Community Meeting: Morgantown

Community Meeting: Morgantown

Panelists

Anne Greza- McKinney-Vento and Foster Care Liaison at Monongalia County Schools

Beth Nair- Monongalia County Schools Outreach Facilitator (Serves two elementary schools in the county)

Michele Perozich- Monongalia County School Outreach Facilitator (Serves a high school and a technical education center)

Michael Ryan- Monongalia County Schools Coordinator of Student Supports

Anna Simmons- Licensed Professional Counselor and owner of Empowered Healing & Wellness

Note: For brevity's sake, we will refer to Monongalia County Schools as Mon County Schools.

We began the conversation by asking: What is childhood trauma, and how have you seen its effects evolve in West Virginia's schools? Trauma presents itself in many different ways. It can be caused a specific event or challenging situation— like drug use in the home, domestic violence, incarceration, or Child Protective Services intervention— or it can be intergenerational or shared collectively by a family. It can overwhelm the nervous system's capacity to cope. Trauma is relative; each person experiences situations differently, so it's challenging to define it as a blanket experience or put everyone "under the same umbrella" as to how they experience it. It's individualized and more about what is happening inside of us. And it's critically important to remember that our minds and bodies remember trauma and that we benefit from the support of others to help us process it.

When it comes to children, they can be in a state of trauma response to something as simple as being called on in class. Their little engines can "stay revved" no matter what's going on. Trauma affects their sleep, their behaviors, their ability to learn, and how they perceive and relate to their peers and surroundings.

At the elementary level, trauma can manifest itself in adverse behaviors. These children cannot self-regulate. They also don't possess the language to articulate how they feel. They may be defiant, angry, and confront authority figures. Or. they may remain quiet, and to themselves, so their trauma response goes largely unnoticed, and they may not trust other people— especially adults.

Importantly, the point that panelists were making was that in order to understand and respond to student trauma, one must know the student, and the student must trust the adult trying to help them. As one panelist put it, kids don't have "signs over their heads" that they are experiencing these things. Panelists believed that it is the responsibility of the school system to have support services and responsive policies that universally include all students because everyone, at some moment, may need individualized support.

A great example of the importance of these school-student relationships is how schools identify homeless children and those in the foster care system needing additional support. Students and caregivers aren't required to report if a child is homeless or in the foster care system. People can be hesitant to disclose such information for a variety of reasons. They may choose to ignore enrollment forms. So school staff is often tasked with identifying students in these situations so that the school can offer support.

Mon County School's McKinney-Vento Liaison reported that they identified 467 McKinneyVento students last year. These are students who may not necessarily be in a shelter or on the streets, but they may live in sub-standard housing without heat or running water, or in a transient situation with no fixed or adequate residents.

Every county has a McKinneyVento Liaison, but sometimes they wear multiple hats, like the role of Attendance Director. Mon County has a person with the specific role of identifying and helping children who are deemed eligible for services under the McKinneyVento Act. She works in

collaboration with outreach facilitators, a support staff position not found in many counties, who can help identify students for support and destigmatize services. They ’ re strategic in collaborating with other staff, like bus drivers, who can help Illuminate the circumstances in which children live and interact with others.

For some families, reaching out for help can be a daunting, sometimes frightening proposition, and sometimes school staff can be indirectly responsible for this. They are mandated reporters, and one of the leading professionals to call child protective services (CPS). For school staff without knowledge or support, they may think that kids without coats, for example, or who divulge that they have no running water at home, are grounds for calling CPS. But in Mon County, students are instead referred to the outreach facilitators. The county created the position five years ago and has added two additional facilitators each year. Their salaries are paid from the county school budget, not the state.

These outreach facilitators described their relationship with CPS as productive, with bidirectional information shared in collaboration for the mutual benefit of the students. They acknowledge that CPS is understaffed. Sometimes, they work with school staff to help them understand the policy restrictions that inhibit CPS employees from sharing information about a child’s case. And sometimes, they work with students to help contact CPS if the child needs help.

behavioral health care. Panelists agreed that service capacity is limited in their area, despite being a central location for health services, with many students on long wait lists. Navigating this system can be complicated; often, schools don’t have staff with the necessary expertise.

