Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing On How Schools Deal With Childhood Trauma 20240714

Wild of pennsylvania and mr. Castro of texas are permitted to participate in the hearing today with the understanding that their questions will come only after all members of the subcommittee on both sides of the aisle are present and have had an opportunity to question the witnesses. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7c, Opening Statements are limit nod the chair and the Ranking Member. This allows us to hear from the witnesses sooner, and provide the members with adequate time to ask questions. Can you hear me all right . I recognize myself now for the purpose of making an opening statement. I want to begin by ak nolging that this morning marks 18 years since the terrorist attacks that struck new york, pennsylvania and the pentagon on september 11th, 2001. Let us please take a moment to remember the 2,977 lives lost in those attacks. Thank you. This morning, we are here to discuss the federal governments responsibility to ensure that every child from the marianos to maine has a nurturing learning environment. Today, many children are prevented from reaching the full potential, because they are suffering from the significant longterm effects of trauma. In fact, 34 million children or 45 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. The school can often manifest in trouble, and falsified or depression or anger. These challenges can be further compounded by discipline or helpful support if the school is not aware of the signs of the toxic stress. Such as their teachers should have known this. The children of trauma Natural Disasters have also affected the children and well bchlgt of the middle school distristudents in district who started the new school year in femabuilt tents is not an ideal learning environment, especially when the students, themselves, have their homes lost or damaged. Damage from the storm also forced the schools to force their children to attend half a day session of other campus, and robbing them of having a full campus learning environment of their own. While we dont know fully how the students will fare over time, studies show that over a lifetime, victims of trauma can face a higher risk of drug and alcohol abuse, and greater risk of suicide and shorter life span. 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 the 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. Americas homicide rate for 15 to 24 yearolds 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 in school since the columbine tragedies in 1999. And 228,000 students. Americans of course are now 50 times more violent than the 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. We have all experienced Mass Shootings in the past three months. They are failed by residents in chicago, detroit and other cities where the families are exposed to a constant trail of gun violence, and while this is series of trauma and School Practices, we cannot say it is not preventable. The improving access to Mental Care Health and quickly rebuilding the schools lost to Natural Disasters, addressing poverty are some of the many challenges that we can make to improve the quality of life for children across the country. But given that we are shown little ability to address these issues, the very least we can do is to help the students to educate, schools to educate children who shoulder the burden of firearm action. Nearly 30 of the children who need Mental Health care do not receive it. Students of color who are more likely to experience trauma are often exposed to segregated schools that cannot afford Mental Health resources. And children of color disproportionally suffer the effects of emotional and physical trauma. The government of Accountability Office found that the states are facing numerous issues supporting the children affected by trauma, including funding challenge. And to make matters worse, first from the congressional republicans, by repeatedly having moved this funding from k12 education. This is the elimination of the title 2 funding for Teachers Professional Development and the critical title for a program which is designed to improve School Conditions for student learning. The experts here brought in their understanding of how the Trauma Informed Care can be integrated into the learning practices and the student Discipline Services and Graduation Rates and school climate. They will help us to understand how congress can support trauma and inform practices to help students succeed. Todays discussion is an important step towards addressing a Public Health issue affecting communities throughout the country. Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here. I now yield to the Ranking Member for his statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank you for recognizing the anniversary of sorry. 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 the age and the reliance of adults to keep them safe, children are more vulnerable to trauma. Studies show that 26 of children in the United States will witness or experience a traumatic event before they turn 4. In more than 2 3 of children reported at least one traumatic event by age 16. Even more disturbing is the statistics surrounding the children in the welfare system. 95 of children reported psychological and physical abuse and 99 reported psychological and sexual abuse. This is absolutely heartbreaking. Trauma can include any variety of frighten iing events such as cyberbullying or the death of a loved ones. These can be caused by events at home or 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 to a childs 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 isnt reading by 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 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 that, i can better accommodate and address those childs needs in the classroom. However, teachers in the Education System are no replacement for the 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 child of a child. Education is one piece of supporting and shaping children. All of this in this room today want to see the nations children and make sure they are loved, happy, safe and successful. In fact, it is my goal when i ran for office that it is time to quit losing our children. Theres not a person here who does not care deeply about their futures. That is why we shouldnt turn any kind of trauma experience by a child into a political platform. Instead, we should focus on equipping families, schools, 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 the nations children, and they are our future. This hearing will examine the effects of trauma on schoolchildren and how to identify and address them and most importantly how the help students to have access to save, supportive and Healthy Learning environment. I had as a point of personal privilege, i had the opportunity of 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 . Its interesting, too, that i was given a book at a meeting two weekends ago. Its 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 meant through as a child what he experienced in the streets while 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. Thank you very much, Ranking Member allen. Without objection, all the members who wish to insert written statements into the record may do so by submitting to the Committee Clerk electronically in microsoft word format on september 25th. I will now introduce our witnesses. Dr. Nadine burk harris is the Surgeon General of california. He she is also an advocate dedicated to changing the way our schools excuse me, the way our society responds to one of the most serious, widespread Health Crises of our time, childhood trauma. Previously she funded the center for youth wellness and grew the organization to be a National Leader in the effort to advance pediatric medicine, raise Public Awareness and change the way society responds to children. She also founded and led the Bay Area Research consortium on toxic health, advance scientific screening and treatment of toxic stress. She had publiced articles on Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma. She also published a book entitled the deepest well, healing the longterm affects of childhood adversity. Wow, you have been busy, dr. Harris. Next, the associate superintendent of mcdowell hunt schools in West Virginia. She is in her 16th year as an educator. She is dedicated to teaching at Sandy River Middle School and High School Administrator in charge of the curriculum and instructions at riverview high school. Two of my youngest happen to be Public Schoolteachers. But currently dr. Barker works as an associate superintendent. She also serves as the countys testing and title nine coordinator and works extensively to support the development of comprehensive Student Supports in the country. Dr. Barker earned her bachelors of arts degree 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 at marshall university. Mrs. Joy halfmyselfer, 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 revealed its ineffective state examines, released a more meaningful and user friendly accountability system and bolstered student safety. With an emphasis on collaboration and focus on ensuring oklahoma students have opportunities to achieve academic success, she strengthened testing, revamped teacher and brought instructional practices that meet children where they are. And finally, but not the least, dr. Janice jackson, the chief executive officer of chicagos public School System. She has been emersed in cps her entire life as a former student, teacher, principal, chief Education Officer and now as a parent to cps students. A ceo of the Third Largest School District in the country, she is focussed on improving excellence, equality and access in all cps schools. Her efforts, along with those of chicagos dedicated teachers and principals, have propelled cps students to record breaking academic gains and and education experts regard chicago as a National Leader in urban education. She has a masters degree in leadership 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 system. 