kalisha dessources: i wasable to jump around from room to room during both ofour breakout sessions, and heard just incredibleconversation taking place. so we have remarks from afew more speakers from the administration today, butwe are also going to share whole-group some of theaction items that came out of our breakout sessions. so i'm extraordinarilyexcited for that. our next speaker, vanitagupta, has served as the
head of the civil rightsdivision at the united states department ofjustice since october 2014. as the chief civil rightsprosecutor for the united states, miss gupta overseesa wide range of criminal and civil enforcement efforts,to ensure equal justice and protect equalopportunity for all. under her leadership, thedivision continues its critical work in a number ofareas, including ensuring that policies and practicesaround school discipline and
school climate comply withfederal law, in order to support all studentsaround the country. it's a privilege to welcomeher here to stage -- assistant attorneygeneral gupta. (applause) vanita gupta: hi everyone. it's great to be hear. i heard it's been a prettypowerful day, and i want to thank you, kalisha, for theintroduction and for
the welcome. i guess i want to just startby thanking my outstanding colleagues here today,including from the white house council on women andgirls, and my team from the civil rights division,from the educational opportunities section, andthe special litigations section. these two sections at thedivision work day in and day out tirelessly to protectthe rights of all children,
so that they can be in safeand secure and productive and constructive learningenvironments, and successful schools. and i'm glad that so manyof them were able to help facilitate a number of thebreakouts today as well, because it really enures tothe benefit of our work. i also want to acknowledge-- i know that secretary john king is going to bespeaking here shortly, before all of you, and hisextraordinary leadership
really motivates all of usto work harder, to ensure that our schools are servingall of our country's children. i also want to thank all ofyou, as policymakers and researchers and advocates,for your steadfast commitment to supportinggirls of color, and to protecting the rights of allchildren in our schools. you know, really throughoutamerican society, from our schools to our communitiesto the juvenile justice systems, we can see howtrauma can really inflict a
devastating impacton young women. whether that's due tobullying, or sexual assault, or discriminatorydiscipline, really the trauma of injustices andindignities can reverberate for years. and i'm sure that today'sseries of conversations have really focused on thedevastating impact. trauma can invade nearlyever area of a girl's life. it impacts familyrelationships.
it interferes withschoolwork and academic performance. it carries intoone's social life. even at awkward stages ofadolescence aren't bad enough, it makes everythingall the more difficult. and there's no question thatit can leave an emotional and psychological toll, thatmay not be the most visible harm, but that can lingerpainfully for years. and i want to thank theyoung women who spoke here
earlier today about theseexperiences, and about the importance of the work thatwe're all committed to doing. a trauma-informed approachto addressing sexual harassment and schooldiscipline and violence means really developingstrategies that are centered around caring for childrenwith compassion, with support, and with dignity. and it means addressing theroot causes of traumatic events, for example, bypreventing sexual assault,
and eradicating hostilelearning environments. it also means, though,recognizing how to sensitively and effectivelysupport students who have experienced serioustrauma, and integrating a trauma-informed approachinto our collective response. and in the civil rightsdivision, we are advancing that mission to create safe,supportive, and inclusive schools across the system. a core part of this work iscombating discriminatory
discipline and policingpractices that too often fail to recognize oraddress behavior that is trauma-driven. that lapse can fuel a prison-- a pipeline to prison, where children inparticular, of course children with color andchildren with disabilities -- who have already sufferedthe harm of trauma at school or at home -- ending upgetting a sentence of incarceration ratherthan a diploma.
we have a matter. it's very active inmeridian, mississippi, where among a host of due processviolations, we found students suspended fromschool, and some later incarcerated in a juveniledetention facility -- for behavior as mundane asviolating the dress code by wearing the wrong colorsocks, or leaving their shirts untucked. and these actionsdisproportionately impacted
children of color, andchildren with disabilities. in 2013, we reached anagreement to address discriminatory schooldiscipline practices, including referrals to lawenforcement by the meridian public school district. and under the consentdecree, the school system agreed to provide allstudents, including girls of color, with positivebehavior interventions and supports, before removingthem from school.
it also agreed to establishclear guidelines for the limited circumstances thatrequire law enforcement intervention, and it agreedto ensure discipline measures are fair,equitable, and consistent, based largely on some verytroubling facts that we found in the district. and last year, the courtapproved other agreements with the meridian policedepartment in the state youth probation agency.
the police and youthprobation agreement similarly seek to avoid lawenforcement involvement in alleged school-basedmisconduct whenever possible. and this meridian agreementwas really important, because it allowed us tokind of do work across a spectrum of systems thathave impact on kids' lives. not just in school, but alsoin the juvenile justice system, and in the probationsystems, and beyond. and when youth encounter thejuvenile justice system, the
meridian agreements reallywork to ensure that their civil rights are respected. and so together, ouragreements in mississippi focus on appropriateresponses and resolutions, rather than escalations ofschool-based incidents. we're also advancing thesesystemic reforms around the country, including in palmbeach county, florida, the nation's 11th largestschool district. a settlement agreement thatwe reached there required
the district to removelanguage barriers to students, and prevent policeinvolvement in routine disciplinary matters. and we're enforcing otheragreements elsewhere as well, from tucson, arizona,to st. martin parish, louisiana. we're also working to combatthe scourge of sexual assault and harassment thatthreatens the security of our schools, as well as thefoundation of a free, open, and safe society.
and in allentown,pennsylvania, where we reached a settlement toaddress allegations of sexual harassment in publicschools, we found multiple cases of security guardsharassing female students with inappropriate sexualcomments and touching. and one security guardeven tried to exchange inappropriate sexual contactfor a promise not to report the girl's disciplinaryviolation. as a result, we required theschool district to intervene
promptly and effectively,with strict guidelines and robust training forsecurity guards. and the agreement alsomandates that the school demonstrate a firmcommitment to investigate any complaint of abuseor unlawful conduct. but beyond the k through 12context, we're also working to address sexual assault atcolleges and universities. and for example, we'vecrafted impactful settlement agreements with state andlocal jurisdictions in
missoula, montana, wherewe worked to promote a victim-centered,trauma-informed approach to sexual assault anddomestic violence. and to help law enforcementaround the country advance this same approach, latelast year we released a guidance ongender-bias policing. and the principles in ourguidance include using trauma-informed interviewtactics that encourage victim participation,replacing prejudice
statements that assume whathappened with neutral, open-ended questions thatare focused on learning what actually occurred. the principles also advisepolice officers to adopt a victim-centered approachthat addresses the medical and emotional and safetyneeds of victims, including referrals toappropriate services. and in the juvenile justicesystem as well, we're working to protect therights of all youth to be
free from violenceand abuse. in 2007, a justicedepartment investigation uncovered juvenilecorrectional institutions in ohio falling painfullyshort of their legal responsibilities to supportthe safety and health and educational needs ofdetained children. and there was a particularyouth correctional facility in the city of delaware,ohio, where they were holding youth in seclusionfor actions as mundane as
refusing breakfast, andcursing, and talking in class. and in one instance, ayouth endured 14 hours in seclusion for arguingand using a racial slur. and state experts alsoconcluded that marion, ohio -- the correctional facilityin marion, ohio, their mental health care systemwas failing to meet minimally acceptableconstitutional requirements. these alarming andineffective and frequently unconstitutional practicesdemand widespread reform.
