Equitable Practices

The end of 2023 marks the close of the second year of Springfield Township's Equity Action Plan. With eight goals to focus on during the year, our district was busy continuing our committment to diversity, equity, and belonging. Our building data teams used a newly created data protocol to dig deep into our disaggregated data. The Human Resources Department partnered with district and building leaders to expand our hiring horizens by visiting new career fairs to recruit diverse staff for a variety of positions. And our district took great pride in collecting feedback from a variety of stakeholders using Panorama surveys.

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024, Superintendent, Dr. MaryJo Yannacone, presented a comprehensive review of Year 2 of the Equity Action Plan goals and how our cumulative work has positively impacted the district.

If you were not able to attend the Board presentation, you can view the video HERE or check out the slideshow HERE.

We are extremely proud of our work here in Springfield Township and we hope that you are too!

Clearing the Air: Vaping, Nicotine, Cannabis- January 17, 2024 (Virtual)

Be SMART/ Social Media- January 31, 2024 (In-Person)

Preparing Your Child to Launch- February 21, 2024 (Virtual)

Family Wellness Fair- March 13, 2024 (In-Person)

Question, Persuade, Refer Training- May 15, 2024 (In-Person-Middle School Library)

Recognizing the diversity of our community, The School District of Springfield Township is committed to and accountable for advancing equity and excellence for all of our students. We, in the School District of Springfield Township, endeavor to provide equitable opportunities for high level, meaningful, and engaging learning experiences for each and every student, regardless of racial/ethnic background, economic condition or other dimension of identity or difference.

We recognize that in order to achieve Educational Equity we must apply principles of fairness and justice in the allocation of resources and work toward the elimination of institutional barriers to access and opportunity. We aim to ensure that funding, policies, practices, and initiatives will enable every student to receive what they need to maximize their success. In order to foster growth toward equity, we must engage in continuous reflection and ongoing measurement of our efforts.

Our district is a proud member of the DVCEE, Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence and Equity, an organization sponsored by the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Springfield Township is proud to continue our membership and work collaboratively with the 37 other districts in the Greater Philadelphia region to enhance equitable educational practices for all students.

For more information on DVCEE, please visit their website.

• Adopt and enforce an Educational Equity Policy (Complete)
• Identify administrator responsible for conducting review and analysis of data and leadership of EAP (Complete)
• Communicate the purpose and goals of the EAP broadly and consistently (Complete)
• Support conversations in the classroom that help students to be prepared for difficult topics and conversations around equity (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Improve safety for marginalized students, including students of color and LGBTQ+ students (On-going)
• Utilize analytics to assess the impact our communication has on students and families (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Create feedback/communication system for parent teacher conferences (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Provide training for ALL district staff on equitable practices that are able to be implemented in the classroom and across district offices (On-going and embedded in practices)

• Create a system for the collection, review and dissemination of relevant data (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Elicit feedback from students, staff, and families (On-going and embedded in practices)
• Create a K-12 course overview with language accessibility (Complete)
• Simplify and focus our communication to families (Complete)
• Improve our website's accessibility and ease of use/clarity (Complete)
• Train our MTSS teams to utilize the MTSS process to improve our systems of identification/readiness (Complete and embedded in practices)
• Utilize an online platform for feedback from students and families (Complete and embedded in practices)
• Continue to communicate and implement recommended strategies for recruitment and retention of a diverse, representative workforce across the district (On-going and embedded in practices)

• Ensure that access and opportunity yield measurable outcomes
• Collaborate with parent organizations to develop a roadmap for decision-making K-12
• Explore scholarships/reduced fees, and sibling childcare to improve access to extracurriculars
• Work with our parent organizations to grow the Ambassadors Program so that families and students new to the district learn and understand how to navigate systems
• Identify, review, and report on primary indicators of growth/achievement
• Provide enrichment opportunities at the elementary level after school

The following information is shared with families to help strengthen equity conversations in the home. Please note that these resources are not shared in the schools. However, we encourage families to use these resources to engage your children in conversations around equity in the home.

What Is a Traumatic Event?

A traumatic event is a frightening, dangerous, or violent event that poses a threat to a child’s life or bodily integrity. Witnessing a traumatic event that threatens life or physical security of a loved one can also be traumatic. This is particularly important for young children as their sense of safety depends on the perceived safety of their attachment figures.

Traumatic experiences can initiate strong emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Children may feel terror, helplessness, or fear, as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting, or loss of bowel or bladder control. Children who experience an inability to protect themselves or who lacked protection from others to avoid the consequences of the traumatic experience may also feel overwhelmed by the intensity of physical and emotional responses.

Even though adults work hard to keep children safe, dangerous events still happen. This danger can come from outside of the family (such as a natural disaster, car accident, school shooting, or community violence) or from within the family, such as domestic violence, physical or sexual abuse, or the unexpected death of a loved one.