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 70 and Committee Practice, each of you is asked to limit your oral presentation to a fiveminute summary of your written statement. Let me remind the witnesses that pursuant to 5018 of the u. S. Code section 10001, it is illegal to knowingly and willingly falsify any statement, writing, document or material presented to congress or otherwise consume 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. As you begin to speak, the light in front of you will turn green. After four minutes, the light will turn yellow to signal that you have one 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 the 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 burk harris. You have five minutes. 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 death, Mental Health, behavioral and social outcomes and demonstrate high rates of intergenerational transmission. High levels of adversity without the buffing protections of a trusted caregiver 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. 62 of American Adults have experienced at least one ace and 15 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. In the original cdc research was done in a population that was 70 kcaucasian, 70 college educated. There is no 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 it, 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 three 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 ek logical and Public Health response to aces and toxic stress. Trauma informed practices in schools ensures 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 decisionmaking by schools and School Policies and explicit family and Community Involvement including support for families who with managing stress. Restorative disciplinary practices and programs to prevent retraumaization should be the norm. It 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 vie kashs traumatization and supports for educator wellbeing. 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 of pediatrics, both the World Health Organization and the centers for Disease Control recognize that schools are a place for Vulnerable Children to connect with supportive adults and peers outside of their families. Supportive relationships with peers, teaches and coaches have been shown to protect against depression, Substance Abuse and other risky behaviors and also support and promote academic success. The opportunity ahead of us is about the true intersection of health care 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. Thank you very much, dr. Burkharris. Id like to now recognize dr. Barker for five minutes, please. 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 living with grandparents. These numbers along with Drug Overdose rates create the perfect storm of issues. Besides battling the issues, we face the challenges brought to us by generational poverty ranging from kinship care issues to generational trauma that families face. The school see adverse impact of these challenges in student attendance, behavior and academics. For many students whose main focus is on survival and managing the basic needs, all the mental capacity is used up in 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 is lacking in many students lives. Thats 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 born to low you economic status tend to lag behind once they enter our schools. They also come to us with several a scores. Many of our kids witnessed abused, parent Drug Overdose, parent incarceration and violence early on. Schools can break the cycle of trauma by helping provide protechive factors such as strengthening social connections, providing concrete support in a time of need and helping children develop social and emotional competence. We as educators have a choice. Wait for somebody else to help our families and children or we can do something now while we have our did and our schools. Of course, the school staff cannot do the job alone. We have degrees in education, not Mental Health, psychiatry or social work. Therefore, we are applying Community School strategy to leverage and communicate resources with a score of Community Providers to held f our kids. The strategy is also an equity strategy. It creates 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 Fulltime 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. South side k8 in our district has been using this strategy for several years. And now we see that we can keep our teachers instead of having a 40 turnover every year, we have very few teachers leaving, so it contributes to that stable environment and great culture in a school. As a district, we have an emphasis on securing partnership on a district level because we are so remote and the schools frequently dont 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 diminishing tax base. Therefore, increase funding education is needed. When faced with choices so directing these funds to meet students needs, we should not have to chose between helping students to learn and do math and hiring nurses, Mental Health therapists and social workers. Both 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 having to chose between funding academics and emotional supports. These practices also can break the cycle of generational poverty and generational trauma in our students lives because their parents often cope 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. Thank you very much, dr. Barker. Now i recognize you for five minutes, please. Good morning. Thank you chairman, Ranking Member allen and members of the committee. 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 socialemotional growth of our school children. Oklahoma has made tremendous strides in various fronts in Public Education. Academic standards, National 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 child of Childrens Health reports that oklahomas youngest children suffer more trauma than those in any other state. According to the foundation, oklahoma ranked 42nd in the nation in child wellbeing. 75 of our students suffer moderate or serious depression. 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 four 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 focussed opportunity for all educators in the state with approximately excuse me, 42,000 Classroom Teachers we expect to serve 10,000 at that event. Providing increased support to address the implications of trauma among our states 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 sight interventions and professional development to schools and districts. Developed last spring, it is 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 dedicated 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 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, traumainformed instruction is working. One teacher said after attending professional development, our school brought back 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 evidencebased 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 doesnt have to be a life sentence, and we believe we can move our children from trauma to hope. Thank you very much. And now id like to recognize dr. Jackson for five minutes please. All right. Good morning, chairman, Ranking Member allen and members of the committee. I am the chief executive officer for chicago Public Schools which served 361,000 students and is the Third Largest School District in our nation. I am grateful to talk about one of the greatest challenges 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 can create trauma for chicagos 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 kim. 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. Because of that, they are far more likely than their peers to experience multiple traumas. This repeated exposure can have farreached effects on youth. Chicago educators also feel the pain and uncertainty right alongside the students they serve every day. This is referred to as secondary trauma. For both students and teachers, trauma becomes a form of toxics stress in their brain when left untreated. It can lead to behavior problems, more Mental Health 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 have behallen them. But thanks to one of the many programs, their situation is changing. This summer, cps in the city launched a first of its kind program called summer more change targeting students exactly like the ones mentioned before. Students from underserved urban communities at risk for being impacted by violence. During the sixweek program, 430 youth participated in enrichment opportunities and were given access to mental to mentoring and trauma informed therapy that they needed. The program gave these students access to something they were missing, caring and trustworthy students 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 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 the 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 discipline practices moving away from suspensions and expupgss. This resulted in a sharp decline and led to the lowest ever dropout rate in our districts history. Other targeted trauma informed intervention supports coping with anxiety and depression to managing their emotions and taking responsibility for their choices. This helps them ensure 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 kara. 