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 LargestSchool 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 per