and over the past decade,we've responded with comprehensive approaches. after years of thoroughinvestigation and effective litigation and independentmonitoring, we agreed to terminate our consent decreewith the state last year, after it successfullyimplemented transformative reforms to their juvenilejustice correctional facilities. and these reforms spanneda whole bunch of different
areas, including eliminatingthe use of solitary confinement for punishment,and ensuring individualized mental health care, anddramatically reducing the population of youth in thefacility to begin with. at the civil rightsdivision, i think we're really excited aboutthis convening. and you know, the reality iswe're continuously seeking to improve the ways that weincorporate trauma-informed practices into oursettlement agreements, and
into the work that we'redoing around the country. and as we assessthe disparities and discriminatory practicesthat too often inflict trauma on our children,especially children of color, and leave them witha disadvantaged future, we need to continue respondingwith urgency and with action. because the reality -- andall of you know this -- is that if we don't address theharm, and if we don't deal with the trauma, and if wedon't really respond and
understand the pain thatyoung people experience in school, where do we honestlyexpect them to end up later on in their lives? how do we expect them tosucceed when the deck is so stacked against them, andthe system offers so little support to help? and these questions are notjust rhetorical questions that i'm asking here today. these are real questions,and these are urgent
questions, and they areessential, really, to building the future that allof our children deserve. a future of fairness and ofsafety, and of inclusivity. and so look, i know we allhave a lot of work to do ahead, but i'm really gladto be here today, to talk with all of you about thetough issues, and to know that we're working togetheron the path forward. and so i just want to thankyou all for your commitment to justice.
so thank you. kalisha dessources: andso i know that there are commitments that states aregoing to share, but we also have some externalcommitments that are being made today to this work. so i just want to invite tostage rebecca epstein again, who will invite to stagetwo others, who are making tangible commitmentsout of this work today. rebecca epstein: thegeorgetown law center on
poverty is going to buildon the momentum of this conference, by pivoting fromits role as a co-host, to serving school systemreformers who seek to implement trauma-informedapproaches that are responsive to the uniqueneeds of girls of color. so we're going to beinviting state teams that are here today, and otherswho want to participate, to provide more in-depthinformation about their needs in creatingtrauma-informed schools,
with the ultimate goalof the center on poverty serving as a centralconvener of these groups. so we're proud to make thatannouncement today, and you can look forward to hearingfrom me in the upcoming weeks. rebecca epstein: allisonbrown, are you here? (laughs) the executivedirector of communities for just schools funds, allisonbrown, has an announcement now. rebecca epstein: andelizabeth prewitt, if you want to come on up as well.
allison brown:good afternoon. hi. i am so excited to announcetoday that the communities for just schools fund islaunching a new fellowship program. the education anewfellowship will be a 12 to 18-month fellowship, andwill be housed at the southern educationfoundation based in atlanta, georgia.
the education anew fellowwill work closely with the communities for just schoolsfunds staff and grantee partners to develop a bestpractices institute, to develop -- that will be foreducators, from a youth and community-centeredperspective, to support the implementation ofalternatives to exclusionary school discipline, and thecreation of healthy school climates. our intent is to eliminateinequity in schools and
nurture holistically healthylearning environments. southern educationfoundation's soon-to-be-launched racialequity leadership network for school districtsuperintendents. so within a frame of racialequity, the education anew fellow will represent youthand community members to identify, shape, and helpimplement best practices that also are gender-awareand gender-specific, including trauma-informedpractices.
the education anew fellowwill foster conversations and collaborations betweenthe organizers that the communities for just schoolsfund supports, and the educators with whomthe southern education foundation works -- allfor the greater benefit of education, justiceadvocates, and school discipline reformefforts nation-wide. we will soon be acceptingapplications, and we strongly encourage youthleaders -- especially youth
leaders who have beenimpacted by exclusionary discipline practices, andtoxic or traumatic learning environments -- to apply. thank you. elizabeth prewitt:hi everybody. this is a great group. this is a wonderfulconference. i'm enjoying everyminute of it. i'm elizabeth prewitt.
i'm the policy analyst for aces connection network, and that of course stands for adverse childhood experiences. when someone early in theconference asked, you know, "who knows about the a. study?" and practically every handwent up, that's so unusual, and it was soheartening to see that. we wanted to inviteeverybody in the room, if you're not already a memberof aces connection, to join.
we have recentlyrestructured our education -- aces in education group,so that we can share more resources more efficiently. and so we'd like for you tojoin the overall network, and also to join theaces in education group. so aces connection networkis two -- has two parts. one is aces too high, andthis is a new site geared to the general public. people that are justinterested in the topic
overall, and they can learnabout what people and organizations and systemsand communities are doing to implement best practicesthat relate to aces sciences. and then the companionnetwork, which is really where a lot of the work getsdone, is acesconnection.com -- and we now haveabout 10,000 members. we started off with just,you know, a couple of hundred. jane stevens is thefounder and co-editor. many of youprobably know jane.
it was her sort ofinspiration, and she made it happen. both of these sitesare commercial-free. it doesn't cost anything tojoin, and part of the reason for that is that we aregenerously supported by the robert wood johnsonfoundation and the california endowment, wherea lot of the reporting is done. so aces in education groupwithin acesconnection.com -- we have about 300, mainlyeducators, and it's really
the go-to place foranything that relates to trauma-informed schools. resilience-building is --and solutions-oriented is sort of how we see things. it's not all doom and gloom,and our focus really is on telling the storiesabout the movement. so if you, you know, if youjoin the group you'll get information about webinars,tool kits, research studies, books -- anything thatrelates to this topic.
so i invite you to join. kalisha dessources:thank you elizabeth. kalisha dessources: andthank you to all three - rebecca, elizabeth,and allison. and a special thanks toallison with the communities for just schools fund, forbringing in our girls this morning, which weredefinitely a very important part of today's discussion. so we are going to move intoour state team deliverables
and do-outs. so you should have the oneperson identified from your team who's going tocome and step up. it's going to be15 of you guys. if you guys just want tomake a nice line over here, we'll pass this mic down,and we just want 60 seconds of what are the actionitems coming out. that's one minute each. (laughter)
kalisha dessources: -- ofwhat are the action items coming out oftoday's convening. and of course we have avery special guest here listening, before he givesremarks -- our secretary of education, john king. so colorado, come onup; d.c., illinois, massachusetts, maryland,minnesota, michigan, montana, new jersey, newyork, pennsylvania, ohio, oregon, tennessee,and virginia.