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. She was recruited to join a structure psycho therapy for adolescents responding to chronic stress program otherwise known as spark and things have started to turn around. She is learning to talk through her emotions and make better decisions. 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. To keep this vitally important work going, cps and other School Districts need additional support. There is a serious need for increased federal funding to combat the effects of trauma on our youth. Only when our countrys 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 in a productive life or, no, a productive and fulfilling life. I thank you for listening to my testimony and your time and look forward to your questions. Thank you very much, dr. Jackson. You make me miss my grandmother, actually, growing up. But under Committee Rule 8a, we will now question minutes under the fiveminutes 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. I would recognize the designee. So lets start with you. You have five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. 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 im so grateful that were talking about this. I am also a pediatrician, and, so, i come at this with a little bit different perspective. I have been thinking about kind of how we can really address this because the aces are 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 its 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 examine room. A lot of it 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 will be for you, dr. Jackson, about the difference between expulsion suspension, traditional responses to misbehavior in school and how that contrasts with now. But i want to talk with you dr. Burkharris about what we can do to help these families instead of catch things upstream. In Washington State, there is a couple really exemplary programs that meet families where they are, so it addresses these exact situations to help them build their Childrens Health. But one of them is called the ppp program, or Washington States positive parents program, and it aims to assist parents in preventing a lot of serious, behavior and emotional problems were seeing in kids. The other is the Guiding Good Choices Program that helps parents of kids 9 to 14yearold who are just entering a really turbulent period to make good choices through adolescents. The triple ps is reducing childhood abuse and negligent and academic success are outstanding and result to taxpayer savings of 1,400 per participants participants. It demonstrates increases in the number of positive interactions between parents and children, lower rates of Substance Abuse, lower rates of delinquency and affects that last 40 weeks out. I was going to ask you if there is 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. Thank you. In california so we recognize that when were 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 in children and adults and responding with Trauma Informed Care and our governor has allocated 40 Million Dollar to reimburse providers for doing that and 60 Million Dollar over three years to train providers on how to do that and how to respond to care. So ensuring that adults also have access to Mental Health services and support for vulnerable families under stress, it has to be a two generation approach. 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 this screening program. So we in washington will be learning from you in california. One program i also recommend is childparent psycho therapy, a clinical intervention i have used in my clinical practice as well as any traumafocussed therapy that can be used for kids and adults. Great. Thank you. I still have time. So dr. Jackson, i wonder if you could paint a picture for my colleagues about what it would look like traditionally if you had a child misbehaving so much in school that they would be sent home versus how you handle that in a school thats focussed on traumainformed behavior modification and education. Thank you. In short, in chicago Public Schools, we first started by looking at the policies that lend to not only outrageous numbers of students being suspended and expelled from school but the disparity between africanAmerican Students and their peers. 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 and giving students access to Mental Health professionals either in the school or outside of the community. 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. Im happy to say that, you know, we have been engaged in this work for about six or seven years now, and now we have the data to show that when we invest in our students and look underneath to figure out whats 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 they can implement them with fidelity and care for students. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, the designee of the Ranking Member is recognized for five minutes. Thank you so much. Thank you for really hosting this critical hearing topic that is extremely important. 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 have not developed the resiliency, strategy or skills to be able to prevent the real Destructive Force of trauma longterm. I want to thank each of the members of this panel for bringing your expertise, passion 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 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 is so many different forms of trauma and what has really made it present in absolutely every School District i think and 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, the, you know, what that does. So thank you for being here and sharing. In your testimony, you mentioned the importance of professional development and teacher preparation programs that focussing on traumainformed instruction. Can you provide some specific examples of what this looks like . Yes. It is based on the science of hope. 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. Its 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 thats sleeping at the back of the classroom in middle school and a teacher might ask maybe in the past whats wrong with that kid, we want to ask whats happened and what can we do to give them confidence and build that relationship. And when our kids have that 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. I appreciate those observation skills. Where i am out of in health care for 28 years, and it is a method i use here, root cause analysis, really finding out whats at the root cause of the behavior youre seeing versus just condemning the behavior. Im heartened by the fact that i have heard that this committee working a bipartisan way with past congresses, we have recognized the need, we have authorized programs. I have heard those mentioned a few times, how they have been helpful. I think its 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. What we are seeing is that our students are more engaged. 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 the classroom that starts with teachers engaging studenting. 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. It 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, didnt 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. Thank you. Thank you, chairman. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Thompson. We alternate sides in questioning, so id like to recognize the chairman of the full committee for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. 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 . So several things. First of all, what the science shows, the safe, stable and nurturing environments are key. So those nurturing relationships are absolutely critical. And the opportunity in traumainformed educational systems is for everyone in that childs environment to be a dose of a buffering relationship, if you will. In clinical practice, what we see sleep, exercise, nutrition, mindfulness 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 behavior outcomes. Thank you. Dr. Jackson, if a child is subject to trauma, does it have an effect on achievement . And how do you measure that . I had the mic on the whole time. Thank you for that question. There is definitely a correlation between students exposure to traumatic events and their readiness in 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 theyre excluded from school is that we were able to see the correlation between increases in student attendance, access to Health Care Professionals in the school and outside the school resulting in students achieving higher on standardized assessments they were taking. We have also been able to track our students over time and look at Graduation Rates where we have experienced a 20 increase in the past eight years. Much of that can be attributed to the changes we have made around addressing the root cause analysis of whats going on with our students and making sure 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 they have received at three different tier levels. And because that information is tracked and made publically available, parents are able to see that and they are able to use that to make determinations about schools, for example. It has really insent vised the educators to really make sure they organize their schools to be safe and supportive environments for students. 