got in a
classroom that did not have an interest for her and was a
mistake on the schedule, but the teacher was so engaging and
cared and communicated that care about her as an individual
that it was something she actually stayed in, didn't change.
And it helped her at a time in her life when she needed an
adult who would be there for her. This is something teachers
can do. Teachers can foster hope, and that builds resiliency.
But without hope, we do not have that ability to bounce back.
Mr. Thompson. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. We
alternate sides in questioning, so I would like to now
recognize the Chairman of the full committee, Mr. Scott of
Virginia, for five minutes.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank all
of our witnesses for your testimony.
Dr. Harris, you mentioned that early detection could
improve outcomes. When you have someone showing up with
multiple ACEs, what do you do?
Dr. Burke Harris. So several things. First of all, what the
science shows, the safe, stable, and nurturing relationships
and environments are key, and so those nurturing relationships
are absolutely critical.
And the opportunity in trauma-informed educational systems
is for everyone, every adult in that child's educational
environment to be a dose of a buffering relationship, if you
will. In clinical practice, what we see, sleep, exercise,
nutrition, mindfulness, mental health and healthy relationships
are the clinical pillars for addressing a toxic stress
physiology, and that is what we see improves both health and
also mental health and behavioral outcomes.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. Dr. Jackson, if a child is subject to
trauma, does it have an effect on achievement and how do you
measure that?
Ms. Jackson. I had the mike on the whole time.
Thank you for that question. There is definitely a
correlation between students' exposure to traumatic events and
their readiness and achievement and proficiency in the school
system. I think that a few things we have been able to measure
after changing policies around keeping students in school and
reducing the amount of time that they are excluded from school
is that we were able to see the correlation between increases
in student attendance, access to healthcare professionals in
the school and outside the school, resulting in students
achieving higher on standardized assessments that they were
taking.
We have also been able to track our students over time and
look at graduation rates, where we have experienced about a 20
percent increase in the past 8 years. Much of that can be
attributed to the changes that we have made around addressing
the root cause analysis of what is going on with our students
and making sure that we are intervening early and appropriately
to keep them on track for schooling.
I think some of the other ways that we try to measure this
is that in Chicago Public Schools we have a Safe School
Certification, which is a deep analysis of the practices as
well as the data in schools where we look at the amount of time
students have been suspended, access to resources that they
have, and also the interventions and supports that they have
received at three different tier levels.
And because that information is tracked and made publicly
available, parents are able to see that and they are able to
use that to make determinations about schools, for example. It
has really incentivized the educators within those buildings to
really make sure they have organized their schools to be safe
and supportive environments for students.
And just to give you a quick data point, since we have
instituted the Safe and Supportive School Strategy five years
ago, we went from having a third of our schools receiving kind
of the seal of approval on that certification to now having
close to 75 percent of our schools meet that. And our goal is
obviously 100 percent, but that is pretty dramatic progress in
a five-year period.
Mr. Scott. That is what happens if you intervene. What
happens if you do not intervene and a child is subject to
trauma?
Ms. Jackson. I think a lot of that has been covered today,
but just to reiterate, students that have been exposed are more
likely to repeat the behaviors that they have either
experienced or, you know, been exposed to.
One of the things that we have also focused on in addition
to gun violence and the effect of poverty and some of the other
things that have been talked about a lot today is also looking
at some of the challenges that many of our LGBTQ students
experience. Many of them have a higher likelihood of being
exposed to traumatic incidents in their lives, and so this has
become a bigger priority here in CPS.
What we tend to see if this is untreated is students drop
out of school. Students are at a higher risk for unproductive
behaviors. They are also at a higher risk for suicide and some
other things that can be really traumatic. And so one of our
goals is to really intervene as soon as possible to try to
reverse some of those negative outcomes.
Mr. Scott. Very quickly, can you tell me the importance of
Title IV-A student support services under ESEA?
Ms. Jackson. I think the importance, we talked a lot about
this today. Projects like the Project Prevention funding and
others that the district has been able to apply for really
provide us with additional funding and support, or could
provide us with additional funding and support so that this is
sustained. We now know better, so it is incumbent upon us to do
better. And I think that our educators need training, they need
support in order to do this.
And I would even say once we get to a place where we have
really reached a utopia, if you will, we will be providing
support for the educators who work with our students as well. I
talked a little bit about secondary trauma earlier, and I
really want to lift that up. We have a teacher shortage in the
country, and we know that is even greater in some of our more
challenging schools where there is a higher rate of students
who have experienced traumatic episodes and incidents. And if
we do not adequately train the teachers who work with them
every single day, we will continue to see turnover and we will
continue to see these cycles persist.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Dr. Jackson. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Scott.
And as we alternate sides again, this time I recognize Mr.
Timmons for five minutes.
Mr. Timmons. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank
all of the witnesses for coming to testify before the committee
today.
Ms. Hofmeister, it is often the case that children
struggling with trauma do not communicate with teachers the
stress and other trauma-related problems they face. In your
experience, what have you found to be common indicators of a
child struggling with trauma or traumatic stress?
Ms. Hofmeister. You know, often a child who appears
disengaged, as I mentioned earlier, does have a story behind
that. And that is something that, as teachers begin to foster
the connection, they begin to understand a little deep--more
deeply what is occurring.
So that could be an older sibling that is in middle school
that is taking care of the younger children who got them to
school on time. Or there could be barriers that occur that we
can see as we dive a little deeper about those who are
chronically absent.
So it is incumbent upon us in schools to meet our kids
where they are and to look for ways to remove barriers, first
identify those and remove them so that our students are able to
be successful.
I think we focused a lot in the last number of years on
student achievement, and we want and have set a high bar for
student achievement. But we also have not had the expansive
conversation we are having now about all aspects of the
student, thinking about the whole child. And that is something
that we are doing differently.
And those types of indications that a student is having
struggles can look different for every child. We need teachers
and educators and school leaders and school board members to
have new eyes, a new lens to view the students that they are
serving and then act on evidence to create trauma-sensitive
school policy.
Mr. Timmons. Thank you.
You talk about removing barriers to getting children help.
What can be done to encourage kids to actively seek help?
Ms. Hofmeister. Well, I think it is about being sensitive
to where our kids are. It can look different in different
settings. I am thinking of an example just this start of the
school year. You have tornado drills. And I was reaching out.
And one of my school superintendents mentioned how they had, in
El Reno, a very significant tornado that had devastation
throughout that community just in May. So an example of what
can we do was what they did. And it was a trauma-informed
policy.
What they had--the new eyes to see kids that were going to
go through that tornado drill. And there were 15 of them that
were very affected and impacted by that May event. And they had
a caring adult holding their hand through that entire exercise.
And they just were there for them through the rest of the day.
And it is a small thing, but it made a great difference in
those children's lives. And it also allowed them to at least
stay as focused as possible on learning that day.
But the superintendent told me learning was not taking
place for them that day. It brings back triggers. And as we
think about those triggers, we can't make assumptions about
what those will be. Students who have endured abuse at home or
they have witnessed violence in the home.
Oklahoma has a high level of incarcerated men and women. In
fact, the largest incarcerated population in the world per
capita in our State. And this is something that impacts
families, of course, and means many of our children have a high
incidence of adverse childhood experiences.
