Category Archives: Legislation

Rural Oregon county integrates ACEs screening in school-based trauma-informed health centers

April 26, 2016 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Community prevention programs, Education, Legislation, Solutions 4 Comments
The Combined Child & Family and School-Based Clinical Team. From left: Ratchet; Elizabeth Fitzgerald, clinical supervisor SBHC; Kelsey Dunlap, clinician; Amy Richardson, clinician; Misty Groom, Safe-School assessor; Tracey Sanders, administrative assistant; Janice Garceau, program manager; Maryanne McDonnell, clinical supervisor; Jill Montecucco, clinician; Marie Jackson, SBHC clinician; Jodi Love, clinician; Jaymie Kaczmarek, SBHC clinician; Jennifer Noble, SBHC clinician; Tracey Colocicco, clinician; Deb Stone, clinician.

The Combined Child & Family and School-Based Clinical Team. From left: Ratchet; Elizabeth Fitzgerald, clinical supervisor SBHC; Kelsey Dunlap, clinician; Amy Richardson, clinician; Misty Groom, Safe-School assessor; Tracey Sanders, administrative assistant; Janice Garceau, program manager; Maryanne McDonnell, clinical supervisor; Jill Montecucco, clinician; Marie Jackson, SBHC clinician; Jodi Love, clinician; Jaymie Kaczmarek, SBHC clinician; Jennifer Noble, SBHC clinician; Tracey Colocicco, clinician; Deb Stone, clinician.

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For the last two years, nearly all students referred for mental health services in seven school-based health centers in Deschutes County, OR, have taken the 10-question adverse childhood experiences (ACE) survey.

It didn’t take long to realize why this was good idea.

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Closed adoption law separates California teen from her family

January 20, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Legislation 4 Comments

Jordan Rodriguez with Evan Low, California  Assemblymember __________________

By Jeremy Loudenback,  ChronicleOfSocialChange.org

Every holiday season, 17-year-old Jordain Rodriguez sends a note to two families she barely knows with a simple wish: She’d like to see her nieces and nephews.

Around the holidays and on each of the children’s birthdays, she writes emails to the two families who adopted her family members, asking for pictures, any recent updates and a chance to talk to them.

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State rep and family advocate, Rena Moran, envisions a trauma-informed Minnesota

September 21, 2015 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Legislation 3 Comments

MN State Rep Rena MoranMinnesota has the potential to become a trauma-informed state if the hard work is done to raise awareness of ACEs and the impact of toxic stress on brain development, says third-term state representative Rena Moran (D-St. Paul). Moran led the effort to have a resolution—similar to ones passed in Wisconsin and California—read in the legislature in March to educate lawmakers and the public about ACEs and related research.  Democrats and Republicans took turns reading the resolution.

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$2.2 Million initiative highlights trauma policy push

August 25, 2015 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child abuse, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Epigenetics, Legislation, Solutions, Trauma Leave a comment

By Jeremy Loudenback, ChronicleOfSocialChange.org

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Jennifer Jones

This month, the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities will kick off a multi-million initiative designed to help service providers translate scientific findings around child trauma, toxic stress and developmental brain science into public policy.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Canada-based Palix Foundation have committed $2.2 million over three years for the Alliance, a powerful membership group of youth service providers, to sub-grant to 15 participating nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Canada interested in leading child trauma-based reform. All sites will be funded $50,000 for two years, and a developmental evaluation will be conducted within the three-year period.

The “Change in Mind: Applying Neurosciences to Revitalize Communities” initiative is one of several recent efforts aimed at increasing the policy impact of trauma-related research.

According to Change in Mind Director Jennifer Jones, the 15 organizations will serve as leaders in their communities and across the public sector on how to apply trauma-related practices. While each organization may have a different set of policy and advocacy goals, they will share successful strategies with each other and participate with an outside organization to evaluate effectiveness. The initiative kicks off this month in Chicago with an organizing conference that will help develop collective goals to accompany the specific policy priorities of each site.

The moment is ripe, Jones said, for nonprofit service providers to take a leading role in encouraging adoption of trauma-informed practices.

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It’s time to support trauma-informed schools in Pennsylvania

July 4, 2015 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Education, Legislation

APACapitolThe Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC) of Pennsylvania has led us all,  in Pennsylvania and beyond, to a tipping point for educational equity – if the legislature endorses the BEHC detailed “fair funding” recommendations.

There’s no doubt that the task of the commission was daunting. Education funding concerns are very weighty and very high profile in Pennsylvania. House Bill 1738 set up the BEFC and tasked it to “develop a basic education funding formula and identify factors that may be used to determine the distribution of basic education funding among the school districts …”

The BEFC recommended factors required for fair funding.  Eight are included in a proposed formula and eight are recommended for consideration by the full General Assembly.

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California Assembly Health Committee OKs ACEs resolution 16-0

June 17, 2014 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Legislation Tags: , , , 1 Comment

ImageThe California Assembly Health Committee today approved, by a vote of 16-0, a resolution to encourage statewide policies to reduce children’s exposure to adverse childhood experiences. California took a page from Wisconsin’s playbook with the introduction of legislation (California Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR) No. 155) on May 28. It drew upon ideas from Wisconsin’s legislation (Senate Joint Resolution 59), approved by the legislature this early this year. Both the Wisconsin resolution and the California proposal encourage state policy decision-making to consider the impact of early childhood adversity on the long-term health and well being of its citizens.

Before the vote was taken on June 17, the lead sponsor of the California bill, Assemblymember Raul

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Vermont legislator hopes to transform his “Adverse Legislative Experience (ALE)”

May 26, 2014 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Legislation Tags: , 6 Comments

ImageThe principal sponsor of the Vermont ACEs bill, Dr. George Till, has an ALE (not a typo) score of at least one. He describes losing six of seven sections of the ACEs legislation as an “Adverse Legislative Experience (ALE)”. But if re-elected this November, he plans to “push again next session” for provisions to embed the ACEs research findings into medical practice. While “extremely disappointed” with the outcome of the conference committee dropping most of his bill’s provisions, his resiliency is evident as he looks ahead to the next opportunity to improve health outcomes.

On May 10, the last day of the Vermont legislature, a broad healthcare bill (H. 596) passed that included the one remaining ACEs provision. This section mandates a review by Jan. 15, 2015 of “evidence-based materials on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and population health and recommend to the General Assembly whether, how, and at what expense ACE-informed medical practice should be integrated into

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State, federal lawmakers take action on trauma-informed policies, programs

April 30, 2014 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Legislation, Washington State 7 Comments

Screen Shot 2014-04-26 at 8.55.19 AMLawmakers around the country are beginning to take action to reduce the impact of childhood trauma—and the toxic stress it creates—on lifetime outcomes, particularly in education and health. The legislation being considered in Vermont to integrate screening for childhood trauma in health care, as reported recently on this site, is still percolating in the legislature. Another bill (H. 3528) being considered in Massachusetts seeks to create “safe and supportive schools” statewide. House Resolution 191 — which declares youth violence a public health epidemic and supports the establishment of trauma-informed education statewide — passed in Pennsylvania last spring and was ratified by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) at its annual meeting in August.

Prior to these efforts, the state of Washington passed a bill (H.R. 1965) in 2011 to identify and promote innovative strategies to prevent or reduce adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and to develop a public-private partnership to support effective strategies. In accordance with H.B. 1965, a group of private and public entities formed the Washington State ACEs Public-Private Initiative that is currently evaluating five communities’ ACEs activities. An APPI announcement about the launch of the project

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