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 of our schools meet that. Our goal is obviously 100 , but that is pretty dramatic progress in a fiveyear period. Thats what happens if you intervene. What happens if you do not intervene and a child is subject to trauma . I think a lot of that has been covered today. But students that have been exposed are more likely to repeat the behaviors they have either experienced or beenics posed to. One of the things we have also focussed on in addition to gun violence and the effect of poverty and some of the other things talked about a lot today is looking at the challenges or lgbtq students experience. So this has become a bigger priority here at cps. We see students drop out of school. Students are at a higher risk for unproductive behaviors. At a higher risk for suicide and all things that can be really traumatic. One of our goals is to really intervene as soon as possible to try to reverse some of those negative outcomes. Can you tell me the importance of title 4a, Student Support services under sea . I think we talked a lot about this today. Projects like the project prevention funding and others the district has been able to apply for provide us with the funding and support so that this is sustained. We now know better, so it is incumbent upon us to do better. They need training and education to do this. I would say once we get to a place where we have reached a utop utopia, we will be providing support for the educators that work with our students as well. I talked about secondary trauma earlier and i want to lift that up. We have a Teacher Shortage in the country, and we know that this 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. If we do not adequately train the teachers, we will continue to see turnovers and this cycle persist. Thank you very much. And as we alternate sides again, this time i recognize mr. Tim monos for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank all the witnesses. It is often the case that children struggling with trauma do not communicate with teachers the stress and other traumarelated problems they face. In your experience, what have you found to become indicators of a child struggling with trauma or Traumatic Stress . 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. That could be an older sibling in middle school that is taking care of the younger children who got them to school on them 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 focussed 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 they are serving and then act on evidence to create Trauma Sensitive School policy. Thank you. You talk about removing barriers to getting children help. What can be done to encourage kids to actively seek help . I think its about being sensitive to where our kids are. We are it can look different in different settings. Im thinking of an example just the start of the school year. You have tornado drills. And i was reaching out in one of my School Superintendents mentioned how they had 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 traumainformed policy. What they had new eyes to see kids that were going to go through that tornado drill, and there were 15 of them that were very effected 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 its a small thing, but it made a great difference in those childrens lives and it also allowed them to at least stay as focussed 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 cant 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 be 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. Thank you. What role does the family play in this process . 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 dont want to come to school. They dont 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 at a more welcoming way 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. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being here for this very important hearing. I taught in and i saw represent a Congressional District thats been defined by tragedy. Sandy hook is in my district. And in my own School District, 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 traumainformed 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 five. Just this spring, one of the parents of the students at sandy hook tragically took his own life. I ask you if the adults are still struggling, imagine what children are going through. Recently did a study in connecticut, and the results were astonishing. 90 of kinder gardiners reported experiencing ace events, but only 23 were currently displaying symptoms. What this tells us is that 67 of students are experiencing aces but are unidentified and untreated, allowing them to worsen over time. So i am 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, id like to introduce this testimony that i just cited into the record. Thank you. So my question today, i have two questions. First for dr. Burk here is what can we do post trauma for families to make sure that they have the supports that they need, you know, two years, five 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 its not the childrens 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 point of children. Oftentimes we think of events like the ones i just described but we have children with long trauma as a result of their daily interactions and teachers who see this year after year. It is kind of hard to feed hope into someone when you are just repeating this cycle every single year. So dr. Burkharris . 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 traumainformed care is so critical, because we have to be providing these supports and services routinely for as part of our way of doing business in education in order to respond to the endemic levels of trauma that were seeing. Another piece is the role of screening and partnership, crosssector partnerships. The prevalence of trauma is so high that, you know, i hear educators saying, okay, what can we do . I hear doctors and Law Enforcement saying what can we do . How can we be part of the solution . When each of us takes our little piece, right, there is a tremendous amount we can do to support resilience and buffering across our communities and increasing that communelative dose of buffering, making sure that every adult in the environment understands not only how theyre managing their own history of adversity because as you mentioned it is not just vicarious trauma for educato educators im sorry. I dont mean to cut you off, but i can not let my time expire without speaking to what happens to teachers. All right. Teachers, we see Higher Turnover rates in burnout. We also see depression. We have had teachers report depression as a result of some of the things they have been able to hear. And not because not only because the stories are so challenging but because in some cases its feeling of hopelessness. When we dont have the resources or a place to point students and families to when they have the courage to share with us whats going on, teachers feel hopeless in that regard, and that can contribute to some of the depression and things that have been reported. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you. And at this time, im going to recognize the Ranking Member of the full committee, dr. Fox, for five minutes, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman, and i want to thank our witnesses for being here today. In your testimony, you discussed the states work in 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 . 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 be have more students participate in the Prevention Needs survey. Actually for the last reported school year we have data from we have 47940 students participate in the grades of sixth, 8th, 10th and 12th grades. Thats 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 its across the board. Were 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 the Health Department as well to work on battling the physical aspects of health as well. So its paramount. You mentioned in response to represent questions from representative timmions family that you have the largest per capita incarceration rate in oklahoma in the country. I would assume from that that there are a lot of singleparent families in oklahoma. Have you done anything to look at the impact of singleparent families on whats happening with students and how to deal with that as trauma . 