The importance of creating safe spaces for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students in the school environment cannot be overstated. It is one of the most prominent issues facing school professionals today, and its success has lasting, positive effects on the entire student body. Drawing on the expertise of researchers and practitioners, Creating Safe and Supportive Learning Environments provides a comprehensive examination of the topics most relevant for school professionals. The first section lays out the theoretical foundation and background school professionals need to understand the social and political trends that impact LGBTQ individuals, the development of sexual orientation and gender identity, risk and resilience factors, and the intersection of LGBTQ identity with other aspects of diversity. The second section explores topics critical for the development of safe, supportive school environments, including understanding legal and ethical mandates, training school personnel, addressing bullying and harassment, and developing inclusive classrooms. Special topics related to counseling LGBTQ students, supporting families of LGBTQ students, becoming an ally and advocate in the schools, and connecting with community resources are also covered. CE credit is available to purchasers of this book at www.mensanapublications.com.

Creating Safe and Supportive Schools and Fostering Students’ Mental Health provides pre- and in-service educators with the tools they need to prevent, pre-empt, handle, and recover from threats to students’ mental health. School safety and fostering a supportive learning environment have always been issues fundamental to educators. Over the last decade, teachers and administrators have been called on more than ever to cope with bullying, suicide, and violence in their schools. Handling every stage of this diverse set of obstacles can be unwieldy for teachers and administrators alike. Framed with interviews from experts on each of the topics, and including practical and applicable examples, this volume draws together the work of top-tier school psychologists into a text designed to work with existing school structures and curricula to make schools safer. A comprehensive and multi-faceted resource, this book integrates leading research with the well-respected Framework for Safe and Successful Schools to help educators support school safety, crisis management, and students' mental health. Featuring interviews with: Dewey G. Cornell, Frank DeAngelis, Beth Doll, Kevin Dwyer, Katie Eklund, Maurice J. Elias, Michele Gay, Ross W. Greene, Rob Horner, Jane Lazarus, Richard Lieberman, Troy Loker, Melissa A. Louvar-Reeves, Terry Molony, Shamika Patton, Donna Poland, Scott Poland, Eric Rossen, Susan M. Swearer, Ken Trump, and Frank Zenere.

"Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools is a practical, accessible guide to building learning environments that ensure safety, develop regulation skills, and grow caring relationships for all students, including those who have experienced trauma"--

Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools brings together the collective wisdom of more than thirty experts from a variety of fields to show how school leaders can create communities that support the social, emotional, and academic needs of all students. It offers an essential guide for making sense of the myriad frameworks, resources, and tools available to create a continuous improvement system. Filled with recommendations gleaned from research and ongoing work in every US state and territory, this book is a critical resource for understanding and adopting evidence-based practices and making programmatic decisions to ensure the ideal conditions for learning, growth, and development. "Creating Safe, Equitable, Engaging Schools is an essential read for teachers, principals, district leaders, and organizations that work with schools to create challenging and supportive environments for all students." --Paul Cruz, superintendent, Austin Independent School District "Osher and colleagues not only connect the dots between big ideas--deeper learning, trauma, social and emotional learning, evidence-based programs, comprehensive community planning--but they model the continuous improvement approach in the way ideas are ordered across and within the chapters. This is a masterful volume: comprehensive, accessible, and way overdue." --Karen J. Pittman, cofounder, president and CEO, The Forum for Youth Investment "This book provides a very usable road map for creating safe, healthy, equitable, and caring schools. The editors and contributors successfully integrate research, practice, and policy to help educators develop and implement effective and sustainable models to nurture caring schools that all children and educators deserve." --Mark T. Greenberg, Bennett Chair of Prevention Research, Pennsylvania State University David Osher is vice president and an institute fellow at American Institutes for Research. Deborah Moroney is a managing director at American Institutes for Research and is director of the youth development and supportive learning environments practice area. Sandra Williamson is a vice president for policy, practice, and systems change at American Institutes for Research.

Children and young people from diverse populations are statistically more at risk of exclusion, however education providers can make a difference to all children and young persons’ learning outcomes no matter what their personal circumstances. To achieve this, not only must educators form closer and more authentic relationships with these children and their communities, but the governments that fund learning environments must also be prepared to provide adequate resourcing and training opportunities. Safe, Supportive, and Inclusive Learning Environments for Young People in Crisis and Trauma addresses both the general and specific issues that may prevent children and young people from diverse populations from being safe, supported, and included in learning environments. Some chapters focus on general factors that contribute to both inclusion and exclusion at early childhood and in formal school environments, while others present research-based best practice and practical advice to enable good education outcomes for indigenous, migrant, and LGBTQI children and those who experience mental health problems, drug misuse, and abuse. Lastly, the book includes information about how to negotiate and set up programmes that have been shown to be effective with communities that differ from the dominant culture. This book provides practitioners in education, health, and social work with information and practical advice on how to retain all children and young people in early childhood, formal school education, and tertiary settings.

This book provides school administrators, school-based mental health professionals, and other educational professionals with the framework and tools needed to establish a comprehensive safe learning environment. The authors identify four necessary phases to achieve this (prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery) and provide numerous examples and tools to help readers create safe environments, while also addressing students’ academic, emotional, and social needs. An emphasis is placed on the importance of the balance between physical and psychological safety within a multi-tiered framework - it is not enough for students to know their school is secure; they must also feel they are safe and can turn to their teachers and school-based mental health professionals with their concerns. Aaccompanying downloadable resources contain several valuable resources, such as forms, handouts, articles, and monitoring tools.

This practitioner-focused guide to creating identity-safe classrooms presents four categories of core instructional practices: Child-centered teaching ; Classroom relationships ; Caring environments ; Cultivating diversity. The book presents a set of strategies that can be implemented immediately by teachers. It includes a wealth of vignettes taken from identity-safe classrooms as well as reflective exercises that can be completed by individual teachers or teacher teams.