and please just kick us offwith your state, and if you're representing adistrict, what district you're representing, or whatentity you're representing from your state. brittany marigo: hi,i'm brittany marigo. i'm from the ohiodepartment of education. ohio spoke a lot aboutreally getting the message out statewide, and to dothat we have to help people understand the urgency ofthis issue, and help them
understand why girls ofcolor need to be understood in a different way. and to do that, we aretalking about cultural competency training, andreally letting districts know that it's okay to haveimplicit biases, but you have to be able to identifythat you have them, and how to get past that. during our state session, webroke it out into what ode is going to be responsiblefor doing, and what
districts can do to movethis message forward. ode is interested inpartnering with institutions of higher education, so ourteachers are prepared, and they understand mentalhealth issues and trauma before they get into theclassroom, so they can hit the ground running. we would also like toconvene a group of stakeholders, so statewideagencies can collaborate and partner, and share some dataso we can have a
statewide message. and we would also liketo review our existing structures, to get all ofthis work integrated into one consistent plan,especially as we're working through the everystudent succeeds act. our districts are lookinginto more sustainable family engagement, and that'smainly through partnerships with the community members,so they can actually target resources that are necessaryto get these kiddos focused.
and lastly districts havetalked about reviewing their discipline policies, andcoming up with creative solutions to keepkids in school. female speaker: i'm thankfulfor my montana team for joining me here today. they all exemplifycompassion in their work every day. i think we're all going totalk a lot about similar planning.
you know, these things kindof need to scale up and roll out in similar fashions. one of the things, i think,that we talked about specifically for montana, isour need to bring in focus groups of girls of color inparticular, to really get their earnest and honestfeedback about what sort of supports they needin their communities. each community is verydiverse ethnically and geographically in our state,and so we want to make sure
that we're veryspecific and targeted. we're fortunate in montanathat we have a large growing community that's becomingtrauma-informed and invigorated about this work. so we would like to, youknow, find our partners, find our stakeholders, and acoalition including tribes, schools, you know,mental health entities. everybody and anybody,to fold this work into already-existing and ongoingefforts, because this can't
simply be another add-on towhat we're already doing in schools. they need to see it assomething that can become integrated intotheir existing work. and really this isn't abouttinkering around the edges. this is about reform. this is about thinking abouta new way in which we work with schools; the wayschools are structured; the way school calendars exist;the way school schedules
exist; the ways we interactand work with parents and communities. it's about rethinking all ofthat on a much larger scale. female speaker: ditto. female speaker: i'mrepresenting district of columbia public schools,where we have been leading the nation ineducation reform. one of the ways we'vedone that is through the combination oftrauma-informed practices,
and increasing our schoolmental health work force from about 80 to 100, toabout 300 now, so that we can actually increase accessto school mental health services, so that at least10 percent of our population has a clinician available toserve them if they need it. we've also married theschool mental health work with the school climatework, because one cannot exist without the other. we have a transientpopulation that moves
between charter schools andpublic schools, and so one of the things we hope to dois to increase the district conversation aroundtrauma-informed schools. we also intend to look atthe model that we use for our military population, ourstudents that are coming from military families whoneed that extra touch when they're going into a newbuilding, going into a new state, and treating allof our students, that are transitioning and movingfrom school to school, with
that same compassion. one of the other things weheard a lot about today, that is a part of ourdeveloping comprehensive trauma-informed schoolswork, is that of self-care. we have, you know, battlefatigue if you will, because our teachers are struggling. our principles arestruggling, and so we want to incorporate thatimportant part of trauma-informed practiceto include the staff that
support the students. and so those are just a fewof the things that we plan to do in d.c.public schools. ines diavez: goodafternoon everyone. my name is ines diavez , andi'm from new york state -- the great state of new york. ines diavez: our discussionwas quite lively and energetic, as you can see. ines diavez: and you allhave heard the statement,
that they say"be the change." well we are the change. so we decided that the firstthing we had to do was create an infrastructure,and this team that was invited to come here tod.c., we're going to stay together. and we represent, you know-- we start out in new york city, all the way up to thewestern part of new york state. so we are talking about ameeting schedule, and really
what some strategies are forchanging new york, and some of them will include reallygender-responsive training for our teachers, traumatraining for our teachers and staff. and not just, you know-- just because you're trauma-informed doesn't meanyou're trauma-responsive. right? so we want to make sure thatwhen we train our folks, that we also give them thetools and the strategies so
that they can engagewith the young people. continuing our work withgirls of color and lgbt youth as well, addressingissues of race and gender, harassment, bullying, andbuilding a structure for transnational service, as wehave a representative here for juvenile justice. so we won't forget them. did i forget anything? alright, good.
female speaker: goodafternoon everyone. i'm here representing thegreat state of maryland, and we are so fortunate to bejoined here today by our colleagues frombaltimore city. so we had a very reflectfuland engaging conversation today. we have a verydiverse state. we have 24 (inaudible),all different needs. but really there's a commontheme across our state of mental health needs,especially for children
of color. and our colleagues inbaltimore city really are kind of leading theway with that charge. they've just recentlyreceived a 2.3 million dollar grant for promotingresilience, and they're coming up with animplementation plan of best practices and training for-- is it -- 13 different schools across the district. and so we work in very --collaboratively with our
systems, and so we'relooking to learn from them, just as they're lookingto learn from us. at the state level, we arecontinuing to meet with our state-level partners, sothat we can look at what -- take a census really, ofwhat the resources are that are in our state, howeffectively those resources are being delivered, and ifthey're really having an impact on the students theyare being delivered to. and we're looking at how tocollect those data, and look
at those data foreffectiveness. we've also been therecipient of a, you know, "now is the time" projectaware grant, and to-date we've trained over 2,000educators in youth mental health first aid. and so we feel this is agreat step toward helping to educate teachers, staff,community, and families when it comes to the needs,especially of children of color.
like many states, we reallystruggle to keep a balance. you know, we're a veryhigh-performing state, and so we want our kids to dowell academically, but we are really changing andreally sort of turning the corner, in terms of how welook at students with mental health services. so we were very pleased at-- two months ago our state board of education reallydeclared a focus on looking at students with mentalhealth, and so now we can
really freely allocate moreresources toward that. thanks. female speaker: hi, i'm fromnew jersey, and we sort of developed two goals. we have folks herefrom our state agency. we also have arepresentative from a district. so one of the main themes ofwhat we discussed was how to weave this into work thatwe're already doing, so that it's not just another thing.