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 high 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 dont 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. Thank you. In your miss hofmeister in your testimony it says that 75 of your students suffer moderate to serious depression. Thats 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 . Thank you, again. And and this is the Needs Assessment where we did receive that very compelling information from students. And we also know that it doesnt 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 its a requirement for graduation. But it starts early. Sixth grade grade, 7th grade, 8th grade as our students tell us as we have spent two years piloting this, that those students who engaged in in had purpose. And an awareness of a future beyond the tassel and graduation, that it is about something more. And teachers who now arent just delivering tests at the end of a course but are looking beyond that at the student and their strengths. In actually has had an impact on hope and on trauma informed practice that was unexpected and we are studying with our researchers. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Thank you, dr. Foxx. Im going to be more strict on time because we do have some members in line for questioning. At this time id like to recognize mr. Morelle for five minutes, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im sorry, mr. Morelle, im really sorry. I need to dr. Shalala, please. I apologize mr. Morelle. Dr. Shalala, please. Thank you. Madam Surgeon General, last week h. H. S. 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. What the report outlined was how this administrations child separation policy makes worse the trauma that immigrant children have already experienced on their journey to this country pch the investigators found separated children exhibited more heightens symptoms offing and stiet fear, abandonment and ptsd than clirn not separated from parents. The report goes so far as to say and i quote some separated chirp expressed acute grief that caused them to cry inconsolably. Many of the children will 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 1,000 children, the teachers had no training in trauma. Kwo you tell us what the science says about the effects of separating Young Children from their parents and placing them in inadequate conditions . The science on that is unequivocal, that this is a harmful practice and that it increasing childrens both physical health risks as well as their mental, psychological and developmental risks. Thank you. Perhaps the executive director from chicago could comment, because youve had a lot of immigrant children that have come through. And mo are in your School System on your own experience with these children that have been separated from their families for some period of time. Yes, i would just extend some of the comments that dr. Burkeharris made, in particular at the School System. Cps, china is a welcoming city, a sanctuary city. We have a lot of students who emigrate to the United States and end upsetting 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 dont have any barriers to enrollment, but also working with our students to make sure that there is a a 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 in 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 there by making it easier for to us identify students who may have experienced trauma, you know, they would disclose that so 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. Miss hofmeister, what advise, particularly in the large facilities 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 us on insisting that if we are going to hold unaccompanied children that we ought to be training the teachers . Well, we definitely agree that our teachers need and actually want professional development support. Stupts 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 its 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, our title 4 as well that are afforded to us under the flexibility of a essa and we are grateful for that. Thank you. I yield back. Thank you very much, dr. Shalala. And at this time and im based to recognize mr. Grothman for five minutes, please. Thank you. First of all i want to respond a little bit to congresswoman sthal las comments. Ive 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 its better for children to be with their parents and right now apparently under american law we have to accept most of the children or do try to accept them or find foster care. I would be happy to work with her and, a, make sure the children are not allowed in this country, with you but sent back to countries of original willingen to be reunited with parents and secondly i know one of the things that bothers the Border Guards is even when thinner children come with a parent frequently its 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 the, you know, parents are operated we try to keep them in the same area as the children. So id 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 can be with both parents. Mr. Chairman if i might respond, the point is, if theyre here, if theyre being incarcerated by us, in a facility, and were offering Educational Services whenever services were offering. We those teachers ought to be trained. Thats the problem. We have too many people around here dont want to address the problem. Okay now. You yield. Miss hofmeister just because some of the statistics any throw out i almost question. Youre telling us that 75 of the children in oklahoma suffer moderate or serious depression . I mean if i look out on a class of 28 kids, 21 suffering from depression in are you sure thats right or somebody isnt kind of exaggerate sng 21 out of 28 if i look at a crass in oklahoma. That is what the data tells us. And that is based on the students voice. Again, we have surveyed 47,090 oh. Thats okay. I just encourage you because i find that hard to believe. Ill ask ms. Jesus Christ Jackson i wasnt aware you have you did so many immigrants of the Chicago Schools of the immigrants you invite into the sanctuary cities how many immigrant children how many come with both parents and one parent and no parent. I dont have that information. I dont want to playbook up any numbers. Thats very relevant. Why dont you because you collect all sorts of other data. Why can you get that information for us . Because id like to know what were getting here. Just for the record we do not collect that information as a School District. We have removed every barrier for students to enroll. Thats not information that we even collect. You mean you dont know if say johnny breaks his arm or something, you dont know whether no parents are at home, one parent at home or two parents at home . You dont keep track. We know for every student who is the parent or guardian of record. What im saying is we dont know initially a students status, whether we dont ask them that information when they enroll in school in chicago. It doesnt matter our doors are open to all students. Thats not the point. Im just kind of stunned there thats not the purpose of the 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 theyre mom and dad both mom and dad should know if just one parent is know if no parents and we deal with a guardian or Foster Parent we should know. We do. We do have the information for the guardians and the parents of record. Okay. Can you but you dont so you cant tell us the percentage of immigrants in chicago who are have a guardian and not a parent of the people who came here who are a different citizenship . No, sir as i stated earliyer thats not information we collect. Okay. Well next question. And im going to follow up on congresswoman foxxs 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 thats a some absolutely wonderful parents. Wonderful parents i know in that situation, doing a great job. But i think overall might be better sometimes both parents there. Do you have on how well your children do and could you adjust it for parental situation at home . No typically when we did he segregate the data we look at race, socioeconomic class, gender, i think knows are the and then ability, whether or not the student is special needs student or not. We do not the segregate the data based on family status. That stuns me. I mean if were going to i mean, thats something we can change peoples behavior on, right in the future youre not going to change your race, youre not changing many of the other things. I hate to interrupt. But i said i was going to be stricter on time. Youve been very patient thank you very much. Thank you mr. Grothman. And now mr. Morelle, please. Your five months. Good morning. Thank you, mr. Chairman. This is truly a an important topic and i appreciate each of the witnesses and their testimony. I think this is a really really important topic. I had some prepared remarks which um going to largely dispense with. Just talk about my district for a moment which is in upstate new york. Rochester, new york. Rochester has been last several years identified as number two or three in terms of childhood poverty in the United States among cities. So its something that is distressing the impacts the poverty. Ive been working on a number of initiatives which im going to touch on briefly. But in the context of some of the work that ive been doing around poverty several years ago i would admit to the fact that i thought when people talked about trauma that it was generally regarded as physical kinds of trauma, domestic violence, gang related vienlts eviolence, neighborhood violence. And its really become clear to me over the years ive been sense advertised to the fact natures housing and food insecurities and things gnaw dont necessarily see easily. And so thats led me to lead an effort in rochester the last several years with significant state and philanthropic support to not have Trauma Informed Care in the community but in an interdisciplinary way. You talked about how in the Nurse Practitioners see faum trauma. Class room educatorsers see trauma. In rochester we are trying to break down president siel os between education, health and human servicess and the professionals can all speak to one another and identify trauma. Something im very engaged in, very optimistic about. But i wanted to just ask a couple of questions. I think youve done a great job 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 times of things you are doing. One of the things that i would like to ask you to talk a little more detailed about and perhaps ill start with dr. Burkeharris. But any panelist who wants to comment, is you talked about screening. Im just curious what the research tells you about how to identify trauma in children. Im sure there is screening questions you can 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 just curious as to what research tells you and what you are doing to try to become more sensitive to or more aware of drama are trauma that is dont have an easily outward identifiable manifestation if thats a fair question. Id be curious of the roerch tell us and what youre doing anterior innovation around that . Absolutely you are right. Some children will demonstrate behavioral or learning difficulties. But many children will not. For many children there are no outward signs. And thaps why, number one, screening is so important and thats why california has moved towards universal screening for Adverse Childhood Experiences for children and adults. May i ask you, can you talk a little about what that screening consists of. I hate to be really granular but trying to get at that. The screening actually consists of the the ten criteria that were in the Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire. Which, for example, dont include poverty or Community Violence. Although the screening that were using in california, the pediatric life screening, the pearls tool does include other determineants of health. Food instewart. Housing insecurity. Community violence, et cetera tp. Thats used for kids and then the traditional Adverse Childhood Experiences for adults. And then may i ask you im sorry the five minutes so by so quickly. When you look at food insecurities is is it done through interview with the child or do you get data from other sources that you integrate . How do you get to that . The screening is done in the primary care home. Its a questionnaire that that families fill out. And actually the way that we do it in california is we use a deidentified screen. We actually say, dont necessarily tell us which ones of these your child experienced, only how many. That allows the primary care clinician to rapidly in the short 15minute pediatric visit identify who needs Additional Services and they can receive the services from a social worker. And do you find that there is that people the respondents still feel stigmatized in some way about being truthful about the environment that their child is living in . Is to it sort of an medium sizement . Is it easier to get to that. The doe identified screen makes it easier, higher dlo disclosure rates. Im sorry i ran out of time mr. Chair. I hope to get further information from the panelists. Now i recognize mr. Taylor for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im going to yield two minutes to mr. Rochester to continue his line of questioning. Mr. Morelle, you have two minutes. Mr. Taylor, thank you. Quite a gentleman. I am trouble not troubled by it. I understand it. So the the ability to sort of drill down and really identify is partly selfidentification by a parent porp guardian. Is there any verification you do . Or how do you sort of get to i guess im i know this is really granular but its sort of ooifgt things hard to identify. We have 88,000 providers, primary care providers in california who see medicaid patients. In order for the 88,000 to aye aces rapidly in primary care thap thats why we use the deooiftd screen. And when the deidentified screen shows a family needs more services for whatever reason, then theyre referred to someone who can unpack that and do an identified screen. Thats the verification. So its a twostep process. And that allows us to be able to more thoroughly identify. And thats primarily done through the health side. Thats a primary care provider. Gentlemen yes on the melt side through the primary care provider. Do you match that data with anything you get out of the class room so that so 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 we wolbert that have thought that child is suffering from trauma or maybe by one piece but when we quine there is a troubling pattern here that tells us we ought to do x. Knows are the systems we hope to put in place and i look forward to leading in my role as Surgeon General of california. Thank you, mr. Taylor for extend nag courtesy. I dont know if anyone else had a maccomment about the aggregating information if you might continue to borrow my time from mr. Taylor who has been very kind. I did have one question. You said two minutes i probably used them both. Ill yield back. I appreciate both mr. Taylors indulgence and the panelists. Thank you mr. Morelle. Miss host miefrts when we do we have statistical data on the sources are of childhood trauma . What are the sources . What are we yes wibts childhood abuse, neglect and other forms of child malpractice. Those could be when were thinking strictly about aces or Adverse Childhood Experiences those are different events that occurred in the life. Divorce of a parent, an incarcerated parent. To do we have percentages for that . I mean this percentage is yes oklahoma leads the nation with ace scores of two or higher. We know that this is also in our world in schools we feel its most important to be able to focus on learning but we really cant 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 to 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 rushing over the brain in a constant fight or flight kind of mode is not going to know what to do when you say stop, quit, dont. But instead a teacher can simply say its time to open our book or walk in the hall. Those are practical examples of tools that teachers can use and they dont have to know a childs history to be able to do that. And just speaking of history, what protections have you put in place in terms of privacy . 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 doug, who do you tell privacy. I think privacy is very important. 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 thats a very important first step. There is a program thats being used right now between Law Enforcement and schools. Its 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. Im im sorry i yield back, mr. Chairman. Thank you mr. Taylor. So now id like to recognize miss davis for five miss davis for five minutes. All right. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of you. I think this is politically well informed and inspirational panel today and i want to thank you for that. Weve just been talking about sources of trauma for students. Miss hofmeister you mention abuse, neglect. One of the issues that hasnt come up is gun violence and the impact that that has on students, certainly not the only source of trauma as we said. But its one of those sources. And i know we had a hearing here recently, and miss hayes asked secretary devos about the use of federal money to arm teachers. She stated she lax the authority, secretary devos that she lacks the authority to tell schools they cant use federal funding to arm teachers. But im wondering where you all feel this comes in and whether you you believe that maybe if you all want to have a show of hands whether or not you think that argument teach certifies 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. I can only speak to oklahoma. The record. 