STATE

Kansas education officials address trauma's impact on student learning

Reed: Toxic stress and compassion fatigue lead to teacher burnout

Angela Deines

The impact of adverse childhood events, or ACE, on a person’s ability to learn from an early age needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, a state education official told the Kansas State Board of Education Wednesday.

“If a child is exposed to poverty or abuse, that will change their chemistry, their neurochemistry,” said Kent Reed, school counseling program consultant for the Kansas Department of Education. “Evidence is showing that has an impact on how children behave. It keeps them from learning, which impacts them even more.”

Kansas data gathered in 2014 by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, or BRFSS, is similar to national data that shows the most common causes adults reported for their own adverse childhood events were parents’ divorce, emotional abuse and substance abuse in the home. Other contributing factors reported were having a mentally ill person in the household, physical abuse and sexual abuse. In the education setting, adverse childhood events can lead to lower test scores, language difficulties, behavioral issues and the two or more times likelihood of failing a grade.

Reed said the toxic stress related to ACE not only impacts a child but teachers as well.

“When you’re dealing with heavy hearts, it’s impossible to not take that home,” he said, adding that dealing with students’ emotional and behavioral issues lead to compassion fatigue and burnout for educators. “It’s a challenge to be in education.”

Reed pointed to Superintendent Tiffany Anderson’s work in Topeka Unified School District 501 in creating a “trauma boot camp” where teachers will learn to recognize ACE symptoms and how to address them in the classroom. He said it would benefit the board members and KSDE officials if USD 501 officials eventually present to them how the district’s work on trauma-related issues is progressing.

In the meantime, Reed said work groups have formed to study ACE and trauma issues and recommendations will be formed to present to Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson.

“This is important work,” he said. “We’re breaking new ground. Kansas is changing as we speak. We really need to keep ahead of the curve.”

“I think this work is very timely,” said board member Kathy Busch, R-Wichita. “Providing resources for the teachers and the training will be very critical.”

Board member Janet Waugh, D-Kansas City, said one third of the children in the state’s juvenile justice system have some form of mental illness. She said training and treatment of ACE-related issues is greatly needed but will be expensive.

“The bottom line is that this will cost a lot of money,” she said. “We are going to have to desperately work with our legislators.”

Several board members said they were “fascinated” with the issue of trauma and its impact on school-age children, saying they are hearing more and more about the issue when they talk to their local school officials. They also said the diminishing access to community mental health services is an aggravating factor when it comes to recognition and treatment of ACE.

“My concern is that if schools can identify the kids who need help, where are they getting help for these kids?” Sally Cauble, R-Liberal, asked. “Where do we send our kids who have been identified as suicidal and have other mental health issues?”

“We’re learning more and more about the solutions,” Reed said. “But we’re not going to be able to make an impact unless (access to) mental health changes.”

Board members Jim Porter, R-Fredonia, and Steve Roberts, R-Overland Park, both said working with experts outside of the education field is imperative.

“We need to desperately partner with people who do have the expertise,” Porter said. “In zero cases, this is the fault of the student. We need figure out where they are so we can start developing solutions and work with whomever we need to work with to bring mental health solutions to those who need it.”

Board member Deena Horst, R-Salina, said she is observing ACE-related behavior as a substitute teacher.

“I do a lot of subbing and I see an increasingly larger number of students who fit in those arenas,” she said. “Something has happened. We have a lot of children who are on the verge of mental illness. It’s frankly frightening to see the numbers.”