So having eyes to see the child where they are and being
willing to not try to use more of a blanket cookie cutter
approach to trauma is the call. We want simply to build a
relationship. And it unfolds from there.
Mr. Timmons. Thank you.
What role does the family play in this process?
Ms. Hofmeister. A significant role. We believe that strong
families make strong communities and make strong schools. We
want to strengthen families. And we also, as educators, want to
reach out to families to meet them where they are. We want to
find ways to include them where, perhaps, they also had a
negative experience in school and don't want to come to school.
They don't want to be as engaged as we know that they need to
be and that it will, in fact, benefit their children.
So we will meet them where they are in a more welcoming way
intentionally welcoming of our families and finding new ways to
do that.
When you are homeless, when you are a mother who is
homeless and has a child who is in school and you are moving
from district to district or school to school as the trauma,
means that you have to be more fleeing, for example, we still
have to have a way to connect. And those are some of the
examples.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you.
Mr. Timmons. Thank you for your testimony.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Timmons.
I will now recognize Mrs. Hayes for five minutes.
Ms. Hayes. Good morning, everyone. And thank you so much
for being here for this very important hearing.
I taught in and I now represent a congressional district
that has been defined by tragedy. Newtown Sandy Hook is in my
district. And in my own school district, the Waterbury Public
School System, we did extensive work on trauma training all of
our social workers on adverse childhood experiences and hosting
a series of symposiums for trauma in early childhood.
All of our teachers and faculty members went through
professional development on social and emotional learning. One
of the presenters, I remember this very clearly, told us as a
group that our children were scoring just as high as veterans
on the trauma scale. And I know personally that once educators
begin to see children through a trauma-informed lens, they can
shift from blaming them for the behavior to beginning to
understand the root causes of those behaviors.
But what I want to talk about today is the fact that trauma
extends beyond the point of impact. Grief counseling happens,
you know, the day after something happens at a school. But the
grief resulting from those tragedies extends into our
communities. And I see that every day in Connecticut 5. Just
this spring, one of the parents of the students at Sandy Hook
tragically took his own life.
So I ask you, if the parents are still struggling or if
adults are still struggling, imagine what children are going
through. We recently did a study in Connecticut, and the
results were astonishing. Ninety percent of kindergartners
reported experiencing ACE events, but only 23 percent were
currently displaying symptoms. What this tells us is that 67
percent of students are experiencing ACEs but are unidentified
and untreated allowing them to worsen over time.
So I cringe to think that these children are coming of age
and they have all of these experiences that they do not know
how to address.
Actually, Mr. Chair, I would like to introduce this
testimony that I just cited into the record.
Thank you.
Mrs. Hayes. So my question today--I have two questions.
First for Dr. Burke Harris. What can we do post trauma for
families to make sure that they have the supports that they
need, you know, 2 years, 5 years down the road to make sure,
especially in communities that have polarizing targeted issues
that we can identify? Because I think the one thing that we can
all agree on is that it is not the children's fault, the
families that they come from.
And then my next question, if you could follow up, is for
Dr. Jackson. What do you think the impact of secondary trauma
is on the educators who have to, year after year, stand in
front of children. You know, oftentimes we think of events like
the one I just described, but we have children with prolonged
trauma as a result of their daily interactions, and teachers
who see this year after year. And it is kind of hard to feed
hope into someone when you are just repeating the cycle every
single year.
So Dr. Burke Harris.
Dr. Burke Harris. Thank you. Those are excellent questions.
I think there are a couple of critical pieces. Number one,
a recognition that trauma in our communities, right, is so
common that a true public health approach involves universal
precaution, if you will. This is why trauma-informed care in
our educational systems is so critical, because we have to be
providing these supports and services routinely as part of our
way of doing business in education in order to respond to the
endemic levels of trauma that we are seeing.
Another piece is the role of screening and partnership,
cross-sector partnerships. The prevalence of trauma is so high
that--you know, I hear educators saying, okay, what can we do?
I hear doctors saying what can we do? I hear law enforcement
saying what can we do? How can we be part of the solution?
And when each of us takes our little piece, right, there is
a tremendous amount that we can do to support resilience and
buffering across our communities and increasing that cumulative
dose of buffering making sure that every adult in the
environment understands not only how they are managing their
own history of adversity, because as you mentioned, it is not
just vicarious trauma for educators but the fact that educators
are--
Mrs. Hayes. I am sorry. I don't mean to cut you off, but I
cannot let my time expire without speaking to what happens to
teachers.
Dr. Burke Harris. Absolutely.
Ms. Jackson. Sorry. I will be quick, but I feel just as
passionate.
Teachers--we see higher turnover rates and burnout. We also
see depression. We have had teachers report depression as a
result of some of the things that they have been able to hear.
And not because--not only because the stories are so
challenging but because, in some cases, it is feeling of
hopelessness. When we don't have the resources, when we don't
have a place to point students and families to, when they have
the courage to share with us what is going on, teachers feel
hopeless in that regard. And that can contribute to some of the
depression and things that have been reported.
Mrs. Hayes. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, with that, I yield back.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mrs. Hayes.
And at this time, I am going to recognize the Ranking
Member of the full committee, Dr. Foxx, for five minutes
please.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Ms.
Hofmeister, in your testimony, you discussed the State's
working conducting cross agency collaboration to help address
the needs of students experiencing trauma.
Can you, please, explain in more depth why this
collaboration--what this collaboration looks like and why it is
a critical component in helping these students?
Ms. Hofmeister. Thank you very much, Representative.
Yes, this is essential. We are working in Oklahoma in the
Department of Education to work with our partners in the
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. With
that work, for example, we are able to be--have more of our
students participate in the Oklahoma prevention needs
assessment survey.
Actually, just for the last reported school year that we
have data from, we had 47,940 students participate in the
grades of 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. That is one example.
From that we were able to learn a lot about the evidence that
they are providing us with input and then develop strategies to
meet needs.
And as we have partnerships, it goes beyond just one or two
agencies. Actually, it is across the board. We are working with
the Department of Corrections. I want to see those parents
engaged that are able to be engaged in the lives of their
children even through something unique with parent conferences
virtually where that is appropriate.
We are grappling with health issues, and we are working
with other entities within the State agency to work with
Department--DHS and with the Health Department as well to work
on battling the physical aspects of health as well. So it is
paramount.
Ms. Foxx. You mentioned in response to Representative
Timmons' questions about the family, that you have the largest
per capita incarceration rate in Oklahoma in the country.
I would assume from that there are a lot of single-parent
families in Oklahoma. Have you done anything to look at the
impact of single-parent families on what is happening with
students and how to deal with that as trauma?
Ms. Hofmeister. Yes. Thank you as well, Representative, for
that question.
What we know on the ACE index, having a divorce within the
family impacts children as an adverse childhood experience. So
it does contribute. And in Oklahoma we have, among States, the
leading and very high divorce rate as well. We also have,
because of the high incarceration rate, many children in foster
care. Again, at the top of the list, we are wanting to reverse.
But all of that said, it is about strengthening families.
