House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

In the near future, I will be reintroducing former House Resolution 191 of the 2013-14 Legislative Session, which would once again declare youth violence as a public health epidemic in Pennsylvania.

In addition to declaring violence as a public health epidemic, this resolution also seeks to encourage the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to establish a statewide trauma-informed educational system. It is worth noting that on April 22, 2013, former HR 191 received consideration from the full House chamber and was adopted by a vote of 187-9. Moreover, on September 19, 2016, officials from PDE joined fourteen other states in attending the White House Summit on Trauma-Informed Approaches in Schools. Since that time, PDE has endeavored to provide Pennsylvania-based educators with critically important trauma information and related resources on its publicly accessible website.

Although it is clear that Pennsylvania is making some measurable strides in addressing the issues of youth violence and the lack of an existing statewide trauma-informed educational framework, it is also important that we as policymakers keep these issues at the political forefront until which time that youth violence is no longer considered to be of epidemic proportions in our commonwealth.

For these reasons, I ask that you please consider joining me as a co-sponsor of this resolution.