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. We just so the record shows that nobody raised their hands. But 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 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 24yearolds is 49 times higher than in other high income countries. What how could we how could we move some of those reforms into being, something thats helpful in schools . You know, i think some of what were talking about is also meeting the needs of students early. And how that is often dsh 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 that is the best use of our funds and preparing teachers through training. That is the key. Yeah. Thank you. I dont know if anybody else wants to comment. I have another question that really speaks to the need for us to be more responsive to teachers. Dr. Jackson did you want to i think common sense gun reform is extremely important. Many times when we see these acts of violence in school it is a manifestation, of 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 when what we do in cps is we take seriously any types of threats of violence in that we work directly with the families. And we have taken an approach where even if its something such as a student making a threat online, we address that. And we dont go in with a Law Enforcement mentality initially. I know 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 often times what we find, except in a few rare occasions when its just a prank, is that there is something going on that needs to be addressed. We spend a lot of time connecting with the resources. But more importantly following the student and keeping track of are they getting the resources they need . Do they still have the ideas . And i think that thats one of the things that we have been pretty proud isnt the right word but we feel good we have a good process in place to address the issues. With that said its constantly on the back of everybodys mind an event could happen squloo thank you, dr. Jackson what i wanted to mention just really quickly oh, so one of the issues is around oklahoma that teachers can carry a weapon. I just wanted to again mention that for the record. Really quickly because we talk secondary trauma and compassion fatigue on the part of teachers. Yeah. Having put in language in title ii for social and Emotional Learning and 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, its a reason that a number of teachers leave school . What would that look like for you . Whats the most important thing we could do that really addresses this . Im going to interrupt dr. Jackson and ask her to respond to you in writing. Thank you. Thank you. Id like to recognize the Ranking Member mr. Allen for five minutes. 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 of households, both parents were there for those children. And today its less than 6 60 . Miss hofmeister i know weve done a lot of studying and come to grips with what is the real problem here . Are we doing anything as far as reaching these young people to change the 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 were ignoring the real cure here . Well, in Public School, again, we 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 were not able to work on those without first building that connection and rapport and trust with the students. Getting to know families and reaching out to families, all families, is important. And in 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 the connections. And we also recognize that its 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 to receive support thats needed through other community resources. The most do you have the flexibility i know that when i talked to teachers theyre 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 are they feel like they are just being observed and criticized at every step, yet it sounds like that they are actually becoming the family. The family unit. 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. Are there limits to what a teacher can share with a student in oklahoma . Certainly there would be some limits, i suppose, that would be im 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 in where you bbld that kind of. 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. In Public School we support families. Okay. That is paramounts. And our agency at the state department of education in oklahoma recognizing that family it engagement is key to success for students. And we are making that a priority and a focus. 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 have children and we raise the 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 i had an amazing family . So like do they understand how what really has to change there . May i add something, im sorry. Yes. I think that one of the pieces that are critical about in work is reducing stigma and reducing blame and shame. Thats 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. Again, im sorry. I yield back, chairman. Thank you. Thank you, panel. Thank you, dr. Harris. So now id like to recognize for five minutes miss bonamici, please thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Im starting with a series 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 solutions. Schoolbased Health Clinics yes or no. Yes. Yes all around. Paid family leave . Yes. So yes, all around. Affordable child care. Yes. Yes. A real challenge. 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 that the growing awareness of the profound effects of aces and some have been mentioned. I want to follow up on a cup. Representative shalala talked about children of immigrant parents. And i have to tell you that when i talk to kids theyre afraid to go to school because they doesnt know if the parents are going to be home when they get back. Thats a concern. I had a young woman who is a High School Student say to me at a townhall meeting the first thing she does when he 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 our immigrant families and of course thank you, dr. Burkeharris 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 often times. Pan 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 rourpss. And im glad several of you mentioned the Student Supporting academic enrichment programs and title 4 a 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 the students. Dr. Burkeharris, 2018 report by child trends, children of color are disproportionately represented among children who have experienced trauma, specifically 61 of africanamerican children, 51 of latino children have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience. Africanamerican children are also disproportionately subject to severe discipline. Thats a gao report. How does the racial and historical trauma and affect the marlana nallized students particularly africanamerican, native American Students . 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. Added to the cumulative adversity and put those individuals at greater risk of health and Mental Health and behavioral social risks. Thank you. And dr. Jackson, the evidence suggest that is the Opioid Crisis is creating all the new challenges and 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 . 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 folks focus on other areas but this is something we struggle with in the city as well. One thing we would do is expand the work we are doing in parent universities. I know family has come up 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 support. Do you have any Recovery High Schools, portland is getting ready to open a Recovery High School for High School Students in recovery who they dont have the peer pressure of other students. We have prioritized putting Health Clinics in schools who do provide that support to students and people in the community. But we dont yet have a Recovery High School. Thank you and my remaining few seconds one quick anecdote that was meaningful to me visiting a small school on the coast and the principal told us an example of implement aches of trauma informed practices there was a student who used to go to school with his hood occupien the hoody. And the teachers told him to put the hood up. When they let him hood over he did well in school because he was protecting himself. Thank you mr. Chairman i yield back. Thank you. And ill recognize miss which would for five minutes, please. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It would be lovely if everyone in a perfect family. I dont think there is a definition of a perfect family. My own family of origin was flawed. And my current family that includes two children and in their 20s who are doing fairly well was also flawed. So the i am distressed by some of the comments we heard today that seem to lay all of this at the feet of the family and the the fact that there may be a number of children going to School Without twoparent families. I dont think that anybody disagrees about the effects of aces. Thats what im hearing at least from all of you. And it seems to me that two things are just so important. First is awareness. And youre helping us with that and i really appreciate it. I know we all do. We all need to understand in and know more about it. But the second and the most obvious elephant is in the room is the funding for these 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 into 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, id like to ask you a couple of questions about why everybody should care about providing some additional federal funding for this Trauma Informed Care . Funding to support programs like i talked about earlier, the Paths Program which allows us to work with the families doing psychotherapy. These are powerful and impactful and theyre expensive in many School Districts and they cant a 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 thats 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 im sure my colleagues on the panel would like to get theirs in as well. One of the things that i 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 . I think that its 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 Health care, trauma informed educational systems and another critical piece is a Public Education campaign to raise Awareness Among families and everyday americans. Okay. Im 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 today. I think you made mention of that. Aces dont just happen in low income neighborhoods. The original study was done in 70 caucasians, 70 college educat educated. And were really see that we cannot afford not to do Early Detection and early detecten. You get no argument from me. Thank you. Thank