And we see in Oklahoma the need for loving family members,
parents, grandparents, extended family. And where we don't have
that we see community stepping in to bridge that gap for
students. And this is part of this work as we think about
trauma-informed practices in communities.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you.
Ms. Hofmeister, in your testimony, it says that 75 percent
of your students suffer moderate or serious depression. That is
a staggering number.
Is the work you are doing around trauma-informed
instruction developed to address this issue? And how much does
the data about student needs drive the development of the
instruction program?
Ms. Hofmeister. Thank you again.
And, yes, this is that needs assessment where we did
receive that very compelling information from students. And we
also know that it doesn't have to simply be a program about
mental health. We see crossover impact with our career pathway
work and post-secondary planning with the individual career
academic planning which is now State law, it is a requirement
for graduation. But it starts early, 6th grade, 7th grade, 8th
grade, as our student tell us as we have spent 2 years piloting
this, that those students who engaged in this had purpose and
an awareness of a future beyond the tassel and graduation. That
it is about something more.
And teachers who now aren't just delivering tests at the
end of a course but are looking beyond that at the student and
their strengths. This actually has had an impact on hope and on
trauma-informed practice that was unexpected, and we are
studying with our researchers.
Ms. Foxx. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Dr. Foxx.
I am going to be more strict on time, because we do have
Members in line for questioning.
At this time I would like to recognize Mr. Morelle for five
minutes, please.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Sablan. I am sorry, Mr. Morelle. I am really sorry. I
need to--Dr. Shalala, please. I apologize, Mr. Morelle. Take it
out on me later on.
Dr. Shalala, please.
Ms. Shalala. Thank you.
Madam Surgeon General, last week HHS's office of the
inspector general published a report, which I will submit for
the record, following an investigation of immigrant children in
detention centers.
[The information follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Ms. Shalala. What the report outlined was how this
administration's child separation policy makes worse the trauma
that immigrant children have already experienced on their
journey to this country. The investigators found that separated
children exhibited more heightened symptoms of anxiety, fear of
abandonment, and post-traumatic stress disorder than children
who had not been separated from their parents.
The report goes so far as to say, and I quote, ``some
separated children expressed acute grief that caused them to
cry inconsolably.'' Many of these children will eventually
attend our schools once released from custody. Some of them
will stay in detention centers in which--for example, in the
Homestead facility, which had over a thousand children, the
teachers had no training in trauma.
Could you tell us what the science says about the effects
of separating young children from their parents and placing
them in inadequate conditions.
Dr. Burke Harris. The science on that is unequivocal, that
this is a harmful practice and that it increases children's
both physical health risks as well as their mental,
psychological, and developmental risks.
Ms. Shalala. Thank you.
Perhaps the executive director from Chicago could comment,
because you have had a lot of immigrant children that have come
through and who are in your school system on your own
experience with these children that have been separated from
their families for some period of time.
Ms. Jackson. Yes. I would just extend some of the comments
that Dr. Burke Harris made. In particular at the school system,
CPS,--Chicago is a welcoming city, a sanctuary city, so we have
a lot of students who emigrate to the United States and end up
setting up a home in Chicago.
We do our best to support those students when they disclose
their status. And with that comes additional resources and
support, in particular around navigating the school process,
making sure that they don't have any barriers to enrollment,
but also working with our students to make sure that there is
the stability in their home life and that they have access to
resources or know how to access those resources should they
need them.
I would count this as an area where we could definitely be
doing more. Earlier there was a comment made just about our
students and their families and how they feel or trust the
school system or any type of government agency. I think the
more we show an awareness around the need to support our
students and families, they will disclose to us their status
and ask for that support and thereby making it easier for us to
identify students who may have experienced trauma. You know,
they would disclose that so that we can support them.
But I do still see a huge disconnect, if you will, because
many of our families, in particular our immigrant families or
undocumented families, do not trust the government agencies
enough to disclose their status.
Ms. Shalala. Ms. Hofmeister, what advice--particularly in
the large facilities that we now have that are holding children
that have been separated from their parents, we have not
thought about or at least invested in training the teachers
that are working with those children. What advice would you
give to us on insisting that if we are going to hold
unaccompanied children that we ought to be training the
teachers?
Ms. Hofmeister. Well, we definitely agree that our teachers
need and actually want professional development support.
Students of all kinds of trauma are arriving at our school
doors and coming from the school bus. Teachers, though, are
telling us that they want more specifics, more clinical and
practical advice as well.
But it is something that we are addressing again with a
State-level trauma summit that is coming up, because the demand
has been so great called Bridges to Hope, Teaching in the
Shadow of Trauma.
You know, trauma is trauma. We open our arms wide in public
school for any child who comes through that door. And our
teachers deserve to have the training needed. And we are using
our Title 2 dollars, our Title 4 dollars as well that are
afforded to us under the flexibility of ESSA, and we are
grateful for that.
Ms. Shalala. Thank you.
I yield back.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you very much, Dr. Shalala.
At this time, I am going to recognize Mr. Grothman for five
minutes, please.
Mr. Grothman. Thank you.
First of all, I want to respond a little bit to
Congresswoman Shalala's comments. I have been down on the
border three times. And I know in--or at least we were told, in
May alone, 15,000 children came into this country unaccompanied
by their parents. I think--we should all agree that it is
better for children to be with their parents. And right now,
apparently under American law, we have to accept most of these
children, or do try to accept them or find foster care. I would
be happy to work with her and, A, make sure that these children
are not allowed in this country but sent back to their
countries of origin where they can be reunited with their
parents.
And, secondly, I know one the things that bothers the
border guards is even when children come with a parent,
frequently it is only one parent, and the other parent is back
in Central America or, whatever. And I know this bothers some
of the courts in Central America. I know in our courts, even
if, you know, parents are separated, we try to keep them in the
same area as the children. So I would be happy to also work
with you. And if a parent shows up with children in this
country but the other parent remains in another country to
again send those people immediately back to their country of
origin where the children could be with both parents.
Ms. Shalala. Mr. Chairman, if I might respond. The point
is, if they are here, if they are being incarcerated by us in a
facility and we are offering educational services, whatever
services we are offering--
Mr. Grothman. Yeah. I think--right. Well, that is the
problem. We have too many people around here who don't want to
address the problem.
Mr. Sablan. Do you yield?
Mr. Grothman. Okay. Now, Ms. Hofmeister, just because some
of these statistics they throw out, I almost question. You are
telling us that 75 percent of the children in Oklahoma suffer
moderate or serious depression? I mean, if I look out at a
class of 28 kids, 21 are suffering from depression. Are you
sure that is right or somebody isn't kind of exaggerating? 21
out of 28, if I look in a class in Oklahoma.
Ms. Hofmeister. That is what the data tells us. And that is
based on the students' voice.
Again, we have surveyed 47,900--
Mr. Grothman. That is okay. I just encourage you, because I
just find that hard to believe.
I will ask Ms. Jackson. I wasn't aware you had so many
immigrants in the Chicago schools. Of the immigrants that you
invite into your sanctuary city, how many come with immigrant
children? How many come with both parents? How many one parent
and how many no parent?
Ms. Jackson. I don't have that information. I don't want to
make up any numbers.
Mr. Grothman. Why don't you--that is very relevant. Why
don't you--because you collect all sorts of other data. Why
don't you--can you get that information for us? Because I kind
of would like to know what we are getting here.
Ms. Jackson. Just for the record, we do not collect that
information as a school district. We have removed every barrier
for students to enroll, so that is not information that we even
collect.
Mr. Grothman. You mean you don't know if, say, Johnny
breaks his arm or something. You don't know whether no parents
are at home, one parent is at home, or two parents at home? You
don't even keep track?
Ms. Jackson. Yes. We know, for every student, who is the
parent or guardian of record. What I am saying is we don't know
initially a student status, whether they--we don't ask them
that information when they enroll in school in Chicago. It
doesn't matter. Our door is open to all students.
Mr. Grothman. That is not the point. I am just kind of
stunned. That is not the purpose of this hearing, but it seems
to me, if something horrible happens, say a health crisis,
whatever crisis, I think the parent should know. You know, if
both--if their mom and dad--both mom and dad should know. If
just one parent is there, they should know. If there are no
parents and we just deal with a guardian or a foster parent, we
should know.
Ms. Jackson. We do. We do have the information for the
guardians and the parents of record.
Mr. Grothman. Okay. So you cannot tell us the percentage of
immigrants in Chicago who have a guardian and not a parent of
the people who came here who are of a different citizenship?
Ms. Jackson. No, sir. As I stated earlier, that is not
information that we collect.
Mr. Grothman. Okay.
Well, next question. And I am going to kind of follow up on
Congresswoman Foxx's comments. You have all sorts of statistics
that you break down by race as far as people getting in trouble
at school or being removed.
Do you adjust that for, again, parents at home? I mean, we
have had a dramatic change in the last 50 years in this
country. Many, many less children raised with both parents at
home, and I think that is a--some absolutely wonderful parents.
Wonderful parents I know in that situation doing a great job.
But I think overall it might be better sometimes both parents
there.
Do you have on how well your children are doing? Could you
adjust it for parental situation at home?
Ms. Jackson. No. Typically when we disaggregate the data,
we look at race, socioeconomic class, gender. I think those are
the--and then ability, whether or not the student is a special
needs student or not. We do not disaggregate the data based on
their family status.
Mr. Grothman. That stuns me. I mean, if we are going to--I
mean, that is something we can change people's behavior on,
right, in the future? You are not going to change your race.
You are not going to change any of these other things.
Mr. Sablan. I hate to interrupt, but I said I was going to
be stricter on time.
Mr. Grothman. You have been very patient.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Grothman.
And now Mr. Morelle, please, your five minutes.
Mr. Morelle. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is
truly an important topic, and I appreciate each of the
witnesses and their testimony. I think this is a really, really
important topic. And I had some prepared remarks, which I am
going to largely dispense with and just talk about my district
for a moment, which is in Upstate New York, Rochester, New
York.
Rochester has, over the last several years, been identified
as either number two or three in terms of childhood poverty in
the United States among cities. So it is something that is
distressing, the impacts of poverty.
And I have been working on a number of initiatives that I
am going to touch on briefly. But in the context of some of the
work that I have been doing around poverty, several years ago I
would admit to the fact that I thought, when people would talk
about trauma, that it was generally regarded as physical kinds
of trauma, domestic violence, gang-related violence,
neighborhood violence. And it has really become clear to me
over the years, I have become sensitized to the fact that it is
housing and food insecurities and things that you don't
necessarily see easily.
And so that has led me to lead an effort in Rochester over
the last several years, with significant State and
philanthropic support, to not only have trauma-informed care in
our community but to do it in an interdisciplinary way. I think
Dr. Schrier talked about how, in the medical community,
pediatricians and nurse practitioners see trauma. Classroom
teachers and educators see trauma.
In Rochester, we are trying to break down the silos between
education, health, and human services so that those
professionals can all speak to one another, identify trauma. So
something I am very engaged in, very optimistic about.
But I wanted to just ask a couple questions. I think you
have all done a great job of just sort of identifying the
impacts of trauma on development and on future success in life
for children. And I think you have talked a great deal about
the types of things you are doing.
One of the things that I would like to ask you to talk a
little more detail about, and perhaps let's start with Dr.
Burke Harris, but any panelist who wants to comment, is--you
talk about screening. I am just curious what the research tells
you about how to identify trauma in children. I am sure there
is screening questions you could ask. There is probably some
obvious things about children who are withdrawn.
But I suspect that some children carry the impacts of
trauma that are harder to see. And I am just curious as what
research tells you and what you are doing to try to become more
sensitive to or more aware of traumas that don't have sort of
an easily outward identifiable manifestation, if that is a fair
question. I would just be curious what the research tells you
and what you are doing in sort innovation around that.
Dr. Burke Harris. Absolutely. You are right that some
children will demonstrate behavioral or learning difficulties,
but many children will not. For many children, there are no
outward signs. And that is why, number one, screening is so
important, and that is why California has moved toward
universal screening for adverse childhood experiences for
children and adults.
Mr. Morelle. May I ask you? Could you just; talk a little
about what that screening consists of? I hated to be really
granular, but just sort of trying to get at that.
Dr. Burke Harris. Sure.
The screening actually consists of the ten criteria that
were in the adverse childhood experiences questionnaire, which,
for example, don't include poverty or community violence.
Although the screening that we are using in California, the
pediatric adverse and related life events screening the PERIL's
tool does include other social determinants of health like food
insecurity, housing insecurity, community violence, et cetera.
So that is what is being used for kids. And then the
traditional adverse childhood experiences for adults.
Mr. Morelle. Sure. And may I ask you--and I am sorry. These
five minutes go by so quickly. So when you are looking at food
insecurities, is it done through an interview with the child,
or do you get data from other sources that you somehow
integrate? How is that--how do you get to that?
Dr. Burke Harris. The screening is done in the primary care
home. It is a questionnaire that families fill out. And,
actually, the way that we do it in California is we use a de-
identified screen. So we actually say don't necessarily tell us
which ones of these your child has experienced, only how many.
So that allows the primary care clinician to rapidly, in that
very short 15-minute pediatric visit, identify who needs
additional services. And then they can receive those services
from a social worker.
Mr. Morelle. And do you find that there is--that people--
the respondents still feel stigmatized in some way about being
truthful about what the environment is that their child is
living in? Is there sort of an embarrassment? Is it getting
easier to get to that?
Dr. Burke Harris. We find that the de-identified screen
actually makes it more much easier. That is higher disclosure
rates.
Mr. Morelle. Well, I am sorry I have run out of time, Mr.
Chair. But I appreciate it. And I will have to get further
information from the panelists.
Thanks.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you.
Now I recognize Mr. Taylor for five minutes.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am going to yield 2 minutes to my colleague from
Rochester to continue his line of questioning. I think he was
asking some good questions.
Mr. Sablan. Mr. Morelle, you have 2 minutes.
Mr. Morelle. Mr. Taylor, thank you. You are quite a
gentleman.
So I am troubled by--not troubled by it. I understand it.
