Committee on Children
JOINT FAVORABLE REPORT
Bill No.: HB-5698
AN ACT ESTABLISHING A PILOT PROGRAM FOR THE COLLECTION OF
Title: ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES DATA.
Vote Date: 3/15/2021
Vote Action: Joint Favorable Substitute
PH Date: 3/2/2021
File No.: 198
Disclaimer: The following JOINT FAVORABLE Report is prepared for the benefit of the
members of the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and
explanation and does not represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber
thereof for any purpose.
SPONSORS OF BILL:
Committee on Children
REASONS FOR BILL:
This bill would require the Department of Education, in coordination with the Office of Early
Childhood and local boards of Education, to collect and report data regarding adverse
experiences suffered by children.
RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION/AGENCY:
CHARLENE RUSSEL-TUCKER, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, STATE DEPARTMENT OF
EDUCATION submitted testimony on the bill This bill establishes a new data collection for
the department that is not currently collected. New data collections for districts may be
difficult given all the additional reporting they are currently doing. The potential re-
traumatization of students is a concern to us. With additional resources the department could
convene a taskforce to study this issue and develop recommendations to move
forward. Adverse childhood experiences are linked to chronic health
problems and negatively impact educational outcomes.
NATURE AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT:
Alexandre Bostick, Legal Intern, Center for Children's Advocacy submitted testimony in
support of the bill. The bill would require consistent and comprehensive collection and
reporting of data that concerns childhood experiences by the Department of Education and
other local and state agencies. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention lists adverse
childhood experiences as an urgent threat and prolonged stress can physically affect
children. Data collection is an essential first step in assessing the goals and outcomes of our
state's programs that assist with the after-effects of childhood trauma.
Paul Dworkdin and Kimberly Martini-Carvell, Connecticut Children's Medical
Center submitted testimony supporting the bill. We recognize the critical importance of
access to data on children's health, development, and wellbeing to ensure effective
interventions. Few states have the capacity to gather date from different child-serving
sectors. We support the importance of collection information on the social, environmental
and behavioral drivers of children's behavior. Many parents reported it would be either very
or somewhat helpful for their health provider to assess child development and social-
emotional development as part of their healthcare visit.
Jessie Gleckel, Director, Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence spoke on the
bill. Studying and understanding childhood experience is critical for preventing and
responding to traumatic childhood experiences. The bill as written needs clarifications.
1. How will these efforts align with any future efforts of the Department of Public Health
and their own collection of data.
2. Will SDE be held accountable for using the data and will they engage with other
sectors when responding to the data.
Childhood experiences data needs to be analyzed and acted on thru multi-sectorial
approaches.
NATURE AND SOURCES OF OPPOSITION:
ACLU does not support the bill. The bill with its data tracking infringes on the civil liberties of
young people. We support providing services to children who have lived through adverse
childhood experiences, but this bill requires an enormous amount of data and could be too
sensitive to be recorded and accessed by anyone who can access the information system.
The information could get into the wrong hands and lead to harmful bias. Police in one
country in Florida used sensitive information about children and determined that they were
more likely to becoming criminals. Data breaches are a risk and have occurred over 8.5
million times in the last 6 year period. The risk of harmful unintended consequences are too
many and too great in this bill.
Fran Rabinowitz, Executive Director, Connecticut Association of Public
School Superintendents does not support the bill, but we do support establishing a task
force to study the proposed data collection. The bill has the potential to seriously impact
student wellbeing as well as district and school budgets.
Reported by: Jalmar Dos Dios Date: April 8th 2021
Page 2 of 2 HB-5698


Statutes affected:
Committee Bill: 10-10a, 10-515