Giving Compass' Take:

• Andrew Post explains how trauma from Adverse Childhood Experiences impact students and why teachers and parents need to step to help children overcome these challenges. 

• How can philanthropists support teachers who are trying to help students overcome trauma? 

• Find out how to support early childhood mental health. 

As a former high school teacher, school site administrator, and assistant superintendent, and as the father of two school-age children, I have seen how interventions (or the lack thereof) have failed mentally ill youth. It saddens me to admit that in a more than decade-long career as an educator working in two large urban school districts, I hadn’t heard the term Adverse Childhood Experiences. But I was deeply familiar with outcomes left untreated. You likely are, too.

Children who fall into this category have been directly exposed to violence and abuse in their households, in their communities, or both. They often come from poverty, living in a single-parent home, and it is not uncommon for one of the parents or caregivers to have been incarcerated. These children, when they do attend school, are often challenging kids with disruptive or undesirable behaviors. Severe trauma has defined their childhood and shaped their thoughts and actions.

The direct connection between Adverse Childhood Experiences and risky behavior, juvenile justice, recidivism, chronic illness, and death is indisputable. A child with four or more exposures is 20 times as likely to attempt suicide, 2.5 times as likely to smoke, and 6 times as likely to have a drinking problem. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice reports that approximately 50 percent of youth offenders had four or more of these experiences.

Schools have resources to support students — counselors, social workers, psychologists — but what they really need is an effective, programmatic approach to identifying, assessing, intervening, and coordinating these services in a way that provides meaningful outcomes for students.

Read the full article about Adverse Childhood Experiences by Andrew Post at The 74.