So the ability to sort of drill down and really identify is
partly self-identification by a parent or guardian. Is there
any verification you do? Or how do you sort of get to--I guess
I am--I know this is really granular, but to really sort of
identify things that are hard to identify.
Dr. Burke Harris. So we have 88,000 providers, primary care
providers in California who see Medicaid patients. And in order
for those 88,000 to be able to identify ACEs rapidly in primary
care, that is why we use the de-identified screen.
And then when that de-identified screen shows that a family
needs more services for whatever reason, then they are referred
to someone who can unpack that and do an identified screen. And
that is the verification. So it is a two-step process, and that
allows us to be able to more thoroughly identify.
Mr. Morelle. And that is primarily done through the health
side? That is a primary care provider or social worker?
Dr. Burke Harris. Yes, on the health side through the
primary care provider.
Mr. Morelle. Do you match that data, then, with anything
that you get out the classroom so that--so that in other words,
if you had one or two risk factors on the social side, one or
two factors on the health side, and one or two on the school,
can you aggregate that data and get a profile and say, gee, we
wouldn't have normally thought that child was suffering from
trauma. And maybe by looking at one piece or one dimension we
wouldn't have--but when we combine this, there is a troubling
pattern here that tells us that we ought to do X.
Dr. Burke Harris. Those are the systems that we are hoping
to put in place. And I look forward to leading in my role as
surgeon general of California.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Taylor, for extending that
courtesy to me. I don't know if anyone else had a comment about
sort of that aggregating information. But if I might continue
to borrow my time from Mr. Taylor? He has been very kind.
Mr. Taylor. I did have one question.
Mr. Morelle. You said 2 minutes, so I probably used them
both up.
So I will yield back. I appreciate both Mr. Taylor's
indulgence and the panelists.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you, Congressman Morelle.
Ms. Hofmeister, this is a question for you. When we think
about child trauma, where is that coming from? What are the--I
mean, do we have statistical data on what the sources are? What
are the sources?
Ms. Hofmeister. Yes. It is childhood abuse, neglect, and
other forms of child malpractice. Those could be when we are
thinking strictly about ACEs, or adverse childhood experiences,
those are different events that have occurred in the life.
Divorce of a parent, an incarcerated parent.
Mr. Taylor. Do we have percentages for that? I mean those
percentages?
Ms. Hofmeister. Yes.
So Oklahoma leads the Nation with ACE scores of two or
higher. We know that this is also in our world in schools, we
feel it is most important to be able to focus on learning. But
we really can't learn until we have some of that connection and
some of those other areas addressed.
But we also know that it is a heavy burden for teachers.
And that is not something that we are asking burden teachers
more and more with new mandates or additional programs,
necessarily, that they must bear.
Instead, we would like to see an awareness created,
practical applications of trauma-sensitive instruction that
could be as simple as telling a child what to do instead of
what not to do. A child that has cortisol washing over the
brain that is in a constant fight-or-flight kind of mode is not
going to know what to do when you say stop, quit, don't. But
instead, a teacher can simply say it is time to open our book
or it is time to walk in the hall. Those are practical examples
of tools that teachers can use, and they don't have to know a
child's history to be able to do that.
Mr. Taylor. And just speaking of history, what protections
have you put in place in terms of privacy? I mean, clearly
there are things we have to think about. Privacy is something
important to all of us. How do you think about privacy? Knowing
about the trauma, how far out do you go? Who do you tell? How
do you keep privacy?
Ms. Hofmeister. I think privacy is very important. And
thank you very much, Representative, for bringing that up. And
that is, then, outside the scope of what we focus on in our
public school right now.
Our teachers, with a new awareness, are able to make
connections regardless of the details that might have occurred.
And I think that is a very important first step.
There is a program that is being used right now between law
enforcement and schools. It is called Handle With Care. And our
law enforcement that are in the home and notice a child is
there have connected with the school and let them know, handle
this child with care.
Mr. Sablan. I am sorry.
Mr. Taylor. Thank you.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Mr. Taylor.
So now I would like to recognize Mrs. Davis for five--Mrs.
Davis for five minutes.
Mrs. Davis. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to all of you.
I think this is a politically well-informed and
inspirational panel today. And I want to thank you for that.
We have just been talking about sources of trauma for
students. Ms. Hofmeister, you mention abuse, neglect.
One of the issues that hasn't come up is actually gun
violence and the impact that has on students, certainly not the
only source of trauma as we said, but it is one of those
sources.
And I know that we had a hearing here recently. And Mrs.
Hayes, I believe, asked Secretary DeVos about the use of
Federal money to arm teachers. And she stated that she lacks
the authority--Secretary DeVos, that she lacks the authority to
tell schools they cannot use Federal funding to arm teachers.
But I am wondering where you all feel this comes in and whether
you believe, maybe if you all want to have a show of hands,
whether or not you think that arming teachers is part of the
solution to addressing gun violence in schools.
Anybody feels that it is part of the solution to addressing
gun violence in schools?
Okay.
Ms. Hofmeister. So I can only speak to Oklahoma. And that
is not something we have had requested of the State Department
of Education. Of course, this is a conversation for the Federal
and the State level.
Mrs. Davis. Okay. Thank you.
Just so the record shows that nobody raised their hands.
But what I also wanted to know was if you feel that gun
reform can be part of the solution to reducing trauma and how
do you think that might be. We know that for many students,
actually, even the act of lockdown drills can be traumatic for
them. And, of course, we know that the homicide rate in our
country for 15- to 24-year-olds is 49 times higher than in
other high income countries.
How could we move some of those reforms into being
something that is helpful in schools?
Ms. Hofmeister. You know, I think some of what we are
talking about is also meeting the needs of students early. And
how that is often--when that is unaddressed there are serious
complications and issues that arise. So our focus in Oklahoma
is on meeting our kids right where they are early. And we
believe that is the best use of our funds and preparing
teachers through training. That is the key.
Mrs. Davis. Yeah. Thank you. I don't know if anybody else
wants to comment. I do have another question that really speaks
to the need for us to be more responsive to teachers.
Dr. Jackson, did you want to--
Ms. Jackson. Yes. I think commonsense gun reform is
extremely important. Many times when we see these acts of
violence in school it is a manifestation of, you know, things
that have gone unnoticed or missed in a way that I think can be
better addressed with the right policies and supports in place
in our schools.
One other thing that I would like to add is that what we do
in CPS is we take seriously any types of threats of violence
and that we work directly with the families. And we have taken
an approach where, even if it is something such as a student
making a threat online, we address that, and we don't go in
with a law enforcement mentality initially. I know that some
other cities and schools have taken that approach. But instead
to get to the real issue, why would a student post this
information. And oftentimes what we find, except in a few rare
occasions when it is just a prank, is that there is something
going on that needs to be addressed. And so we spend a lot of
time connecting them with the resources but, more importantly,
following that student and keeping track of, like, are they
getting the resources that they need. Do they, you know, still
have these ideas.
And I think that is one of the things that we have been
pretty--proud isn't the right word, but we feel good that we
have a good process in place to address these issues. But with
that said, it is constantly on the back of everybody's mind
that an event could happen.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Jackson.
What I wanted to just mention really quickly--oh, so one of
the issues is around Oklahoma on the teacher's can carry a
weapon, and I just wanted to again, for the record, mention
that.
Really quickly, because we talk about secondary trauma and
compassion fatigue on the part of teachers. Having put in
language in Title 2 for social and emotional learning and for
being able to get grants to teach that, what would it look like
if we really did support teachers in this effort and we
acknowledge that it does make a difference for them. It is a
reason that a number of teachers leave school. What would that
look like for you? What is the most important thing that we
could do that really addresses that?
Mr. Sablan. I am going to interrupt, Dr. Jackson, and ask
you to please respond to her in writing.
Mrs. Davis. Writing.
Ms. Jackson. Oh, will do.
Mrs. Davis. Thank you.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you.
I would like to now recognize the Ranking Member, Mr.
Allen, for five minutes.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And we know that the
family is one of the seven cultural pillars in our society.
Statistically, we know that the family has been under severe
attack in this Nation. In 1950, 93 percent of households, both
parents were there for those children. And today it is less
than 60 percent.
And, Ms. Hofmeister, I know we don't allow studying in
trying to come to grips with what is the real problem here. Are
we doing anything as far as reaching these young people to
change this cycle? I mean, if this cycle continues, how does it
get better?
Have you got anything to offer with regard to that, or are
we just trying to fix what problem we have and we are ignoring
the real cure here?
Ms. Hofmeister. Well, in a public school, again, we are
there to serve children who come with a variety of backgrounds.
And our educators are there to address their academic needs.
And we recognize that we are not able to work on those without
first building that connection and rapport and trust with the
students.
So getting to know families and reaching out to families,
all families, is important. And this is what builds a strong
school and a strong community. So our approach is different now
than it perhaps was years back. We are needing to be more
creative in how we make those connections. And we also
recognize that it is important to have school counselors in
place as there are need for academic counseling as well as
those who can provide crisis counseling or referring students
and families to receive support that is needed through other
community resources.
The most--
Mr. Allen. Do you have the flexibility? I know that, when I
talk to teachers, they are pretty limited in some regards
legally what they can do and what they can share with their
students about their life experiences, which is one reason I
think we are losing teachers, because they feel like they are
just being observed and criticized every step. Yet it sounds
like that they are actually becoming the family, the family
unit.
Ms. Hofmeister. This is very true. We actually know that in
Oklahoma we are looking to teachers often to be kinship
placement family for those that are being put in foster care.
Mr. Allen. Are there limits to what a teacher can share
with a student in Oklahoma?
Ms. Hofmeister. Certainly there would be some limits, I
suppose, that would be--I am not sure exactly how to answer
that except I would say this: We just want our teachers to feel
supported so that they can support our students. And having
more of our school counselors, it is beyond the service to
students is also to coach teachers, to provide the kind of
training that I think many of us at this table are talking
about now, perhaps. But in the classroom setting. Classroom
management is what we call this where you are building that
kind of----
Mr. Allen. So, for example, are you able to talk about the
family and the importance of the family unit and, you know, the
design of the family and those kind of things? The teachers,
are they allowed to do that?
Ms. Hofmeister. Well, in public school we support families.
Mr. Allen. Okay.
Ms. Hofmeister. And that is paramount in our agency at the
State Department of Education in Oklahoma recognizing that
family engagement is key to success for students, and we are
making that a priority and a focus.
Mr. Allen. Okay. Now, when these students leave school,
what is their feeling toward the family? Do they realize that,
hey, to fix this, the cure here is for us to, you know, not
have children before we get married. And then we get married,
and we have children, and we raise those children with a set of
values that will give them the freedom to do the things that I
was able to do because I had an amazing family.
So, like, are they--do they understand how--you know, what
really has to change there.
Dr. Burke Harris. May I add something?
Mr. Allen. Yes.
Dr. Burke Harris. I think that one of the pieces that is
critical about this work is reducing stigma and reducing blame
and shame. That is critical for healing and a recognition I
think for families of understanding how the experience that
parents had, perhaps their own adversity can be handed down and
recognizing the key of safe and stable relationships.
Mr. Sablan. Again, I am sorry.
Mr. Allen. I yield back, Chairman.
Thank you, panel.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you, Dr. Harris.
So now I would like to recognize for five minutes Ms.
Bonamici, please. Thank you.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am going to start with a series of sort of big-picture
questions about prevention. And these are issues that this
committee works on. And I want to know if they should be part
of the solution.
Ms. Bonamici. School-based health clinics, just yes or no?
[All witnesses]: [Yes all around.]
Ms. Bonamici. Paid family leave?
[All witnesses]: [Nod their heads ``yes'' in agreement.]
Ms. Bonamici. So yes all around.
Ms. Bonamici. Affordable childcare, a real challenge.
[All witnesses] [Witnesses said ``yes'' in agreement with
Ms. Bonamici.]
Ms. Bonamici.Thank you. I appreciate that. We need to look
at prevention as well as how we address the serious issue. And
thank you for your testimony. I thought it was all very, very
enlightening. We know the growing awareness of the profound
effects of ACEs, and some of them have been mentioned.
I want to follow up on a couple of them. Representative
Shalala talked about children of immigrant parents. And I have
to tell you that when I talk to kids, they are afraid to go to
school because they don't know if their parents are going to be
home when they get back. So that is a concern I have. I had a
young woman who is a high school student say to me at a
townhall meeting that the first thing she does when she walks
into a classroom is to figure out where she can hide or how she
can escape.
So you can understand why these kids are going through so
much trauma with the threat of gun violence, with immigrant
families. And, of course, thank you, Dr. Burke Harris for
talking about trying to get rid of the stigma. We want to make
sure that everyone gets the help they need.
And, Dr. Jackson, I think you mentioned the LGBTQ students
who are already facing discrimination, oftentimes, and higher
suicide rates and the inability to do well in school if they
are feeling that pressure.
So we know that, you know, schools in Oregon and across the
country are doing what they can to support these students, but
they need extra resources. And I am glad several of you
mentioned the student support and academic enrichment grant
programs and Title 4A of the Every Student Succeeds Act. We
need to make sure, and I have been a leader on getting that
fully funded, make sure that the schools have the resources to
support those students.
Dr. Burke Harris, a 2018 report by Child Trends, children
of color are disproportionately represented among children who
have experienced trauma, specifically 61 percent of African-
American children, 51 percent of Latino children have
experienced at least one adverse childhood experience. African-
American children are also disproportionately subject to severe
discipline. That is a GAO report.
So how does racial and historical trauma and early
adversity affect these marginalized students, particularly
African-American, Native American students?
Dr. Burke Harris. Although discrimination is not one of the
traditional adverse childhood experiences, what we understand
now is that cumulative adversity is what leads to the toxic
stress response which is what causes the harm.
Experiences of discrimination based on race, national
origin, or other forms of discrimination add to the cumulative
adversity and put those individuals at greater risk of health
and--mental health and behavioral social risks.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you.
And, Dr. Jackson, evidence suggests that the opioid crisis
is, you know, creating all these new challenges in protecting
vulnerable children. In October of 2018, Congress passed the
Support for Patients and Communities Act to address the opioid
crisis. The bill included $50 million to support trauma-
informed practices in schools. Unfortunately, that program has
not yet been funded. But what would you do with funding to
scale trauma-informed practices in your school district
specifically with regard to the opioid crisis?
