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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 5698
January Session, 2021
AN ACT ESTABLISHING A PILOT PROGRAM FOR THE COLLECTION
OF ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES DATA.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective from passage) (a) As used in this section, (1) 1
"adverse childhood experience" means a potentially traumatic event 2
occurring in childhood, including, but not limited to, (A) experiencing 3
or witnessing violence, abuse, neglect, a substance abuse disorder, a 4
suicide attempt or death by suicide, or (B) experiencing instability due 5
to parental separation or incarceration; and (2) "participating 6
municipalities" means the municipalities of Bridgeport, Cheshire, East 7
Hartford, Killingworth, Orange and South Windsor. 8
(b) The Department of Education shall establish an adverse 9
childhood experience survey pilot program to be administered in 10
participating municipalities. Such pilot program shall be for the purpose 11
of collecting data concerning adverse childhood experiences suffered by 12
students in grades four to twelve, inclusive, enrolled in public schools 13
in participating municipalities. 14
(c) Not later than October 1, 2021, the Department of Education shall 15
develop a survey that requires the student taking the survey to indicate 16
whether the student has witnessed or experienced one or more 17
potentially traumatic events, including, but not limited to, (1) violence, 18 Substitute Bill No. 5698
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abuse, neglect, a substance abuse disorder, a suicide attempt or death 19
by suicide; or (2) instability due to parental separation or incarceration. 20
The survey shall (A) be tailored to the developmental stages of the 21
students administered the survey, and (B) not include any personally 22
identifying information. 23
(d) Not later than August 1, 2022, the Department of Education shall 24
require each public school enrolling students in grades four to twelve, 25
inclusive, in participating municipalities to administer the survey 26
developed pursuant to subsection (c) of this section, and report the 27
results of the survey to the department in a form and manner prescribed 28
by the department. Such report shall (1) include, but not be limited to, 29
the number of students in each grade who have suffered each type of 30
potentially traumatic event; and (2) not include any data concerning the 31
number or types of potentially traumatic events suffered by any one 32
student. 33
(e) Not later than December 1, 2022, the Department of Education 34
shall submit a report, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a 35
of the general statutes, to the joint standing committee of the General 36
Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to children. Such report 37
shall include a summary of the number of students in each grade in each 38
participating municipality who have suffered each type of potentially 39
traumatic event. 40
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 from passage New section
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In Section (1)(c) to Section (1)(e), inclusive, "traumatic" was changed to
"potentially traumatic" for internal consistency.
KID Joint Favorable Subst.