avoid that sort of jumbledschoolhouse reform thing that we see so often. so in terms of our stategoal, we talked about -- new jersey is about to roll outa tiered system of support. this will be part ofour essa state plan. and so how can be build outa component of njtss that focuses specifically on thistrauma-informed approach that we've heard so muchabout today -- that we know is so critically important-- with a particular eye
toward girls of colorand their needs. so we're excited that thetiming is good, since we're doing some sort of(inaudible) outreach for essa anyhow. we're hoping to convene somegroups that can give us some insight as to their needs. so we also talked about thefact that, as a state, we have a responsibility, wethink, to sort of synthesize the information that wegather, put it into a format
that is easily digestiblefor districts that we roll it out to, and be reallymindful about how we roll out resources that wedevelop, and not just have it be sort of a mass emailthat could be easily missed. we're also going to reachout to other agencies and institutions across thestate, and determine what work they're already doingthat we may be able to support, and mutuallysupport one another. center for supportiveschools comes to mind.
you know, there are abunch of other out there. so our next steps are togo back and share this information internally. we actually have an njtssleadership meeting tomorrow, so we are going to starttomorrow in sharing this out. and then the district goal,that our superintendent who joined us came up with, wasthat -- she has a component of her district strategicplan that is fits into quite nicely.
and so she's going to makesure that this is, you know, deliberately discussed withher staff, followed up through walk-throughs andother mechanisms, and not sort of lost in the shuffle. so kind of, you know,striking that balance between not having it beyet another thing, but also emphasizing the importance. kate anderson foley: hieveryone, i'm kate anderson foley, and i'm from
the illinois state board of education. and we have taken theopportunity through essa to really reflect and lookat the whole child. our state's goals are verysupportive of that, safe and healthy schools. within the capacity of essa,we have built out some of the elements of asystem-wide system of support. within that then, nested,is a multi-tiered system of support.
and really looking at it,again, through the lens of the whole child -- and whatare those non-academic skills, if you will, thatwill lead to the outcomes that we want. it's not just about theacademic outcome, but to see outcomes that wetalked about today. so we've -- in a secondround of interacting with our stakeholders, gatheringtheir feedback, as our writing team for ntss, whichkicked off on friday -- they
are also going to beholding some focus groups. this will be a part of that,so we can bring a full educational systemto our students. jim palmiero: goodafternoon everybody. my name is jim palmiero. i'm representing thepennsylvania base team, which is sitting over there. so hello to my colleagues. and i'm really pleased tosay that we had multiple
stakeholders from thecommonwealth here with us today. and we were pleased to beable to be part of this whole collective of people. the learning that we grew tocome to appreciate today was really enhanced by theconversations and stories that started with the youthvoices this morning, and went all the waythrough the day. so we thank you forthis opportunity.
as we reflect on what ourwalk-away considerations are, i can't help but frameit from the perspective of promotion, prevention,intervention. what are we going to do topromote these key concepts and considerations, thatwe must keep in front of ourselves as we set ourgoals around ensuring equity for all? and in particularfocusing on issues around trauma-responsive approachesto supporting all children,
including youthand girls of color. one of the things that weare very committed to is continuing our work thatwe've already begun, with regard to considering theimplications associated with the work that we're doingwithin the commonwealth -- around preparing ourselvesfor the implementation of essa. one of the other things thatwe think is very important -- from a large state-levelperspective -- is the
advancement of oursecretary's commitment to community-based schools, andlooking at how community resource and assets -- atthe state and regional level -- are critical in termsof providing the kinds of supports that are necessaryin order to provide opportunities, and to reducethese issues that we see are so often complicatingmatters, with regard to supporting studentsstruggling with trauma. we believe that professionaldevelopment tools, and a
continuum of tools andresources, are absolutely necessary -- not only forin-service teachers, but for pre-service teachers. at the state level, we spenta great deal of time talking about what we can do withour partnering institutes of higher education -- who arethose pre-service teacher training institutes -- inpreparing the new generation of educators to understandthe implications of this kind of work, so that wehave good teachers entering
profession -- every bit asmuch as growing the good teachers that we alreadyhave practicing in our commonwealth schools. one of the things that wealso recognized at the state level is that we have a lotof assets in play that do align with supporting andadvancing this work - whether it's our statewideimplementation of pbis, positive behaviorinterventions and supports, and the work that we'retrying to do through pbis,
with regard to teachingpeople about vulnerable decision-making points, andhow to respond appropriately in the context of theclassroom or school settings. every bit as much as ourrelationship with our county partner in human serviceagencies, and our community-based resourcesthat are all around us. and so we have a lot ofconsideration to do, and a lot of work to be done withregard to lining our assets, to making sure that weare working smarter, not
necessarily harder, inaligning our efforts. and taking lessonsfrom our lea's. and two of them were heretoday, and i'd like to announce them by name -- theschool district of lancaster and the school district ofphiladelphia, who are every bit as much teaching us atthe state level what we need to do to best supportthem and their efforts. so it's with that i'd liketo turn this over to you. joyce harris: to thegreat state of oregon.
joyce harris: so myname is joyce harris. i'm with educationnorthwest. i'm a former director ofregion 10 equity assistance center for 21 years. and we have a unique team. i have a judge here. i have someone from theoregon department of education, and we also havea county commissioner. and so our whole approach isto look at, collectively,
what we need to do in ourstate to ensure that our young women are achievingto the highest potential. we need to focus oneverything other people are not focused on, acrossall of our systems. we need to teach accuratehistorical knowledge of students of color -- andexamine where we were, where we are now, and what we'redoing now, and where we want to go. that's what we want to do.
we want to convene a panelof experts, and this would include researchers, collegeprofessors -- and in our world, our communitymembers are experts. joyce harris: ourgirls are experts. and we need to change theculture, not only in our schools, but in ourcommunities -- and in all of the systems that impact whatgoes on in schools, starting with early childhood,through post-secondary. we plan to use evidence,practice, as compasses to
help direct state policy onthe need for culturally and trauma-informedinterventions and services -- once again, acrossall of our systems. we plan to do listeningsessions and focus groups with our young women, andeven with the younger ones. you know? it's not just the teenagers. the little ones havesomething to teach us too. we want to do an assessmentand need-sensing.