Ms. Jackson. These resources would make a significant
difference in Chicago. I know a lot of times, when we talk
about the opioid addiction, you know, we focus on other areas.
But this is something that we struggle with in the city as
well. One thing that we would do is expand the work that we are
doing in our parent universities. I know family has come up
with a lot, and we do have engagement with many of our parents
through a parent-university structure. And with additional
support being able to help train them and, in some cases, help
direct them to other resources again to break that cycle would
be helpful to us.
So I would say more awareness and language to address those
issues and reducing barriers to getting the support.
Ms. Bonamici. Do you have any recovery high schools?
Portland is getting ready to open a recovery high school to
high school students who are in recovery so they don't have all
the peer pressure of the students who aren't struggling with--
Ms. Jackson. No, we don't. We have prioritized putting
health clinics in some of our schools who do provide that
support to both students and people in the community, but we
don't yet have a recovery high school.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you.
And in my remaining few seconds, just one quick anecdote
that was really meaningful to me. I was visiting a small school
on the Oregon coast, and the principal told us an example of
implementation of trauma-informed practices. There was a
student who used to go to school with his hood up, on his
hoodie. And the teachers would tell him to put his hood down
and sit up. When they let him keep his hood over--
Mr. Sablan. I am sorry, Ms. Bonamici.
Ms. Bonamici.--he did well in school because he was
protecting himself--
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I yield back.
Mr. Sablan. Thank you. You are welcome. Thank you.
I now recognize Ms. Wild for five minutes, please.
Ms. Wild. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It would be lovely if everyone had a perfect family. I
don't think there is a definition of a perfect family. My own
family of origin was flawed, and my current family that
includes two children in their 20s who are doing fairly well
was also flawed. So the--I am distressed by some of the
comments we have heard today that seem to lay all of this at
the feet of the family and the fact that there may be a number
of children going to school without two-parent families.
I don't think that anybody disagrees about the effects of
ACEs. That is what I am hearing at least from all of you. And
it seems to me that two things are just so important.
First is awareness. And you are helping us with that. And I
really appreciate it. I know we all do. We all need to
understand this and know more about it.
But the second and the most obvious elephant in the room is
the funding for these kinds of programs. That includes, I might
add, supporting teachers who have been put in the very
unfortunate position of having to become counselors and pastors
in addition to what they went in to teaching for, which is
educating students. And, of course, the issue of secondary
trauma is so important.
So on that funding issue, it seems pretty clear to me that
we still have a lot of work to do to convince our colleagues
across the aisle that there is not only a place but a demand
and a need for Federal funding to support these kinds of
programs.
So with that in mind, I would like to ask you a couple
questions about why everybody should care about providing some
additional Federal funding for this issue.
We know that there are distressed school districts all over
the country. In my district, which is the 7th District of
Pennsylvania, we have one very severely distressed district.
And, by the way, in that district, 3,000 Puerto Rican families
came into the Allentown School District following Hurricane
Maria. I might point out, they are citizens. They aren't
immigrants. But it has very much contributed to the issues that
are faced by that distressed school district that has trouble
even affording textbooks and supplies.
So we need to--we obviously have to do a job of convincing.
So what I would like to know, and let me address this first to
you, Dr. Jackson, what Federal programs or Federal funding are
most important to supporting schools in creating and sustaining
trauma induced-- trauma-informed care?
Dr. Jackson. Funding to support programs like I talked
about earlier, the SPARCS program, which allows us to work
directly with students and their families doing psychotherapy,
these are very powerful and impactful programs. They are also
very expensive, and many school districts just simply can't
afford to do this at scale.
I would also say programming for trauma-informed practices
to train all of the teachers as well as the other professionals
in the district is something that is extremely helpful and can
be impactful and, again, one of those things that we have
trouble finding the necessary resources to support.
I could go down the list, but I am sure my colleagues on
the panel would like to get theirs in as well.
Ms. Wild. Well, one of the things that I really wanted to
ask you, Dr. Burke Harris, is about the issue of children in
the United States currently getting the mental health and
treatment services that they need. How can we in Congress and
the Federal Government better support children who are
experiencing ACEs?
Dr. Burke Harris. I think that it is critical for us to
certainly--I think the screening piece is absolutely critical,
because early detection improves outcomes.
The second piece, obviously, is the support for the
responses, including mental healthcare, trauma-informed
educational systems. And another critical piece is a public
education campaign to raise awareness among families and
everyday Americans.
Ms. Wild. I am really struck by a quote that I read from
Dr. Robert Block, former president of the American Academy of
Pediatrics, who has been widely quoted as saying: Adverse
childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed
public health threat facing our Nation today. I think you made
reference to that.
Dr. Burke Harris. I want to also point out that ACEs don't
just happen in low-income neighborhoods. The original study was
done in a population 70 percent Caucasian, 70 percent college-
educated, all middle class adults. And when we are looking at
two-thirds of Americans have experienced ACEs, then we are
really seeing that we cannot afford not to do early detection
and early intervention.
Ms. Wild. You get no argument from me. Thank you.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you, Ms. Wild.
And now I would like to recognize myself for five minutes.
And I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record a letter
from an eighth-grader whose school campus was destroyed by a
super-typhoon, and it is entitled--and she shared her
experience. It is entitled ``From Hopwood to Tarpwood.'' And
having seen no objection, I insert this letter to get it for
the record.
Chairman Sablan. I do have questions that I may not be able
to ask of you and submit it for your answers.
But, Dr. Barker, how has McDowell County Schools changed
its policies, procedures, and practices to align with being
trauma-informed?
Ms. Barker. We had to become more inclusive, and we had to
create policies to work with our mental health providers and
our school-based health clinics. As you know, you have FERPA
and HIPAA regulations, and sometimes those don't communicate.
So we had to really change those policies so that our
mental health clinicians would be able to get information from
our teachers to help them in their therapy sessions and, again,
consequently be able to be back with the teachers and tell them
not the diagnosis, but how can they help in the classroom.
Because if we do all this therapy and work with our kids and it
never translates into the classroom practices, it just cannot,
you know, cannot be productive. So we had to include that.
And we are also moving to restorative justices. Instead of
just telling the kids, here, you go home for five days because
you were fighting, what happened, you know, what happened at
home the night before that kind of got you a little, you know,
upset that you decided to take matters into your own hands?
So we are working to be more open and change our privacy
and confidentiality policies, just to make sure that we are
communicating along the lines to help our kids.
Chairman Sablan. So could I say then that teachers and
staff have had to do things differently because of changes in
policies, procedures, and practice?
Ms. Barker. Yes. And we are using a lot of professional
development. We have trained our service personnel and our
professional personnel in Youth Mental Health First Aid, which
is recognizing the signs and symptoms of certain behaviors and
be able to refer and communicate with different therapists.
Also with trauma-informed, we are providing the training.
Let's take a look at the kid, you know, and just giving them
scenarios. Here is Johnny. He did not bring homework to you.
