The West Virginia Department of Education has launched an online survey for people to offer input on its Every Student Succeeds Act plan.
The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Wednesday that a video posted on the education department’s website gives an overview of the plan, which has five accountability indicators. In December 2015, then-President Barack Obama signed the act into law, regulating kindergarten through high school education across the nation.
The education department’s plan measures results from statewide annual standardized testing in third through eighth grade and 11th grade, students’ progress, graduation rates, English language learners’ proficiency, and attendance and behavior reports.
State education department spokeswoman Jessica Hall says the draft won’t be released for public review until August. West Virginia needs to submit the plan to the federal government in September.
President Obama met with Senate Democrats today to discuss strategies to save his signature health care law. Meanwhile Senate Republicans have already introduced a budget resolution that would unravel large pieces of the Affordable Care Act with a majority vote.
However, Republicans have yet to release a replacement plan, instead saying they will repeal, but delay implementation of the law for a couple years. Senate Democrats, including Joe Manchin, are concerned that if the law is repealed without a replacement lined up to take its place, hundreds of thousands of people could lose their health insurance.
“ I said if you’re willing in 2 or 3 years, you’ve been talking about it for 6 years, why don’t we sit down and fix it and vote on each one to fix it that way nobody loses anything,” said Manchin.
Manchin argues that while there are pieces of the healthcare law that need to be fixed, the bones of the law are good and hugely benefit West Virginians. Instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater, he says, let’s introduce legislation that strengthens, rather than dismantles the law. However Manchin acknowledges that since President-elect Trump built part of his campaign around the cry “repeal the Affordable Care Act,” fixing it may not be a viable solution at this point.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.
During his convention speech, President Obama said coal miners have to be included in the fight against climate change.
And gun owners have to be engaged in any effort to rein in gun violence, he said.
Much of coal country blames Obama for decimating the industry. The phrase “War on Coal” became popular during this president’s term — and it was usually preceded by the word “Obama’s”.
Here’s what Obama said:
It can be frustrating, this business of democracy. Trust me, I know. Hillary knows, too. When the other side refuses to compromise, progress can stall. People are hurt by the inaction. Supporters can grow impatient, and worry that you’re not trying hard enough; that you’ve maybe sold out.
But I promise you, when we keep at it; when we change enough minds; when we deliver enough votes, then progress does happen…
If you want to fight climate change, we’ve got to engage not only young people on college campuses, we’ve got to reach out to the coal miner who’s worried about taking care of his family, the single mom worried about gas prices.
If you want to protect our kids and our cops from gun violence, we’ve got to get the vast majority of Americans, including gun owners, who agree on things like background checks to be just as vocal and just as determined as the gun lobby that blocks change through every funeral that we hold. That is how change happens…
Something has shifted in the way our society thinks about heroin addicts these days. Could it be that smack users are seeming more like “us” and less like “them?”
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and PRX, this is “Us & Them,” the podcast where we tell the stories about America’s cultural divides.
SShare your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @usthempodcast or @wvpublic, or leave a comment on Facebook.com/usthempodcast.
And if you enjoyed this episode, join our community and sustain “Us & Them” with a pledge of support.
President Obama’s administration is doubling down on efforts to reduce prescription opioid and heroin abuse across the nation after two major announcements in the past week.
Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released revised guidelines for the prescription of opioids for chronic pain. President Obama also announced that he would speak at the National Prescription Drug and Heroin Summit in Atlanta next week.
“The president’s trip to Atlanta follows his trip last year to West Virginia where he met with many people affected by the opioid epidemic,” says Michael Botticelli – Director of National Drug Control Policy. Botticelli hosted a conference call with reporters Tuesday to detail the Obama administration’s continued efforts to combat substance abuse.
“In West Virginia he announced a number of new public and private sector actions to address the epidemic, including a presidential memorandum on prescriber training and opioid use disorder treatment,” he says.
The revised CDC prescribing guidelines were not a direct result of Obama’s trip to West Virginia, but are a part of the efforts to reduce opioid and heroin use across the nation – particularly in hard hit areas like Appalachia. Botticelli says the guidelines are intended to be of particular help to primary care providers who currently account for prescribing nearly half of all opioids.
But the White House is not just looking to change policies in the fight against drug use. Earlier this month the federal government also awarded 94 million dollars to 271 health centers in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Five clinics in West Virginia received more than one and a half million dollars of that grant money.
“These critical funds for states will help to improve and expand substance abuse disorder services with an emphasis on medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorders,” says Botticelli.
