OSDE hosts groundbreaking summit to combat state’s high student trauma rankings
OKLAHOMA CITY (October 3, 2018) – The Oklahoma State
Department of Education (OSDE) on Tuesday hosted It Starts Here: Trauma-Informed Instruction, a day-long summit
focused on childhood trauma and its impact on education. Part of an effort to
combat the state’s high trauma rankings among students, the event included a
standing-room-only audience of more than 800 educators and education
stakeholders.
“Oklahoma’s children suffer more trauma than any other state
in the nation, and it impedes academic success for hundreds of thousands of our
students. Before learning can take place in the classroom, we must meet our
students where they are,” said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy
Hofmeister. “Educators can instill hope in the lives of children, and hope is
the first step in changing lives and lifting academic outcomes for our students.”
Pictured below: Steve Graner, State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, Casey Gwinn and Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater
 A recent National Survey of Children’s Health revealed that
Oklahoma’s youngest children suffer more trauma than those in any other state.
In addition, nearly half of the state’s children have Adverse Childhood
Experience (ACE) scores of 3 or higher, and among children with 4 or more ACEs,
Oklahoma’s percentage is the highest in the country. ACEs, which include
indicators such as socioeconomic hardship, physical and emotional abuse and
neglect, are used to assess cumulative childhood stress.
Research shows that trauma can create long-term changes in
the brain, which can manifest in learning difficulties, depression and other mental
illnesses in young students. Children dealing with trauma at home have an
increased chance of exhibiting negative behavior and poor decision-making in
the classroom.
 Held at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, It Starts Here: Trauma-Informed Instruction
featured two keynote speakers: Casey Gwinn, the president and co-founder of the
Alliance for Hope International; and Steve Graner, a ChildTrauma Academy Fellow
and former English teacher. Gwinn provided an overview of ACEs and the
predictive nature of unmitigated trauma on children in their educational
journey, while Graner conducted an interactive workshop on how teachers can use
sensory experiences to help students understand and deal with the lingering
effects of trauma.
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Gwinn emphasized the importance of hope and resilience as pathways forward for children in trauma. In his message to school communities working with high-need students, he said, “Our future can be brighter than our past. Collective hope is even more power than individual hope.”
 The summit aimed to educate Oklahoma’s teachers on the
complex issues surrounding ACEs, offering guidance on what to look for and how
to better support students who have experienced trauma. Participants learned
the tenets of trauma-informed instruction, which encourages teachers and
administrators to refocus on what happened to a particular child rather than on
challenging behavior alone. Trauma-informed instruction also encourages
teaching coping strategies, resilience, self-regulation, empathy and
cooperation.
Other speakers included Hofmeister; David Prater, District
Attorney for Oklahoma County; Steven Buck, Executive Director of the Office of
Juvenile Affairs; Terri White, Commissioner of the Oklahoma Department of
Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services; and Principal Chief James Floyd
of the Muscogee-Creek Nation.
Buck moderated a session focused on the perspective of the
traumatized student that featured a panel of three Oklahoma young people whose
lives had involved hardship. The panelists, all of whom had graduated from high
school and are attending college, discussed what they wish their teachers had
known about trauma while they were still in school.
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 Summit attendees came from Oklahoma’s highest-need districts
and schools, as identified by OSDE’s Office of School Support and the Center
for Disease Control and Prevention’s potentially dangerous schools list.
Oklahoma’s top ten districts with the highest student populations were also
invited. OSDE live-streamed the event on its Facebook and YouTube social media
channels. During the morning session, the event hashtag, #OKTraumaSummit, was a trending topic on Twitter in the Oklahoma City area. The entire recorded event will soon be made available on OSDE’s
website at sde.ok.gov.
The event received significant financial support from a host of partners, including the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the Arnall Family Foundation, the Inasmuch Foundation, the Potts Family Foundation and others.
On Monday, OSDE hosted a free screening of the
documentary Resilience: The Biology of
Stress & The Science of Hope in partnership with the Potts Family
Foundation. The film explores the science behind ACEs and the way stressful
experiences in childhood can alter brain development, causing health and
behavioral consequences well into adulthood.
After the screening, a panel of trauma experts held a group
discussion regarding the effects of trauma on youth. Panelists included Prater;
Meagan Bryant, a counselor at Mid-Del Public Schools; and Dr. Deb Shropshire,
Deputy Director of Child Welfare Community Partnerships with the Oklahoma
Department of Human Services.
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