Here are the two scenarios: Teacher yells at you because, you
know, Johnny, you did not do your work and you explode, or
teacher actually asks Johnny and talks to him individually,
what happened to you before? And just kind of looking at
different scenarios. How do you react? How should you be
reacting?
So we are working with teachers to help them understand not
everybody grew up with two parents and had, you know, place for
homework at home. Kids are different and we should meet them as
they are.
Chairman Sablan. All right. And let me now turn to Dr.
Burke Harris, if I may, because we have man-made climate change
driving more severe weather, such as hurricanes, typhoons,
fires that devastate entire communities, homes, and schools.
This committee has heard testimony that students are
experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. What
recommendations do you have for schools post natural disasters
in caring for their students? And you have a minute and a half.
Dr. Burke Harris. Yes. I would say, again, this just
reiterates how important it is for all individuals in the
educational environment to receive professional education and
professional training about how to respond to a traumatic
situation, whether that trauma is the result of a natural
disaster or whether it is the result of community violence or
violence or trauma that is happening at home.
The responses, the fundamentals of the response and what
the science shows us makes a difference in improving outcomes,
are safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments,
ensuring that all folks in the educational environment have
that training; and more than just the knowledge, a set of tools
and skills that they can apply in the educational environment
to support children.
Chairman Sablan. All right. Thank you. I am going to cut my
30 minutes. I will have records, I mean questions submitted of
you and you will have time to respond.
I remind my colleagues that pursuant to committee practice,
materials for submission for the hearing record must be
submitted to the Committee Clerk within 14 days following the
last day of the hearing, preferably in Microsoft Word format.
The material submitted must address the subject matter of
the hearing. Only a Member of the committee or an invited
witness may submit materials for inclusion in the hearing
record. Documents are limited to 50 pages each. Documents
longer than 50 pages will be incorporated into the record via
an internet link that you must provide to the Committee Clerk
within the required timeframe, but please do recognize that
years from now that link may no longer work.
And now, without objection, I would like to enter into the
record the 1998 Regional Adverse Childhood Study By the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente; a
2019 report from the U.S. GAO, Government Accountability
Office, regarding the approaches and challenges to supporting
children affected by trauma; a report by the National Child
Traumatic Stress Network on creating, supporting, and
sustaining trauma-informed schools; a scholarly article written
by researchers at Washington State University on the connection
between adverse childhood experience and elementary school
children; article by Rand on evidence-based practices that are
effective in schools to support children affected by trauma. I
am going to go through the list.
An article by Everytown for Gun Safety on the impact of gun
violence on children and teens; a fact sheet on ten things to
know about trauma and learning by Alliance for Excellent
Education; a policy statement by the American Academy of
Pediatrics on the impact of racism on child and adolescents'
health; a statement of Civil Rights Principles on Safe,
Healthy, and Inclusive School Climates from the Leadership
Conference; and five letters for the record from Alliance for
Excellent Education, American Federation of Teachers,
Binghamton University Community Schools, National Indian
Education Association, National Association of School
Psychologists, and National Education Association, in support
of trauma-informed practices in schools.
[The information follows:]
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Chairman Sablan. Again, I want to thank the witnesses for
their participation today. What we have heard is very valuable.
Members of the committee may have some additional questions for
you, like I said, and we ask the witnesses to please respond to
those questions in writing. The hearing record will be held
open for 14 days in order to receive those responses.
I remind my colleagues that pursuant to committee practice,
witness questions for the hearing record must be submitted to
the Majority Committee Staff or Committee Clerk within 7 days.
The questions submitted must address the subject matter of the
hearing.
I now recognize the Ranking Member for his closing
statement.
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank the witnesses for coming today. And I do
want to clarify that, first, I am not talking about stigma or
shaming. I am talking about the importance of faith and family
in this culture. As we said in the beginning of the hearing,
the testimony today makes it clear that trauma has a
detrimental impact on student lives.
We heard a lot of statistics about children suffering as a
result of trauma. In fact, I am amazed at the numbers we are
talking about here. But the bottom line is that each one of
those numbers is a child, a child that needs to be helped and
given the attention they need to succeed in life. I think Ms.
Hofmeister shared some interesting information about projects
she has undertaken in her State to help these students.
One of the reasons I ran for Congress is an experience I
had in my district. I supported a school there. I actually
built the school. It is a great example of what it takes in
children who have experienced trauma to transform their lives.
I was proud to be a part of a local movement in Augusta,
Georgia, which created the Heritage Academy. The Heritage
Academy is a mission-based school that serves inner city school
kids who have been labeled losers in the public school system.
Their moms have no choice but to send these children to
Heritage School. And they have been given up on by everybody
but their mom.
One of the key elements of this school is that kids are
given a faith-based education. These children come from broken
homes and through their education they learn their value and
worth, taught by loving teachers, who are free to share their
values so these students can learn the truth about what is
right and what is wrong.
These kids grow up to go to the best schools in Georgia and
this Nation. I have never seen anything like it. It is a
complete miracle. Heritage Academy is one of the many reasons
that I believe families need options in education, options that
help them connect with individuals who will care about them and
help trauma not be a life sentence. It is not for everybody,
but there are young people that need this. Considering what we
have learned today about trauma, I believe this even more so.
I did share earlier about this book, Death on Hold. This
gentleman experienced everything that you described out there
today. In fact, his life would be the capital T trauma. He was
on death row. This man made a covenant with God, if God would
let him live that he would make a difference. I ask you to read
this book. It will tell you a lot about what is going on in
this culture and what he says needs to be done to turn it
around, because, like I said, he made a covenant to do that.
And I encourage you to do that. In fact, he is now on life
without parole, and I am going to do everything I can to get
him pardoned, to get him out there talking to young people
about his experiences and the consequences of those
experiences. He is an amazing, amazing individual.
Thank you again for being here today and helping us to
learn more about this issue.
And, with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Chairman Sablan. Thank you very much, Mr. Allen.
I now recognize myself for the purpose of making my closing
statement.
Again, thank you again to our distinguished witnesses for
being with us. The insights and expertise you shared today make
clear that childhood trauma is a pervasive public health crisis
that demands our attention.
Far too many children suffer from trauma that prevents them
from healthy growth and success in school. Without adequate
care, these child victims of trauma can become life-long
victims. Yet, when a child struggling with toxic stress acts
out in class, many of our schools resort to harsh discipline
that not only fails to address the student's trauma but can
even elevate it. Even schools that understand the care needed
for traumatized children lack the resources and assistance to
offer adequate student services. That is why Congress must
invest in trauma-informed school practices that ensure children
coping with trauma can look to their schools for support, not
further harm.
Before I close, let me reiterate again that our children's
trauma can be prevented if we are able to recognize and address
the root causes. If we can come together to stop the school
shootings, end the separation of families at the border, and
address widespread poverty, we can not only care for victims of
trauma, but prevent children from becoming trauma victims in
the first place. Only then can we truly ensure that all
children have a chance at reaching their full potential.
Thank you very much, again, to all of you. Thank you, Mr.
Allen, for being with us today. And if there is no further
business, without objection, the committee stands adjourned.
Thank you.
[Questions submitted for the record and their responses
follow:]
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[Whereupon, at 12:33 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]