April 18, 2018, Youth Today: Los Angeles School District Fighting Trauma With Wellness Centers https://youthtoday.org/2018/04/los-angeles-school-district-fighting-trauma-with-wellness-centers/ It is the second-largest school district in the nation with more than 640,000 students enrolled. It spans more than 720 square miles, including 900-plus schools and 187 charter schools. And the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is concerned about its students’ traumatic experiences. It encompasses communities where violence, poverty and teen pregnancy are commonplace. … Studies in the past two decades show that a link exists between traumatic childhood experiences and academic and behavioral troubles, according to SMH. So the district has introduced 15 wellness centers to combat the effects of traumatic childhood experiences for both its students and the local community. The goal is to improve the students’ physical and mental health in the hope of boosting their graduation rates and academic achievement. … Research has confirmed that Adverse Childhood Experiences, known as ACEs, can lead to lower grade-point averages and graduation rates, increased school absences and incidents of overreaction. To encourage healing and detect and intervene early, LAUSD conducted its own screening and data evaluation to further prove the link between trauma and lower academic success. Their 2016-17 screening of 2,500 students from 63 elementary, middle and high schools revealed 26 percent of the students were at risk for traumatic stress while 40 percent of students reported that they did not feel safe or very safe when at school.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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