we want to talk to people. we don't want this to bean effort where you do something to fix thecommunity, but you do it in partnership withthe community. and so we want to bring thefaith community in; our law enforcement;culture-responsive social service organizations; thedeltas; other social groups; the black studies programsin our universities; the teacher ed programs; andwe're going to give a
special invitationto our governor. we want her atthe table with us. and other legislators. and based on my experienceas an eac director, i want our community to know theresources that are available from the u.s. department of education,office for civil rights, as well as u.s. department of justice --because that's where i found
a lot of the work that i wasable to do with schools and districts, camefrom those sources. so that is the greatstate of oregon. female speaker: thank you. female speaker: great. i'm representing thecolorado team in denver public schools and we'regoing to move from really tactical to longer term. so the first thing thatwe're going to do, that we
want to have completedby next month, is really thinking about how toincorporate aces into our expulsion process, knowingthat our girls of color are disproportionately expelledeven as we close our gaps, to really think both aboutinformation for our hearing officers, but also ensuringwe leave those students with the proper supports thatthey really need to be successful. then, thinking both aboutdenver and across the state,
we really want to thinkabout the alignment of our school-based health centersand the youths of aces and overall understanding oftrauma in those services that are being offered; it'ssomething that we really feel can expandstatewide very nicely. we want to really thinkabout title ix, it's connection with ourcomprehensive health education focus and reallylooking at schools where we have over-reporting,under-reporting and really
having of the importantconversations about what's happening to our girls inour schools and then we want to really make sure that, aswe move this work forward, we don't just take the easyway out and implement a bunch of universal supports,but that we really keep the spotlight, as it was today,on our girls of color and with that frame in mindwe're going to think about all of the networks that wealready have statewide and how we really raise thismessage up and even
hopefully move towards astatewide convening at some point in the future. sarah bird: good afternoon. i'm sarah bird. i am here representing ourdistrict from massachusetts; i'm here from reading, mass,but i also have the pleasure of being able to serve onour statewide safe and supportive schoolscommission. so in massachusetts we arereally blessed to have a lot
of the policy at the statelevel in place to clear the way for districts. we have some laws that havebeen placed for the past few years that are going tohelp us really focus on our discipline, rethinkingdiscipline; our chapter 222 has really reframed how alot of our districts are approaching that. additionally we have a lawthat's all about building safe and supportive schoolsand requiring that every
district has a safe andsupportive schools plan districtwide and thenbuilding-wide, which is tremendous because then itallows our superintendents and principals to beable to do the work. so at our state level wereally want to increase the emphasis on this topic. we have historicallybeen very focused on the academics, even withbuilding our multi-tiered system of support which i'veheard many of my colleagues
speak about. it's been really, surelyfocused on the rti side of things, looking at theacademics and how do we interweave the pbis but alsothat overarching piece of how do you look at theembedding of all of them together. we've been lucky enough inreading to have one of the school climatetransformation grants as well as the project aware,so we're using the next
three years that we haveremaining to leverage that locally and then how do webuild capacity at our state level? if we have -- we have threecommunities of practice in the state that have thistime to focus on that as a priority. how can we inform at thestate level so we can help build communities ofpractice regionally and make sure that people have peersthat they can -- you know in
education it's beg, borrow,and steal from those who do the work already. so how can we do thatfor our colleagues? similarly, we are reallylucky to have -- the safe and supportive schoolscommission has put a framework together and aself-assessment tool for schools and it's allpublically available and free for them all and it wasreally started by harvard law's trauma and learningpolicy initiative.
susan cole was here speakingin a couple of the breakout sessions from that. so when we're thinking aboutinfusing trauma into things, it's nice in massachusettsit was kind of done the other way around, that thetrauma work really informed our safe and supportiveschools framework. so how do we getback to our roots? i think we take that forgranted and i think we try to use this generic safe andsupportive schools and we
often lose thetrauma-informed side of things. so how do we continue tobring the attention back to that and my last otherthought is we have lesley university -- brings theeducation to the educators. so instead of requiringeducators who've gone through their education prepprograms and haven't gotten any information on this,they've actually put professors all over thestate to bring helping traumatized children tolearn four-part certificate
programs to our educators. so how do we continue toexpand that program and share that with other statesand share that with other communities so thateveryone can have the same information andsense of urgency? female speaker:it's okay to clap. sarah bird: thank you. i feel heard. alicia modley:hello, everyone.
my name is alicia modley andi'm here representing the great state of minnesota. multiple speakers:(inaudible) alicia modley: igot a little clap. new york, you guys kindof took the room here. alicia modley: (laughs) multiple speakers: (inaudible) alicia modley:but i'm excited to tell you about the work that we'regoing to be doing
in collaboration. i'm here also representingsaint paul public schools; i'm the interim specialeducation director and so one of the things i'm goingto share is the work that we're doing wheretrauma-informed schools does not exclude our scholarswith disabilities, nor does it exclude our multilinguallearners as well. so one thing i wanted toshare: first and foremost i wanted to thank the schoolsocial workers who helped us
launch and continue to -- ithink we need to just give it up for the folks who areon the ground every day -- -- doing the work and so insaint paul it's the school social workers and we'vebeen leading the work for four years, doingtrauma-informed schools to increase the knowledge ofwhat trauma-informed schools are and what they're --what they are not, most importantly as well andteachers simply just want to know "what do i do?"
and so having the space tohave that conversation and providing the tools issomething that we're doing now. continuing to walk to workcross-departmentally is what this work has to besustainable and there has to be continuity in the work. there is no one group whocan do this alone and so we're doing that in ourstate and more specifically in saint paul by isolatingrace in these conversations. race a lot of times getsleft out of the conversation
and so when you bring inrace, you bring in a part of the discussion that has ledto some of the disparities that we see. in addition to that we'realso making sure we're specifically talking aboutour girls, our girls, our scholars, our girls. so for next steps: so we'regoing to continually engage our district leadership,building that sustainability and continuity, also engageour scholars and most of you
guys have said -- guys andgirls and ladies have said -- making sure that ourscholars' voices and narratives are at the tableis how this work is going to be sustainable. i'm going to say that onemore time: making sure that our scholars' voices are atthe table and our girls' is going to make thework sustainable. so in saint paul we'vealready trained almost 3,000 teachers as part of, youknow, our induction and
coming back to school forour new teachers and our old teachers. all teachers were requiredto go through a module informing them of thebasic principles of trauma-informed schools;2,600 teachers. you want to learnmore, let me know. as in -- as of october the 1st, wewill have 30-minute -- nine 30-minute sessions oneverything including
self-care to historicaltrauma and we're also not excluding ourpara-professionals, our bus drivers, folks who make surethat our scholars are safe and welcomedevery single day. so how do we do this? we move from -- we move frombeing reactive to proactive and so one of the thingsthat we're doing is -- similar to what one of mycolleagues said is we're going to do the same thingfor our state, so we're
taking your idea, we'removing into the state of minnesota and eventually ourgoal is to have this meeting in minnesota in thesummer, in the summer. alicia modley: so far ourstate department offering aces training and educationon what that is and making sure that's available forall; also continuing to work interdisciplinary -- workingwith our interdisciplinary teams for collaborativetrainings. how can we worktogether as a state?
in addition, i don't knowhow many of you folks in the room met before you camehere, but we're going to continue this when we leavethe white house, of course, and that's how to make thework more sustainable. most importantly, we'rethinking about doing a youth summit and making sure thatour work does not exclude, once again, our scholars andalso does not include our scholars with disabilitiesand our emergent bilingual scholars as well.