Mon County Schools trains staff in Mental Health First Aid and hopes to expand the program's availability. They hope to offer an additional 60 spots. These trainings are funded through private grants and can be very expensive, costing $25 per person.

Also, two years ago, the school system began contracting with Panorama Education, a national organization that helps schools transform their approach to education by collecting valid and reliable feedback via student surveys, from feelings of belonging and teacher-student relationships to engagement and school safety.

Panorama Education provides survey templates that they disseminate to students at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year on different topic areas that the school system can choose. It's real data from students about their lives, with questions about the dynamics of balancing school and their lives, their relationships with their parents, etc. The company analyzes the data and makes it available via a dashboard for school staff. It's real data by students, about students—what they believe their challenges are, how they perceive school, etc. Mon County was the first county school system in West Virginia to contract with Panorama Education; now, two more county school systems are using their services. Data remains internal, not shared with the public, and it helps the school adapt how it operates to respond to the needs of its students.

For many of us who work with children growing up in challenging spaces where poverty, domestic drug use, and other adverse childhood experience are prevalent, we often theorize how children are experiencing these circumstances. Mon County Schools take a qualitativedata-driven approach to address the social-emotional needs of its students.

Also unique to its model and shared with Berkeley County Schools’ approach to addressing “the whole child, ” Mon County Schools cultivates relationships with community resource providers to address social determinants of health like transportation issues, food insecurity, housing, economic stability, etc. They work with such groups as the United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties, Monongalia County ’s Family Resource Network, and Starting Points.

Finally, the panel showed genuine support for one another and the work they have accomplished together, especially most recently, as students reacclimated to the school setting after the pandemic shutdowns. They have successfully garnered additional grant funding from private foundations to support students and families, like creating an emergency use fund for support.

And their success has resulted in improved graduation rates— a significantly higher rate of McKinney-Vento students graduating in 2021.

Still, challenges remain. While Monongalia is one of our state's most affluent counties, it still struggles with the same problems as other counties. While they have more mental health services, the capacity is limited. Public transportation is limited, and while the pandemic has made support for utilities and household expenses more available, the panel acknowledged that the funding will eventually end, thrusting families back into financial stress. The funding will be gone, but nothing will be fixed. substance use disorder. While panelists expressed frustration that student drug use has escalated, some critical mental health care services have ended. For example, there once was a program for sexually reactive youth at Chestnut Ridge Center that is no longer there. The children's crisis day program at United Summit Center in Harrison County is no longer there. Thanks to a newly implemented WVDHHR policy, school staff can no longer make mental health care referrals themselves; parents have to call the Children's Crisis and Referral Line. Staff could check in on whether a child was successfully admitted; they can't now. Getting help, especially when young, is critical. Panelists have seen an increase in behaviors that they hadn't seen just ten years ago, like elementary students threatening to harm themselves and others. As kids age, fewer services are available to them, and often assistance turns to punishment. By eighth grade, they may wind up arrested. What may begin as recreational marijuana use may escalate to harder drugs. By that time, if an adolescent needs drug treatment, it's very difficult to find a program unless they are involved in the court system or have private health insurance.

So to the panel, their first recommendation is improving access to appropriate mental health care. Schools should be spaces where students feel safe, with staff who can connect students to appropriate care in the community—but that care has to be available. We have to have services that heal the core of the problem, not just visible symptoms. Sticking a band-aid on trauma and sending students back to class won’t help them, emotionally or academically.

Panelists recommended for policymakers on both the state and local levels to visit communities resources and schools— do things like follow a family through the process of what it is like for a family on TANF when they suffer the consequences of a parent testing positive for drug use, or participate in teen drug court, or even just walk the halls of a school when it's in session. What this generation of children are experiencing is vastly different than what older generations did. School staff are painfully aware of this; Mon County schools don’t look away from the students’ reality. They lean in and from what they learn, respond.

Students need understanding and guidance from trusted adults in the school system who can relate, respond, and connect them to the care they need.

Similarly, our schools need state policymakers who won't turn a blind eye to the role schools must play in connecting kids to meaningful help when they need it. It's not just the right thing to do; it's the smart thing to do. Students in a traumatized state can't learn; schools can't teach them. The investment Mon County Schools makes in addressing trauma is an investment in the kids themselves and their futures.