Turnaround’s Partnership Cited During Council of the District of Columbia Hearing on Education

Turnaround for Children’s partnership with District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) was highlighted during a joint performance oversight hearing on DCPS held by the Council of the District of Columbia’s Committee of the Whole and Committee on Education on February 26.

During the hearing, council member and education committee chair David Grosso inquired about what DCPS is working on to ensure that they can understand the needs of their schools and to build the capacities of teachers and leaders regarding trauma-informed practices.

Melissa Kim, Deputy Chancellor of Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, cited DCPS’s work with Turnaround as a key partner, specifically mentioning Turnaround’s SEAT (Schoolwide Environmental Assessment Tool) and the Assistant Principal Community of Practice on Trauma-Informed Practices, supported by Turnaround, as two of the primary strategies the district is employing to meet these key needs.

According to Kim:

“We are working with a really strong partner of ours called Turnaround for Children who is using their SEAT tool to help us assess where we are on the MTSS landscape.”

“…We’re working with Turnaround for Children to use their SEAT tool to assess all of our schools that are one star schools. We’re applying the trauma-informed lens into how we’re looking at what our schools might need… We’re hoping that because of these two initiatives and trying to model ourselves as “trauma informed” in the way we approach things that we see in schools that over time, certainly as fast as we can, we’re accelerating to the place where all of our schools are fluent and thinking about ACEs and how we as professionals can be responding to them.”

Watch the full hearing.