so we're excited and we arealso bringing together all the folks in minnesota tosay "hey, we're going to lead the nation." we lead the nation in somany things in the state of minnesota and when wedesegregate, guess what? for our folks of color, notso much, not so much, and so we're going tocontinue the work. female speaker:good (inaudible). pat conner: i'm pat conner.
i am the director of safeand supportive schools for the tennessee department ofeducation, the great state of tennessee. pat conner: and it really struck melistening to all of you folks, we do not do enoughat the state level to support our districts inthis work at all and so one takeaway that we have movingforward: in two weeks, and jim will be there as one ofour keynote speakers, we
have our first everstatewide conference on trauma-informed schools andto create compassionate schools. we do not have any trainingas of yet for our teachers on trauma and so i have theinformation about trauma, now what? how do i apply thatin my classroom? what do i do? what are the tools? what are the resources?
so that's in progress. we have not looked at ourdiscipline, our student code of conduct at the statelevel for several years and we are in the processof doing that as well. we haven't really examinedour chronic absenteeism rate, but we'redoing that now. so we've got a lot ofpositive things that are going at the state level,that will take time and resources and lot of manpower and when i say those,
i get really overwhelmed,but you have to start somewhere in this. our commissioner ofeducation, candice mcqueen, her strategic goal hasone section -- goals, one section is "all means all,"it's girls of color, boys of color, people who areorange, red, purple, every student in tennessee willreceive and be treated the same way, but we are not, asyou said, looking at girls of color and exactly whatare we doing to them and not
with them? we do have student andadvisory councils that we meet across the state andone takeaway i have from today is we are not meetingwith girls of color in these student advisory councilsand we have got to do that. so i think our districts,memphis and nashville, are some really bright spots inour state, are doing some really great work aroundtrauma and around those disparities, discipline anddisparities, but again i
think it all -- it comesfrom the top down, it needs to come from thestate and work down. we've got to support ourteachers and our districts. we have 144 districts; 88percent have 10,000 or less students in them; very ruralstate, so how do you reach those rural pockets andthat's our challenge, but you know what? we've got a positiveattitude, we've got hardworking people who lovestudents and care about kids
and we can do it. female speaker: everywherewe go we (inaudible). female speaker:(inaudible) we are. female speaker: pat and ihave known each other for a long time. i'm from the wonderful stateof virginia, just down -- round around the corner hereand i bring with me two individuals that i work realclosely with at the state department.
i'm the director of studentservices and i have three awesome school divisionleaders here: richmond city schools, petersburg cityschools, and norfolk city schools. let's give those schoolsa round of applause. they work really hard andthe reason they came here was because oftheir hard work. at the state department ofeducation we -- i've been in my position a little overa year and a half now and
we've really done some --taking it to the tipping point and we'reabout to go there. three years ago wegot a school climate transformation grant and aproject aware and we opened up a center at one of ouruniversities called the virginia tiered center ofsupport, research, and implementation center andwhat we've been doing there is not talking aboutnecessarily all topical issues, but how do wetransform the way we do work
and it's really aboutbuilding systems and building capacities so thatas issues come up -- and so that we can address thethings that are in our data. it's all about data-driven,it's all about the tiered systems, but we'veintegrated the whole behavior thing, we havelooked at social emotional, we've had lots ofprofessional development and we have developedcoaches for our state. so we have about 50 coachesthat we've trained, that go
through a training and partof their job for three years is to work with a schooldivision, we have 132 school divisions, to help themtransform the way they do work and the way they lookat their data and that data means disproportionality,looking at girls of color, looking at academics,because what we don't want to do is to put anotherthing on their plate because we'll just -- they'll shootus and then we'll have a lot of problem in virginia.
so how do they -- and how dowe empower our local school divisions to use thatinformation to build the capacity that they need intheir division with their communities? a big part of what we'redoing is looking at how to reach out to the community. who are your communitypartners that you need to be working with and what arethose efforts and how can you do those wraparoundservices and how do we, most
of all, take careof our staff? you know, children -- i meani love them to death, but they're going to go throughthe system; our staff is going to be there forever. how do we take care of thestaff, to bring back to them the love of being able toteach, so it's not just about academics and not justabout testing, but that whole, human, socialemotional piece of being a teacher and bringing thatpiece back to what we're about?
dr. bedden from richmondreally kindly said, "remember: we've got --we have been focused for several years on academicsand just testing and we've almost gotten -- we'vegotten to be like little robots and we've gotten awayfrom that social emotional piece of connecting as humanbeings and before we can teach, before we can learn,we've got to do that connection." so when we get back tothe state, we're going to
incorporate what we havelearned today, bring our three leaders from ourschool divisions together -- they're all doing littlepilots -- and see how that goes and how we can createthat through our systems of care, kind of process andour vts systems framework to take that throughoutour state. i'm really proud of wherevirginia is; we fought hard to get where we are todayand so thank you and thank you for all thepeople from virginia.
tarence wheeler:(inaudible) thank you, thank you. female speaker: (inaudible)tarence wheeler: my name is tarence wheeler. i represent river rougeschool district, but also the great state of michigan. go blue. tarence wheeler: we're alsorepresenting flint, so i would be remiss if we didn'tacknowledge the flint crisis.
it's unlike anybody in herein terms of the healthcare and water crisis. that pain is going to begenerational; we don't know the effects of those -- thatoutcome in terms of the water poisoning. also from the state levelwe're looking to address the truancy and have flexibilityin our zero tolerance, create trauma-informedschools and approaches that work with our existingsystems, deepen our
partnership with healthcareand mental health systems to collect data on aces. we also realize that it'snot the conditions of our young people, but thedecision-making of adults that determinetheir destiny. tarence wheeler: their success is predicated on our participation. we've got to do all that wecan for as many as we can and, mr. king, we inviteyou to river rouge school
district and walk the hallsto meet and greet our young people. all lives can't matteruntil black girl's matter. female speaker:that's right. thank you to eachof our states. female speaker: and i hope that with the work that georgetown plans to do moving forward thatwe can hold each other accountable for thecommitments made today.
there is no better way toclose out the conversations, collaboration, andcommitments that have taken place here today than withour last speaker, a former massachusetts teacher andschool leader and former commissioner of educationfrom the great state of new york. multiple speakers: yeah. female speaker: a producthimself of new york city schools, this individual hashad to think about school
discipline on the classroomlevel, the school level, the state level, and now atthe national level as our nation's secretary ofeducation, not to mention, perhaps most importantly, asa father of two school age girls himself in thehome level as well. please welcome to the stagea leader who is committed to ensuring excellence andequity for all students, our secretary ofeducation john king. john king: goodafternoon, everybody.
