Research shows nearly half of all U.S. children have experienced trauma tied to poverty or family dysfunction, writes Meredith Kolodner for The Hechinger Report. Repeated exposure rewires the brain, which calls into question "zero-tolerance" school-discipline policies. Spiking expulsions and suspensions have disproportionately affected low-income black and Latino students: Wisconsin suspended 34 percent of its black students in 2011-2012; Florida suspended 37 percent of kids with learning disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education has issued new guidelines to lower suspension rates, but beyond this, research finds any punitive environment causes anxiety and poor relationships. As a corrective, 13 Connecticut schools are working with Animated Learning by Integrating and Validating Experience (ALIVE), a trauma-response program that uses drama therapists to identify trauma, prevent escalation, and respond to acting-out. Therapists offer one-on-one therapy, and use role-playing in interventions. Metropolitan Business Academy High School in New Haven, a program participant, hosts a social worker, six social-work interns, and three part-time drama therapists from ALIVE. In three years, suspensions there have dropped by two-thirds, to just three percent. Physical fights have gone from 40 in 2010 to fewer than five this year. Graduation rates reached 90 percent in 2014, and college enrollment was 70 percent in 2012. "Some say punishment will extinguish bad behavior. I'd say the opposite," says Principal Judith Puglisi. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.