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WHYY photo credit[/caption] My school district announced that four more schools will be closed at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. This devastating news prompted me to write this letter that will be combined with other school staff, families, and students to ask our state and national leaders to SAVE OUR SCHOOLS. This is my twentieth year as a school nurse serving the students, families, and staff of the Camden City School District. My first twelve years were spent at Cooper’s...

Hello everyone! I wanted to introduce our new interest-based community, 16 Strong Project. 16 Strong works directly with adolescents to empower resilience to ACEs through educational workshops, school partnerships, and community outreach. We strive to continue conversations that help young people navigate the challenges they are facing as a result of ACEs. Through our new ACEs Connection community, we hope to engage individuals who work directly with youth ages 12-25, as well as young...

By Nate Galvan, Sonoma State University News, January 26, 2021 Sonoma State University has been awarded $4.96 million from NASA to design and implement a program that will engage students on the autism spectrum in informal STEM learning. NASA’s Neurodiversity Network (N3) aims to broaden participation in NASA programs to include autistic and other learners with neurological differences. As part of NASA’s Science Activation Program , which is composed of teams across the nation to help...

"SEL and Mental Health" is a critical conversation for all of us, especially in the school context. Please join me and the other panelists on this opportunity hosted by Aperture Education. We will be covering topics spanning school-based mental health services, how educator and student SEL supports learning outcomes, and more. Join us on February 2nd, 1:00 pm PST/4:00 EST SEL and Mental Health Webinar Registration

By David Cohen, Evening Standard, January 18, 2021 London headteachers today laid bare the scale of the mental health crisis affecting schoolchildren and called on the Government to provide urgent support. Speaking out about the hidden youth mental health crisis caused by the pandemic, they told the Standard: “This is the worst it’s ever been — and we haven’t seen the full shape or impact of it yet.” One headteacher called on the Government to set out a targeted mental health recovery...

By Leah Campbell, January 13, 2021, Forbes. Kids have been asked to sacrifice a lot this last year. In-person school, playdates with their friends, travel and sporting activities, and fun extras like trips to the movies. On top of all that, many have been trapped inside with parents facing their own stressors: trying to work from home, keeping businesses afloat, and even just paying the bills after work has dried up. [ Please click here to read more ]

Are you seeking support to build a truly trauma-informed school or community? Trauma-informed work is never a one-size-fits-all program. It is about building a responsive and actionable culture that is rooted in the science of Hope. Building healthy communities takes a full-spectrum approach, from building the buy-in, to implementing and sustaining the process. In this online conference, you will learn the components for building change: understanding how to develop Hope ; learning how to...

By Elizabeth Gehrman, Harvard Medicine, January 21, 2021 Maybe it hasn’t actually been the worst year ever, as internet memes are calling it, but for most of us, 2020 really has been “extra.” Against the backdrop of a pandemic that has created economic havoc and kept people from loved ones and purpose-defining work, the country has endured its greatest social unrest in decades, largely driven by a relentless daily barrage of horrifying racial incidents delivered up close and in real time.

By Mary Kathryn Poole, Sheila E. Fleischhacker, and Sara N. Bleich, The New England Journal of Medicine, January 20, 2021 T he Covid-19 pandemic has moved hunger out of the shadows in the United States. Record numbers of Americans, including one in four families with school-age children, don’t have reliable access to food. 1 Congress has authorized several innovative programs and substantial appropriations to respond to this crisis. Despite these efforts, food insecurity — a long-standing...

Ever want to be able to message in one swoop what SEL, trauma-informed principles and practices, multi-tiered systems of support, and equity + anti-racism work have to do with one another? We do too. Join us this Thursday 1/21 from 12-1 PST as we dive into this meaty topic. We would appreciate your input, expertise, and collective wisdom as we endeavor to eventually create either a document and/or graphic visualization that achieves our goal. Register for the event with this link: ...

Registration is now open for this professional development opportunity in trauma-informed education for New York City Teachers!

Prior to Covid, the majority of K-12 schools were running on schedules that didn’t serve students well. In the latter half of the 20th century, school start and end times were designed around bus schedules. To use the same fleet of buses for all students, schools in suburban areas created schedules with high school students as the first arrivals. Yet study after study shows that early school starts don’t work best for adolescent sleep needs. Data supports the fact that later start times...