What do you picture when you hear that a child has been kicked out of school following a series of disruptive behaviors? My guess is that you’re imagining a troubled teenager. But that expelled student is three times more likely to be a toddler.
While that statistic might be startling to many, those of us who work in the early childhood education and health sectors have long been familiar with the challenges young children face in systems that were not designed to recognize or treat their unique emotional and mental health needs.
As a preschool director, I am encouraged by the recent efforts of Orange County’s Early Childhood Mental Health Collaborative. The collaborative is a new organization committed to creating system changes that address behavior concerns, underdiagnosed mental health issues, high expulsion and suspension rates, and other related needs of pre-kindergarten students.
As a member of the Children and Families Commission of Orange County I am encouraged with our participation in the collaboration and our partnership with other organizations that includes the Regional Center of Orange County, Children’s Home Society of California, the Orange County Department of Education, and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, to design a pilot program to address suspension and expulsion rates in pre-kindergarten childhood settings, to identify children in need of intervention at an earlier age, and to connect families, teachers and caregivers with early childhood mental health consultants and the training required to help young children succeed.
The need is critical. A survey conducted by the Social Science Research Center at California State University, Fullerton found that early childhood care providers are often not equipped to help children struggling with behavior and/or mental health needs. In fact, 37 percent of providers reported having asked a child to leave their program permanently due to problematic behavior, and a quarter of children with perceived special needs had not received intervention services.
The social, emotional and behavioral health of young children is associated with school readiness, strong relationships and even long-term health later in life. By giving families and caregivers access to early childhood mental health consultations, and building the capacity of teachers and caregivers to address these unique needs, we as a county might not only ensure children are ready for kindergarten, we could potentially improve the course of countless lives.
Keeping children in the right programs, with the right resources, will be key. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education recently released a joint statement on expulsion and suspension policies in early childhood settings in which they addressed one possible reason young children don’t receive the help they need: They’re kicked out too soon.
The collaborative intends to create sustainable systems change by making onsite behavior consultations and other resources integral to the system, which could eliminate the stigma of mental health, and identify ways to get targeted interventions where they are needed to prevent big problems in small children from getting worse.
I hope that in the future, should you hear of a child being expelled for disruptive behavior, the picture that will come to mind will neither be of a toddler or the troubled teen that toddler became. It will be a grainy, sepia-toned image from the distant past.
If you are a caregiver, teacher, service provider, concerned parent or philanthropist and would like to get involved in this effort, please send your contact information to the Collaborative at ecmh.oc@gmail.com.
Sandra Pierce is commissioner of the Children and Families Commission of Orange County and director of Little Friends Preschool.