Trauma-Sensitive Schools

To fully support students, schools must attend to the trauma that occurs within their own institutional cultures.

Teachers can play a huge role in helping students with anxiety or trauma issues feel safe—even from a distance.

Experiences with four students facing trauma taught me key lessons about reaching—and teaching—hurting children.

By building a culture of safety in schools, we can give students and educators living with trauma the resources and support they need to thrive.

This school year, educators need to strengthen their use of social-emotional, social justice, and culturally responsive practices.

Compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress can be debilitating for education leaders. The good news is they can also be prevented.

Since student trauma is often rooted in inequitable conditions, trauma-informed practices need to reach whole communities.

A school-based behavioral therapy intervention helps at-risk students build awareness and coping skills.

Trauma-sensitive schools create a space where all children can seek support without fear of escalating consequences.

Students living in adverse circumstances often lack positive recognition in schools.

Letting students write about negative experiences can help them process.

How educators respond to children's fears now will influence the long-term effects. Watch the video.

In a time of crisis, cultivating collective efficacy among teams is key.

If schools aren't addressing racism, they aren't fully addressing trauma.

Detailing inequities without taking action can be dehumanizing.

Reader responses to recent issues of EL.

Readers share a strategy or change they've implemented to support students affected by trauma.

An interview with Nadine Burke Harris, California's first surgeon general and author of The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity.

Key takeaways from a new handout from the Appalachia Regional Educational Laboratory on common trauma symptoms and best-practice strategies for supporting students, with adaptations for virtual-learning settings.

A review of the 2020 book, Trauma & Young Children: Teaching Strategies to Support & Empower by Sarah Erdman & Laura J. Colker, with Elizabeth C. Winter.