1. Has or had a parent or guardian who historically abused or presently abuses substances;
2. Was subjected in utero to substances via the birth mother's use; and/or
3. Abuses substances himself or herself (in elementary school this category accounted for only a small population).

The educator participants were made up of the administrative and student service team members from each of a large school districts' ten urban area elementary schools. The purpose of the study was to gain a current knowledge of the performance and school behavior of substance-impacted children from a school-based practitioner, "pedestrian" point of view-in other words what were educators seeing in regard to children who come to school substance-impacted?

A focus group was conducted at each of the ten schools. Five key questions were posed to the participants to facilitate and focus the discussion about their experiences with substance-impacted children. The discussions were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. The verbatim transcriptions were then analyzed through a four-step process.

Analysis of the narratives yielded five major findings in regard to the participant educators' experiences with substance-impacted children:

1. Substance-impacted children were readily identified. Participants did so by converging educator observations that a child was having learning and/or school behavior problems with a report that the child was environmentally or biologically (in utero) affected by caregiver substance abuse. Reports came from the non-abusing parent, grandparents, concerned family members, neighbors, foster care providers, family physicians, peers, or by the child's own self-disclosure.
2. Substance-impacted children were seen by the participant educators to manifest a variety of salient academic/learning problems including depressed academic performance, information processing, memory, motor and language difficulties. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder type of behavior, task perseverance and motivation issues were also identified.
3. Substance-impacted children presented distinct disruptions in terms of their general school behavior. Participant educators associated aggressive behavior, escalatory behavior, lack of self control, boundary problems, withdrawal, and sadness with children they identified as substance-impacted, and saw these behaviors contributing to general classroom management and school discipline problems.
4. On the bright side, participant educators readily identified actions they could take to help substance-impacted children have a more productive and positive school experience. At the top of their list was providing consistency and structure, routine and predictability, security and civil interaction between the teacher and child. And lastly,
5. At the present time, the participant educators saw the issue of substance-impacted children as a mute and opaque topic, with schools lacking the resources and strategies to fully address these children's needs and behaviors. They saw the school as isolated from community service providers and community agencies that have the knowledge and expertise to lend the needed support and resources to help stabilize and enhance the school experience of substance-impacted children.

Substance-Impacted Children: A Study From the School Perspective was an exploratory study and was limited in scope and depth. Crucial questions remain:

1. What is the prevalence of substance-impacted children?
2. What is the full range and specific nature of their learning problems, as opposed to children who have similar problems, yet have not been impacted by substances?
3. Why do some substance-impacted children present with the aforementioned problems, yet other substance-impacted children do not manifest learning and school behavior problems, and in fact, appear to be resilient and healthy?
4. In what ways can schools help substance-impacted children become resilient? And,
5. How do local communities' substance-abuse problems relate to school climate, culture, and overall school performance on state mandated testing?

The purpose of the Substance-Impacted Children and the School Project is to investigate and address these questions and to do so in accordance to its mission, "to provide schools and other child-serving agencies with practical, effective strategies and tools to address the school problems of substance-impacted children by building the child's developmental capacities for school and life success."

This bulletin is the first in a series that will keep the reader informed of the project's findings and updated on best practice interventions.