you. Now i would like to recognize mr. For five minutes. And i ask unanimous consent to insert into the record a letter from an eight grader who whose School Campus was destroyed by a typhoon and its entitled she shared her experience. And having seen no instruction, i enter this for the record. I have some questions that i may not be able to ask of you. But dr. Barker, how has Mcdowell County schools changed its policies, procedures and practices to align with being trauma informed . We had to become more inclusive and we had to create a policy to work with our Mental Health providers and our school based Health Clinics. As you know, you have hipaa regulations and sometimes those dont 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 tell them not the diagnosis, but can how they help in the classroom. If we do the therapy and work with the kids now it translates into the classroom. And we had to include that and moving to the Restorative Justices and not saying, here go home for five days because youre fighting. What happened at home the night before, that got you 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. Can i say that teachers and staff have had to do Different Things differently because of changes in policies, procedures and practice . Yes. And we are using a lot of professional development. We are we have trained our Service Personnel in youth Mental Health first aid which is recognizing the signs and symptoms of certain behaviors and being able to refer and communicate with different therapists. Also we are providing the training to lets take a look at the kid, you know, just giving them scenarios. Here is johnny, he did not bring homework to you. Here are the two scenarios, the teacher yells at you because johnny you did not do your work and you explode or the teacher actually asks johnny and talks to him individually. What happened to you before and just kind of looking at the different scenarios. How do you react and how should you be reacting and we are helping them to understand, not everybody grew up with two parents. Had a home had a place for homework at home. Kids are different and we should meet them as they are. All right. Let me now turn to dr. Harris burke harris. Because with manmade 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 postTraumatic 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. 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 its the result of Community Violence or violence or trauma thats happening at home. So the responses, the fundamentals of the responses shows us makes a difference in improving outcomes are safe, stable and nurturing relationships and 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. All right. Thank you. Im going to cut my 30 minutes i will have records i mean questions submitted of you and you will have time to respond. So 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 and it must address the subject matter of the hearing. Only a member of the committee may submit questions. 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 time frame but please to recognize that years from now that link may no longer work. And now for objection i would like to enter into the record the 1998 regional adverse childhood study by the centers for Disease Control and a 2019 report from the usga o regarding the challenges to supporting children affected by trauma. A report by the National Child trauma stress network on creating, supporting and sustaining trauma in informed schools. A scholarly article written by researchers at Washington State university and the connection between Adverse Childhood Experience and elementary schoolchildren. Article by rand on evidence based practices that are effective to support the children affected by trauma. Im going to go through the list. An article by every town for gun safety and the impact of gun violence on children and teens. A fact sheet on ten things to know about trauma. A policy statement by the American Academy of pediatrics on the impact of racism on the child and adolescents health. A statement of civil rights principles on safe ltm School Climates from the leadership conference. Five letters for the record from alliance for excellence in education, American Federation of teachers, the Community Schools National Indian educational association. National association of School Psychology and National Education association in support of trauma and informed practices in schools. 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 that 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 that it must be submitted to the Committee Staff within seven days and the questions must address the subject matter of the hearing. I now recognize the Ranking Member for his closing statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank the witnesses for coming today and i do want to clarify that the first time were talking about stigma or shaming. Im 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 im amazed at the numbers were 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 mrs. Hoffmeister showed interesting information about projects shes undertaking in her state to help the students. One of the reasons i ran for congress is a an experience i had in my district. I supported a school there, actually built the school. Its 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. 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 by everybody but their mom. The 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. Her tamm academy is one of the many reasons that 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. Its 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 manmade a covenant with god if god would let him live 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 because like he said, he made a covenant to do that. I encouraged him to do that. In fact, hes now on life without parole and im 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. Thank you very much, mr. Allen. I now recognize myself for the purpose of making my closing statement. Again, thank you, again, for distinguished witnesses for being with us. The insights on expert issues shared today make clear that childhood trauma is a per vasva 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, child victims of trauma can become lifelong victims. Yet, when a childs problem with stress, acts out in class, many of our schools resort to harsh discipline that not only fails to address the students 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 traumainformed School Practices that ensure children coping with trauma can look to their schools for support, not further harm. Before i close, let me reit tra reiterate, again, our childrens trauma can be prevented if youre able to recognize and address the root causes. If we can come together to stop the School Shootings and the separation of families at the border and address widespread poverty, we cannot only care for victims of trauma but prevent children from becoming trauma victims in the first place. Only then can we truly ensure 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 theres no further business, without objection, the committee stands adjourned. Thank you. President trump heads to baltimore this evening. Hes going to speak to the House Republicans as they meet for their annual policy retreat. Watch live coverage at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Online at cspan. Org. Or listen live on the free cspan radio app. And tonight on the cspan channels, this mornings House Judiciary Committee meeting on setting procedures to investigate articles of impeachment against president trump. Thats at 9 00 eastern on cspan. On cspan2, the trump administrations decision to revoke medical deferred action for critically ill children. Watch the House Oversight subcommittee hearing at 8 00 eastern. And on cspan3, see president trumps nominees for Army Secretary as well as air force secretary as they answer questions from a Senate Committee about their qualifications. Thats also at 8 00 eastern. Saturday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on the civil war, the 1863 Tullahoma Campaign in tennessee. Night of the 26th, bragg ordered everybody to concentrate on tullahoma. After they leave the rim at this point is somewhat anticlimactic. With rose crans at manchester, bragg is ready to fight it out in the trenches of tullahoma. 8 00 on lectures in hist y history deborah litskat. The base irg argic argument deniers. No plan. No 6 million. No leadership from hitler. No gas chambers. And the last point is this was all made up by jews. And sunday at 5 00 p. M. Eastern, a discuss about shakespeares influence on u. S. Politics. At 6 00 on american artifacts, the traveling exhibit on fdr and the four freedoms. Explore our nations past on American History tv every weekend on cspan3. Next, a hearing on current relations between the United States and china. In this panel, Asian Studies scholars and economists consider a report on the National Security implications of the economic relationship. The u. S. China Economic and Security Review Commission hosted this hour and 40 minute event. Good morning, and welcome to the last hearing of the u. S. Economic and Security Review Commissions 2019 annual report cycle. Thank you, all, for joining us today. Our hearing today will review and assess Key Developments in the economic and security