New trauma tool shows high adversity levels for children in southern Illinois

A new tool highlights trauma risks in Illinois school districts, aiming for better policy, funding, and public health coordination.

by Judith Ruiz-Branch
Illinois News Connection

CHICAGO - The Illinois Department of Education has a new tool to measure adversity in children by identifying areas where they may be exposed to potential sources of trauma.

The Illinois Children’s Adversity Index is an interactive map which compares the risk factors of school districts across the state using three categories to measure community and economic barriers. Initial findings show the highest concentration of adversity levels in Southern Illinois driven by factors such as food and housing insecurity and high rates of mental-health distress and imprisonment in adults.

Colleen Cicchetti, executive director of the Center for Childhood Resilience at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, helped in the development process. She said the goal is to hold schools accountable while acknowledging outside factors.

The index will be updated every two years and aims to guide resource allocation more efficiently across state agencies.

"It's really important to understand that it was never designed to say that this is a burden that only schools need to address," Cicchetti emphasized. "This really is talking about what is the context, the community context that schools are operating in that is impacting their ability to educate their students."

Chiquetti pointed out the index will be updated every two years and aims to guide resource allocation more efficiently across state agencies to address the root causes of potential issues for children.

Chiquetti noted it includes informing school-level decision-making to help principals better prioritize interventions based on community context and school data, like focusing on increased mental health services, addressing disparities, or implementing social-emotional learning programs.

"There's a lot of things that people are being exposed to that look different," Chiquetti observed. "So it really does mean that by using database decisions, we might invest in different things in parts of the state than in others, as opposed to globally saying, ‘oh, everybody needs more access.'"

The index builds upon state-level initiatives such as the Children’s Behavioral Health Transformation Initiative and the Whole Child Task Force, which Chiquetti said all calls for a reconfiguring of the silos of government in order to achieve a more holistic approach to addressing the well-being of children across the state.

"It really is shared across all of these different entities," Chiquetti noted. "It's a public health issue, it's an education issue, it's also a child welfare issue, it's a juvenile justice issue, it's Medicaid insurance access, it's health care … you need all of the systems to have what they need to support those children, families and communities."

'American' most often associated with white English speaker

Many Americans unconsciously link being "American" with whiteness and English fluency, a bias that starts in early childhood, research shows.

by Judith Ruiz-Branch
Illinois News Connection

CHICAGO - With Donald Trump in the White House, Illinois and the nation face new challenges about who "belongs" in the United States.

Nationality has become a flashpoint, and studies show folks tend to have an implicit bias about who fits the bill for being "American." Experts say many associate the term "American" with white people who speak English - even if they initially say otherwise.

University of Chicago psychology professor Katherine Kinzler said people don't always consciously exclude individuals from being American, and can be vocal about how ridiculous the notion of being white to be American sounds.

"And yet," she said, "those same people, when given a more subtle task - of 'what they think of when they think of what it means to be American' - they might just be a little bit faster to identify somebody who's white and who speaks English as being American, versus somebody else."

Formed biases are more often a result of social and cultural attitudes rather than political messages.

She said humans categorize others using cognitive shortcuts, which can cause prejudice and stereotypes, and lead to real-world consequences such as determining hiring decisions and ultimately making individuals feel like they don't belong.

Studying the development of social attitudes in kids, Kinzler said she found young children initially perceive English speakers as "more American." As they grow older, they then associate both English speakers and white faces with American identity. Kinzler said children often pick up on the statistical realities of their world, which can also color their beliefs.

"So they might be noticing, 'Who are the people I come in contact with? Who are the people that my parent talks to, who come over for dinner? Who are the people in my school? What access to resources do they have?' And so forth," she said. "And so, kids are paying attention to the social realities of their world and kind of adding it up."

While it's impossible to control everything children are exposed to, Kinzler suggested parents try to broaden their early experiences by exposing them to diverse ideas, languages, people and places, especially from a young age. She said formed biases are more often a result of social and cultural attitudes rather than political messages.

TELL THE SENTINEL WHAT YOU THINK:

Can someone be "American" if they speak English, but are not 'white'? Send us a letter and tell us what you think.

.::. Here is how and where to sent it