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Joint Edu COW Roundtable Attendance Opening
Joint Edu COW Roundtable Attendance Opening
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However, neither of those can fully explain the numbers we are seeing for the first half of the
year, as we see great variation across individual schools regardless of sectors or grade level
showing.
I do believe that two of the focus areas of the Committee on Education will have a profound
effect on attendance.
Improving school climates and reforming school discipline practices is one of them—how can
we simultaneously tell students to come to school and then send them home for days at a time
for minor infractions?
Closely related is the need to increase resources for behavioral health services connected to
schools—whether it is additional psychologists and social workers on school staff, greater
funding for community schools models, or more training for our educators to ensure that they
are using trauma-informed approaches.
Research from the National Survey of Children’s Health reinforces the importance of this,
revealing that 22% of D.C. students have had at least one adverse childhood experience, with
that rate more than doubling to 55% among students of color.
We must keep that at the forefront of our minds as we discuss this today.
Lastly, I will note that The Committee on Education is holding a third public oversight
roundtable on graduation rate accountability on June 13 at 10:00 am in room 412 for
government witnesses only, which will obviously touch on some of the same topics as today.
Nonetheless, there are a number of questions that I want to ask today to better understand
where we stand in addressing these problems.
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