multiple speakers:good afternoon. john king: so i come tothis conversation both from the experience of aneducator focused on our kids who are most at risk andtrying to support their success, as a parent of twogirls, but also a child who experienced trauma in hislife, was saved by school. my mom passed away when iwas eight, october of my 4th grade year. i lived, after my mompassed, with my dad who was
quite sick with undiagnosedalzheimer's and lived with my dad till -- as he gotmore and more sick; he passed away when i was 12. i moved around after thatbetween family members and schools, but at the end ofthe day what saved my life, the reason i'm standing heretoday, the reason i'm alive today, is the work of newyork city public school teachers, who saved my life. what they did for me wasthey -- they could have
looked at me and said,"here's an african american, latino male student, familyin crisis, going to a new york city public school,"and they could have assumed that i couldn't possibly besuccessful, they could have given up on me, but insteadthey didn't and they made school a place that was safeand supportive and nurturing and engaging and interestingand challenging and compelling every day. we read the "new yorktimes" in 4th grade; we did
productions of "midsummernight's dream" and "alice in wonderland" inelementary school. i had teachers who, when ifinished a book, they were there with the next; wheni finished a math problem, they were there with thenext one that was a little bit more challenging andteachers who made school a place where i could be a kidwhen i couldn't be a kid outside of school. i can remember i had ateacher, miss dee, my 7th
grade social studies teacherand i had the chance when i was commissioner ofeducation in new york to go back to my mark twain juniorhigh school classroom with miss dee, who was stillthere teaching middle school social studies. i walked into miss dee'sclassroom and 7th grade was when my father was most sickand i worried every day, i would sit in class and iwould wonder if he was okay and what had happened athome and i didn't know why
he was sick and i didn'tknow why life at home was so unpredictable and it wasduring that period that my father once woke me up, twoin the morning, telling me it was time to go to schooland i didn't know why and i remember hanging onto thebannister in the house saying, "daddy, no, it'snot time to go to school. it's not time to goto school," and not understanding what waswrong, but in miss dee's class i was focused on whatmiss dee was trying to teach
and what we were tryingto do in 7th grade i came to her class, walkedinto her classroom on the day that i was visiting andshe said, "oh, i want to show you something," andshe went to the back of the classroom and she climbed upand, you know, in new york city public schools are bigclosets in a lot of old classrooms -- she climbedup on top and she started rifling through papers -- female speaker: (laughs)
john king: -- and shepulled out the project from 7th grade social studies. the project where i was sofocused on being the best aztec newscaster that -- -- best aztec -- the bestaztec sportscaster there had ever been -- -- that i wasable to really be a kid and be a learner in herclassroom and she'd saved that project and she did notknow then the difference
that that project, thatexperience was making in my life and so today'sconversation is about policy, it is about ourevery student succeeds act implementation plans, itis about how we support professional development fornew educators and current educators, but ultimatelyit is about how we create school environments thatsave kids' lives, how we create communityenvironments that save kids' lives and this isn't aboutthe heroic act of a single
individual, itcan't be, all right? we have to create systems ofsupport for our kids and so this conversation -- i wantto just take a few minutes to review the importance oftoday's conversation because it is about all of usleaving here and asking what can we do to strengthen oursystems of support around our young people. you've talked today aboutthe notion of adverse childhood experiences, whatthose mean in young people's
lives, the effect of traumaon young people's lives, and we have to remember thatevery day educators and mentors and schoolcounselors and bus drivers and the school secretary,they are experiencing with kids the effects ofthose adverse childhood experiences on thosechildren and the results of the experiences that they'vehad and they may not know. i often say to folks, i'mthe first secretary of education to have beenkicked out of high school,
but i hope not the last. right, and i was kicked outof high school because even despite all the investmentthat teachers made in me, all the hope that they gaveme, when i was a teenager i was still mad, mad aboutthings i'd experienced, confused about how -- myrelationship with adults and i acted out and rebelledagainst adult authority. so when you think aboutwhat trauma means, what trauma-informed educationmeans, it means all of us as
adults understanding theimpact that those traumatic experiences are havingon young people and understanding their actionsin that context and if people had not given me asecond chance, i wouldn't be here today either, right? so it's not so simple asinvest in children a sense of hope; it's how yousustain that even when they push against it for reasonsthey may not themselves understand and so this workis about how we build those
systems that create thosemeaningful second chances for young people, the kindsof second chances that saved my life. now you've talked todayabout what it looks like to do trauma-informed care asa community, how we have to bring together schoolsand community-based organizations toaddress students' need. i think dr. burke harrisreferred to it as the need for a movement around thiswork on students' behalf.
well, so we've got to askourselves what does it mean to be a movement, right? in part what it means to bea movement is we have to think beyond our silos,beyond just our functions, beyond just ourinstitutional loyalties. we have to ask: how dowe connect across the intersectionality ofchallenges that our students face? how do we connect acrosseducation and healthcare and
housing and transportation? how do we connect mentalhealth service providers with schools in anongoing partnership? right, not just refer out,but ensure that there's a continuing partnership insupport of our children and we focus particularly on thechallenges facing our young women of color because weknow how significant the obstacles are intoo many schools. i'm sure today you talkedabout our civil rights data
collection, survey data thatshows we have 1.6 million kids who go to a school thathas a sworn law-enforcement officer and no schoolcounselor and those are disproportionally studentsof color, low-income students, that is youngwomen of color in schools who have no one to go to forsupport, but see that sworn law-enforcement officerevery day at the door. right, we know that -- alsofrom that same civil rights data collection, we knowthat african american girls
represent 20 percent of thegirls in preschool, but 54 percent of the girls who aresuspended from preschool; four-year-olds suspendedfrom preschool -- disproportionally youngwomen of color and we've got to confront that; we've gotto ask what are the systemic interventions that willchange that reality? we know that six percent ofthe kids in k-12 experience out of school suspension,but that for african american girls that's 10percent and for white girls
it's two percent and we'vegot to confront that, we've got to confront thosechallenging issues around race and around class andthe impact that they have on you've talked today aboutthe sexual abuse to prison pipeline. that's a conversation somefolks are uncomfortable having, but we've got tohave it for the sake of our kids and you've talkedtoday about the power of trauma-informed schools, butacknowledge that there are
still only a few hundredschools that are deeply engaged in that practice. we have a lot of work to do. so i'm thankful to thefolks who are in this room; grateful to the councilon women and girls for organizing us and the staffat the white house; grateful to our colleagues at thejustice department for their partnership in this work;grateful to the georgetown law center on poverty andinequality for being a
partner in this work;grateful to our many speakers today; gratefulto the aft and the nea for their partnership andsupporting teachers around this work; grateful to mycolleague catherine lhamon and our team at the officeof civil rights who are fighting every day to ensurethat districts and states fulfill theirresponsibilities to our young people and grateful toall of you for gathering for this important conversationand i want to flag and it
was powerful to hear theaccounts of what you are committed to do and i hopein the moments as you are listening to other statesand districts, you are also thinking about, "oh yeah,that's something they came up with that we didn't haveon our list; we're going to add it to our list," andi want to -- i want to reference some of theresources and tools i hope that you will take advantageof and some of them you've heard about today andsome of this may be
reinforcement, but i want tomake sure that you make use of these tools. one of those is our healthystudents, promising futures toolkit which is about howwe connect schools and health and one of therealities is schools are today leaving money on thetable that could support school-basedhealthcare services. i know folks frompennsylvania talked about community schools; well, youdon't have to wait for a
promised neighborhoodsgrant or some other kind of federal grant to createcommunity schools. there are community schoolresources that can be taken advantage of under theaffordable care act and medicaid today and so whatthat toolkit talks about are two things: one, how youcan get reimbursement for school-based provision ofhealth services, including mental health services,also it talks about the importance of using theenrollment process and other
administrative interactionsof schools with families to make sure that familiesare enrolled in health insurance, even thoughlow-income families are guaranteed access to healthinsurance due to the medicaid program, we knowthat there are children who are not receiving regularhealthcare and we engage in a partnership with thechildren's defense fund and the national superintendentsassociation just to say we need to take that step atthe beginning of the school
year to make sure we simplyask families the question: is everyone enrolledin health insurance? all right? making sure that folks aretaking advantage of those health insurance dollars. there are school improvementgrant dollars and school climate transformation grantdollars that you've heard about today. as states think about theirimplementation of the every
student succeeds act,there's an opportunity to think about how they betterleverage school improvement dollars in support ofthis work, how they might leverage those dollars tosupport school-based mental health services, leveragethose dollars to hire school counselors, leverage thosedollars to provide training to school staff. there are the serv grantsthat you heard about, our school emergency responseto violence grants that are
specifically targeted toschool communities that have experienced significanttrauma and there are lessons learned from those granteesthat can be shared. there's our work onrethinking discipline, that is part of the work of thecouncil on women and girls and also part of the work ofthe president's my brother's keeper initiative, butthrough the -- through the rethink discipline effort,we've organized regional convenings to share bestpractices and i hope you
will take advantage of someof the resources developed there to help schools findalternatives to exclusionary discipline and as we dothat, we have to remember it's not just about thepolicy change, it is about culture change. it's not just about sayingdon't suspend, it's about helping support teachersand principals with the practices that will allowthem to create safe and supportive communitiesinstead of using suspension
and expulsion. we recently put out a jointpolicy statement with our other federal partnersaround the importance of eliminating exclusionarydiscipline practices in early childhood; i hope youwill use that as a resource. we also just recently putout guidance on the role of school resource officers toreinforce for all school communities that disciplineshould be done by educators, not by police in schools.
discipline should be done bytrained educators, not by police in schools. there may be -- that's right. there may be ways toproactively engage police officers as mentors andparticipants in the school community, but it is not asthe folks responsible for day to day discipline ofstudents and we put out that guidance to support that.
we also put out companionguidance to higher ed institutions about theimportance of campus police receiving the same kinds oftraining and best practice that the taskforce on 21stcentury policing recommended for police departments,because on too many campuses the campus police aresending the message to students that this is nota place for them and so changing practice of campuspolice is also critical. we have resources andcatherine described the safe
place to learn resourcesthat we released today, but resources around enforcementof title ix, around strategies to combat sexualviolence and sexual assault. we have our project onchronic absenteeism, every student, every day. we've got 30 communitiesaround the country that are engaging thousands ofmentors to help 10s of thousands of students get toschool and the challenge of chronic absenteeismis a huge one.
even the best teacher can'tsucceed with a kid who's not in class and so the questionbecomes how do we support -- how do we get at the rootcauses that are getting in the way and support studentsin getting to school and so i hope you will takeadvantage of those resources and join that effort. we talked today -- severalof the states talked about the role of the everystudent succeeds act conversation.
there is a tremendousopportunity in the new law to focus on a broadeningof the definition of educational excellence. yes, we know studentsneed english. yes, we know they needmath skills; those are foundational, but they arenecessary, not sufficient for success. students also need scienceand social studies and art and music and opportunitiesfor socio-emotional learning
and states can stand up forthat broader vision through the every student succeedsact process, but it won't happen if you're not at thetable and so one of the things to think about withyour teams that are here: who's voice is in thoseevery student succeeds act implementationconversations? how are you helping to shapethe implementation of the law? the law also creates animportant flexibility around the interventions instruggling schools.
a struggling school couldtake advantage of the resources of our pbistechnical assistance center. a struggling schoolcould use federal school improvement dollars tocreate a community school with extended day programsand healthcare programs and dental services, but thatwon't happen unless you are actively engaged in thosestate-level conversations. ultimately what we've beentalking about today is a public health crisis that wecan solve together through
systemic strategies thatsupport our students and you heard about examples of bestpractice, you heard about schools that because oftheir trauma-informed approach are seeing gainsin graduation rates and academic outcomes. this is solvable. we can do better by ourstudents, but we have to do it together and we have todo it in a way that cuts through some of thebureaucratic obstacles that
sometimes get in the wayand so i want to close with this: i'm joined here by mywife who came and she came today because she has spenther career researching these very issues, but began asa first grade teacher in harlem, realizing that shewas underprepared by her teacher preparation program-- which was very good, by the way -- to confront thechallenges of the trauma her students had experienced andshe'll describe the story of a student who would hidewhen something got difficult
in the classroom and thencoming to understand that the reason he would hide wasbecause he had witnessed his parents -- was it one ofhis parents, both of his parents? -- both of his parents beingkilled and so his reaction to stress in the classroomwas to go hide, but as a new first grade teacher shedidn't necessarily know that that was why he was doingthat, nor have great strategies for how torespond to that situation
and so she ended up gettinga doctorate in human development and psychologyto try to better understand how to address -- that verychallenge, but our systemic challenge is we know thereare boys like that young man in classrooms allacross the country. we know there are girls inclassrooms all across the country who have beenvictims of abuse. we know there are boys andgirls in classrooms all
across the country who aredealing with their parents' substance abuse, withdomestic violence in the home, who've lost a parentor both parents, children who are homeless, childrenwho move between foster care families, children who havea parent or parents who've been incarcerated. we know those children arein our classrooms and yet we are not doing enough toequip new teachers or current teachers with thetools they need to support them.
shame on us as the adultsif we don't take that on. so our collective challengeis to make it different; make it different tomorrow,make it different next month, make it differentnext year and the president has charged us to do as muchas we can to support you every moment, all the waythrough january 20th -- -- and we intend (laughs) -- -- (inaudible) and weintend to do exactly that. thank you so much.
female speaker: thank youso much for joining us today. have safe travels home andonward with the work ahead.
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