Botticelli says funding states is a critical piece of the federal strategy for combating the epidemic and that letters were sent out to all 50 governors highlighting best practices. These include requiring all providers to be trained in opioid prescription, requiring providers to use their state’s prescription drug monitoring program and supporting syringe services programs.
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.
In 2013, the West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice launched a program called Handle With Care. The collaborative program is meant to help children who’ve experienced abuse, neglect or other types of trauma succeed in school. The program that started on the West Side of Charleston is now expanding across the state and in other communities across the nation.
Mary C. Snow Elementary School is located in a neighborhood where it can be stressful to be a child. The West Side of Charleston has gained a bad reputation for drug crimes and violence, and in 2014 the city of Charleston as a whole saw an increase in both criminal activity and violent crimes.
Credit courtesy of West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice
/
W.Va. police officer visits a classroom at Mary C. Snow Elementary
While these crimes are usually committed by adults, that doesn’t mean children aren’t affected by them. And that’s where the Handle With Care Program comes into play. If a child is exposed to crime, violence or abuse, police notify the principal and school counselor by the start of the next school day.
Credit courtesy of West Virginia Center for Children’s Justice
/
Janet Allio, school nurse at Mary C. Snow Elementary School
“When I first heard about the Handle with Care Program, I thought, that’s the program for us because 75% of our children are in some form on traumatised environment on a day to day situation,” said Janet Allio, the school nurse at Mary C. Snow Elementary School
It’s not always clear when something traumatic has occurred in a student’s life. The first step in the Handle with Care program is when police officers send schools a form after they respond to traumatic events with children present.
The second step is when the school’s staff figure out out what resources a child may need if they have experienced a traumatic event. Sometimes, it’s talking with the school counselor- or going to the health center for extra sleep, or spending time in the library with the school’s therapy dog, Paca.
Credit Roxy Todd
/
Therapy dog Paca
Or, if the parent gives permission, the child might also be matched up with a counselor who travels to the school.
For children who are left to deal with trauma all on their own, there can be fatal consequences.
A report called the Adverse Childhood Experiences study found that children who experienced trauma early in life were more likely to abuse substances, smoke, overeat. Children who experience abusive and stressful situations could lose as much as 20 years off their life, compared with children who grow up in stable, loving families.
Credit Daniel Walker/ WVPB
/
Ethan Napier and his mother Lynitrah Woodson are blowing bubbles and working with a therapist inside the mental health clinic at Mary C. Snow Elementary School.
But teachers and other adults in a child’s life can help, if they know what to look out for.
“Life does happen. And it’s teaching them how to handle things when life does happen,” says Katrina Helm, a special education teacher at Mary C. Snow Elementary.
“That we can still function, we can get the love, we can get the support the nurture that we need. Basically when they come here and we get the Handle with Care we look at what do they need and how can we fill in from there.”
Helm recently visited a meeting with other teachers from across West Virginia.
“And one of those teachers brought up that there’s so much trauma going on in their schools and they don’t know how to handle it. And they don’t know what resources do we tap into. This is an ongoing problem, it’s a growing problem, and one thing they were emphasizing there is they’re seeing it more and more in their younger kids. And that’s what we’re seeing here is we’re seeing it in our younger kids.”
Thus far, the Handle With Care Program has been supported without any extra funding- except for the resources already available to schools and children who need mental care.
The program is part of a collaboration between the state Department of Health and Human Resources, U.S Attorney Booth Goodwin’s office and the West Virginia State Police.
These groups are now working to help bring Handle With Care to communities throughout West Virginia. There are also similar programs that have sprouted in other states. When president Obama visited West Virginia last year to talk about drug abuse across the nation, he took note of the Handle with Care Program.
“I’d really like to see us advertise this more across the country and adopt this as a best practice,” said President Obama.
With drug overdose rates in West Virginia the highest in the country, Katrina Helm says more and more teachers are noticing children who are dealing with abuse and neglect. “So it’s definitely more prominent now than before. I think before we always thought it was just isolated to West Side Elementary.”
Credit Daniel Walker/ WVPB
/
Katrina Helm is a special education teacher involved in the Handle With Care Program
But as drug abuse and domestic violence continue to barrage families across West Virginia, there simply aren’t enough resources to help children deal with trauma. Harmony Health Services, which provides mental health therapy to the students at Mary C. Snow Elementary, is working to get a mobile mental health care facility for some of the remote areas in West Virginia.
