The Agency of Education will partner with the University of Vermont to study the outcomes of children from opioid-addicted families, Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe said.
The study is expected to start by the end of the month and will be led by UVM researcher Dr. Abby Crocker.
“It is a longitudinal study on the outcomes of children from opioid-addicted parents, so we should be able to speak to these exact questions as well as offer a more nuanced approach to raising questions [and providing evidence for discussions] around an issue that is part of a much larger, community and economic conundrum,” Holcombe said. “Obviously, conclusions are a few years out.”
Crocker said she will analyze existing data on real students in Vermont schools.
“We know substance abuse in this state is an issue,” Crocker said. “We don’t really know what’s happening long term,” with children who are exposed to substance abuse, she said.
That concern is a major state issue, Crocker said, “Let’s use that enthusiasm and ground it in a data-driven discussion. Without having the data, you’re just throwing darts.”
The research hopes to identify the most effective interventions for children of addicted parents.
“There is something that happens before they get into school, and after and we have to be able to effectively talk about that,” said Crocker.
Part of the hoped for result of the collaboration is to use data and anecdotal information to determine the most effective interventions to reach children of addicted parents at school through the Department of Health, Crocker said. “The thing is, the data is out there, people just aren’t sharing it, because it’s so, so sensitive.”
Meet Tony
Holcombe and Gov. Peter Shumlin received a letter in mid-December from a Vermont school principal who wished to keep his identity anonymous. The principal talked about the children he sees from homes with drug addiction.
“These are stories of children who are victims of the Great Recession and Vermont’s plague of narcotics addiction.” The names of the children, to protect their privacy, were changed, the principal wrote.
“Meet Tony,” began the first story.
“His mother gave birth to him when she was 19, right about the time she and Tony’s father got into dealing Oxy,” the principal wrote. “Tony was only 18 months when he was locked in a closet time after time to ‘keep him safe’ while she ran out to help with drug deals.”
Tony’s mom was also an addict, and she was not able to bond or attach with him the way he needed as a baby, the principal wrote.
“After a stint in foster care, Tony has now been reunited with his mother, who is in a drug treatment program. The school is providing social work services, and Tony is supported in school with a full-time behavior interventionist.”
In fifth grade, Tony “disassociated” three times during mental health crises: he threw a chair at his special educator; attacked the principal; and destroyed the art room.
“It’s expensive to educate Tony in public school, but it’s much more expensive to send him to a day treatment or residential center,” the letter went on.
The second student story was about Jason.
“His parents were homeless for years due to losing their job and taking up Oxy, then heroin,” the letter shared. “The Department for Children and Families kept an eye on the kids, but left them with their ‘intact’ family.”
When an aunt took over Jason’s custody, “he had not been to a physician in three years. He had never been to a dentist. Jason resisted the medical care, but did get vaccinated and the worst of his teeth were pulled. Jason also experienced trauma reactions.”
The police have had to be called several times when Jason ran from the school.
“The third time the police were called, Jason had barricaded himself in his classroom behind a wall of overturned desks,” the principal said. The class had to be evacuated for their safety. Jason has a full-time behavior interventionist working with him.
The third story shared by the principal was about a little girl named Sara.
“She told us, ‘Ed hit mommy again,’” the principal wrote. “Sara doesn’t act out as violently as the boys I described to you. We are her seventh school. She is in third grade. ‘Ed’ is the latest boyfriend, sharing the family’s little room at the local shelter. Mommy was making it as a single parent, until she lost her job during the recession. Although she is very far behind academically, the school team has agreed to let her take a 90-minute nap before lunch.”
To bring Sara to grade level will take additional resources, the principal wrote. She does not qualify for special education, the principal wrote, “so all those costs will be borne locally.”
The story about Sara ends on an even sadder note. Shortly afterward, she was transferred to another school. “Well, that will be another school’s problem,” the principal wrote.
“We’ve always had challenging students in our schools, but the volume has increased markedly in the past seven to 10 years,” the principal continued, addressing himself now to the governor. “You have been vocal about the problem facing our beautiful state in regard to the narcotics plague.”
The principal stressed, “Connect the dots, Governor, these people have children. The children are not well cared for. These are all traumatic events that have a clear and documented effect on their ability to manage school.”
“This is part of the ‘spending problem,’ you continue to talk about with the press,” the principal continued. “…These children, and hundreds more like them, have already suffered trauma. They need additional staff in order to be safe in our schools. They are expensive to educate, no doubt about it. But they have a right to an education.”
The principal urged the governor to interview principals before holding more news conferences on the state of education in Vermont, and to visit some schools.
Holcombe, responding to the anonymous letter, said, “Reduction in support for the local mental health agencies induced a loss of services, which schools stepped in to deliver.
“When kids need services, they need services,” Holcombe said. “Moving forward, we would like to do some research on effective early trauma intervention programs, which we can pass along to schools … We know schools need more support with how to respond to and support children who have experienced trauma.”
Holcombe said her agency has seen a steep increase in the number of emotionally disturbed students with extraordinary spending.
Last year, some $10 million was spent on students with the ED diagnosis, Holcombe said.
“Despite that, the prospects for these kids are worse than for other kids,” Holcombe said. “This should give us all pause, and motivate us to figure out how to intervene earlier to prevent this challenge in the first place.”
At a recent joint meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees, members of the Vermont Principals’ Association gave testimony on the state of schools in Vermont. Wayne Howe, principal at Northfield Elementary School, referenced the anonymous letter sent by one of his colleagues to the governor and secretary.
“In the letter, the principal describes the real crisis that exists today in schools regarding mental health issues facing children that have come about because of what the author calls, the Great Recession and the Narcotics plague that we have faced in Vermont. The letter cited the cases of three children named Sara, Jason and Tony who each have intensive needs requiring more staffing just to be able to access and benefit from school. These staff members no doubt will greatly increase our student-to-staff ratio, and make education more expensive,” Howe said. “But, what’s the alternative? The letter simply asks the Governor if we have a spending problem or are the costs the symptom of a larger disease?”