Giving Compass' Take:

• Many cross-sector partnerships are happening between educators, philanthropists, and medical professionals to address the opioid crisis happening in schools. 

• What is the role of philanthropists in these partnerships? 

• Read about the online courses that help educators battle the opioid crisis. 

Opioid intervention teams in Maryland that include school district superintendents, philanthropic funding for drug abuse prevention in Indiana schools and an opioid intervention court in Buffalo, New York, are a few examples of cross-sector partnerships working to address the impact of opioid abuse on children and families.

“Educators too often don’t have the tools, the resources, the supports, the training that they need to support children who are the victims of this epidemic,” Glen Harvey, CEO of WestEd, a San Francisco-based research and service organization, said during a recent live-streamed discussion on the topic. “No one sector can provide all the supports that these children need to survive.”

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the senior vice president and chief medical and health officer for the March of Dimes, said opioid addiction among mothers is leading to high pre-term birth rates and children being born with neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.

“These kids are now entering the school system. They are having problems with impulse control,” said Gupta, who served in two administrations as West Virginia’s public health commissioner. He added that some of these children are being misdiagnosed with attention deficit disorder and being prescribed drugs, which can sometimes lead to later substance use problems. “We’re almost creating the problem for the next generation because we don’t understand the problem, and we are lagging behind.”

In Maryland, Reginald Burke, who directs the Maryland State Department of Education’s (MSDE) Youth Development Branch, described the Opioid Operational Command Center, a multi-agency collaborative effort that has contributed to schools finding additional financial resources to respond to the effects of opioids and district leaders having “real-time” information from health and law enforcement agencies.

Read the full article about the opioid crisis by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive