June 29, 2019
San Francisco pediatrician Nadine Burke-Harris, California’s first surgeon general, has done groundbreaking work studying the debilitating impact of emotional and physical trauma on young children. With $95 million in the new state budget that Gov. Newsom signed this week, soon every pediatrician and school health clinic in California will be able to give the parent survey that Burke-Harris created to identify children facing adverse experiences, such as violence, neglect or divorce.
This week, we speak with EdSource reporter Zaidee Staveley about plans for using the survey and with Dr. Jonathan Goldfinger, chief medical officer of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, which Burke-Harris established, about how survey answers can guide critically important treatment.
We also interview Lisa Eisenberg, the policy director of the California School Based Health Alliance, about how hundreds of school-based health clinics will use the survey to identify factors behind chronic health problems and behavior issues in the classroom.
For more, see the following articles:
- California wants to find out if you — or your kids — have experienced trauma
- Q&A: California’s first-ever surgeon general on her plans to tackle toxic stress in children
- How a tiny Native American community’s trauma might impact education law
- Addressing early childhood trauma requires shift in policy, more training for teachers