Stephen L. Pruitt, president of the Southern Regional Education Board, will provide expert testimony Thursday before the Kentucky Senate on SREB’s new Crisis Recovery Support Network, which will begin training across the 16-state region early next month.

Pruitt, a former chief of staff for the Georgia Department of Education and chief state school officer in Kentucky, will address the state’s need for trained counselors who can be available for crucial and sustained support for students and teachers as well as for local counselors. Pruitt said Kentucky is considering a resolution to support the initiative.

“After natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods or after school shootings, students, teachers and entire communities are left to cope with deep emotional and psychological wounds,” Pruitt said in a recent interview about the network. “Our experience shows that people in schools affected by crisis require at least a year of dedicated support to begin their recovery.”

The network will develop a pool of professionals who will provide a coordinated response to crisis recovery, including year-long emotional and mental health support for students, teachers and communities. Pruitt said SREB plans to train at least 40 counselors in each of the 16 SREB states to eventually prepare more than 600 counselors with specific training in psychological first aid and stabilization at schools and colleges.

The trainees will come from partnering K-12 districts and postsecondary institutions. When called to serve, counselors will coordinate with the local district, school or institution to develop the most appropriate response to meet the specific local need.

Pruitt took office as the sixth president of the Southern Regional Education Board in July 2018. He started his education career as a high school chemistry teacher in Fayette County. During his career he has amassed education policy, assessment and instructional background at the local, state and national levels.

Before coming to SREB, Pruitt was Kentucky’s state commissioner of education. His experience includes working with schools to accommodate students displaced by Hurricane Katrina and providing in-person support to the administration and counselors of Marshall County High School in Kentucky following the school shooting in January 2018. In that role, he directed a network of crisis-trained counselors for the next year as they provided support to Marshall County.

At the national level, he had worked closely with state agencies and educators around the country to improve policy and practice in science education. In addition to serving as the state education department’s chief of staff, Pruitt served as Georgia’s science and mathematics program manager, director of academic standards and associate state superintendent for assessment and accountability.

Pruitt also has served as a board member to the Council of Chief State School Officers, as president of the Council of State Science Supervisors and as a member of the writing team for the College Board Standards for College Success for science. In addition, he was named to the National Research Council’s Board on Science Education and served on the National Academies of Science Committee on Conceptual Framework for New Science Education Standards that developed the Framework for K-12 Science Education.

A Georgia native, Pruitt holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from North Georgia College and State University, a master’s degree in science education from the University of West Georgia and a Ph.D. in chemistry education from Auburn University.

Media are invited to contact SREB to arrange interviews with Pruitt about his testimony.

For frequently asked questions and more information, see the following links:

SREB Crisis Recovery Support Network

Frequently Asked Questions for Crisis Recovery Support Network

Contact: Janita Poe, SREB News Manager, at Janita.Poe@sreb.org or 404-879-5516, ext. 216

The Southern Regional Education Board works with states, districts and schools to improve education at every level, from early childhood through doctoral education and the workforce. An interstate compact and a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region.