What Experiences Might Be Traumatic?

• Physical, sexual, or psychological abuse and neglect (including trafficking)
• Natural and technological disasters
• Family or community violence
• Terrorism, mass violence, and school shootings
• Discrimination, prejudice, and racism
• Sudden or violent loss of a loved one
• Substance use disorder (personal or familial)
• Traumatic separation (including as part of an immigration journey or incarceration)
• Refugee and war experiences (including torture)
• Serious accidents or life-threatening illness
• Military family-related stressors (e.g., deployment, parental loss or injury)

When children have been in situations where they feared for their lives, believed that they would be injured, witnessed violence, or tragically lost a loved one, they may show signs of child traumatic stress.

What Is Child Traumatic Stress?

Children who suffer from child traumatic stress are those who have been exposed to one or more traumas over the course of their lives and develop reactions that persist and affect their daily lives after the events have ended. Traumatic reactions can include a variety of responses, such as intense and ongoing emotional upset, depressive symptoms or anxiety, behavioral changes, difficulties with self-regulation, problems relating to others or forming attachments, regression or loss of previously acquired skills, attention and academic difficulties, nightmares, difficulty sleeping and eating, and physical symptoms, such as aches and pains. Older children may use drugs or alcohol, behave in risky ways, or engage in unhealthy sexual activity.

Children who suffer from traumatic stress often have these types of symptoms when reminded in some way of the traumatic event. Although many of us may experience reactions to stress from time to time, when a child is experiencing traumatic stress, these reactions interfere with the child’s daily life and ability to function and interact with others. At no age are children immune to the effects of traumatic experiences. Even infants and toddlers can experience traumatic stress. The way that traumatic stress manifests will vary from child to child and will depend on the child’s age and developmental level.

Without treatment, repeated childhood exposure to traumatic events can affect the brain and nervous system and increase health-risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, eating disorders, substance use, and high-risk activities). Research shows that child trauma survivors can be more likely to have long-term health problems (e.g., diabetes and heart disease) or to die at an earlier age. Traumatic stress can also lead to increased use of health and mental health services and increased involvement with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Adult survivors of traumatic events may also have difficulty in establishing fulfilling relationships and maintaining employment.

Reminders and Adversities

Traumatic experiences can set in motion a cascade of changes in children’s lives that can be challenging and difficult. These can include changes in where they live, where they attend school, who they’re living with, and their daily routines. They may now be living with injury or disability to themselves or others. There may be ongoing criminal or civil proceedings.

Traumatic experiences leave a legacy of reminders that may persist for years. These reminders are linked to aspects of the traumatic experience, its circumstances, and its aftermath. Children may be reminded by persons, places, things, situations, anniversaries, or by feelings such as renewed fear or sadness. Physical reactions can also serve as reminders, for example, increased heart rate or bodily sensations. Identifying children’s responses to trauma and loss reminders is an important tool for understanding how and why children’s distress, behavior, and functioning often fluctuate over time. Trauma and loss reminders can reverberate within families, among friends, in schools, and across communities in ways that can powerfully influence the ability of children, families, and communities to recover. Addressing trauma and loss reminders is critical to enhancing ongoing adjustment.

Risk and Protective Factors

Fortunately, even when children experience a traumatic event, they don’t always develop traumatic stress. Many factors contribute to symptoms, including whether the child has experienced trauma in the past, and protective factors at the child, family, and community levels can reduce the adverse impact of trauma. Some factors to consider include:

• Severity of the event. How serious was the event? How badly was the child or someone she loves physically hurt? Did they or someone they love need to go to the hospital? Were the police involved? Were children separated from their caregivers? Were they interviewed by a principal, police officer, or counselor? Did a friend or family member die?
• Proximity to the event. Was the child actually at the place where the event occurred? Did they see the event happen to someone else or were they a victim? Did the child watch the event on television? Did they hear a loved one talk about what happened?
• Caregivers’ reactions. Did the child’s family believe that he or she was telling the truth? Did caregivers take the child’s reactions seriously? How did caregivers respond to the child’s needs, and how did they cope with the event themselves?
• Prior history of trauma. Children continually exposed to traumatic events are more likely to develop traumatic stress reactions.
• Family and community factors. The culture, race, and ethnicity of children, their families, and their communities can be a protective factor, meaning that children and families have qualities and or resources that help buffer against the harmful effects of traumatic experiences and their aftermath. One of these protective factors can be the child’s cultural identity. Culture often has a positive impact on how children, their families, and their communities respond, recover, and heal from a traumatic experience. However, experiences of racism and discrimination can increase a child’s risk for traumatic stress symptoms.

Resource: https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma/about-child-trauma