Growing evidence supports the important relationship between trauma and academic failure. Along with the failure of “zero tolerance” policies to resolve issues of school safety and a new understanding of children’s disruptive behavior, educators are changing the way they view children’s academic and social problems. In response, the trauma-sensitive schools movement presents a new vision for promoting children’s success. This book introduces this promising approach and provides K–5 education professionals with clear explanations of current research and dozens of practical, creative ideas to help them. Integrating research on children’s neurodevelopment and educational best practices, this important book will build the capacity of teachers and school administrators to successfully manage the behavior of children with symptoms of complex developmental trauma. “Kudos! Susan Craig has done it again. After Reaching and Teaching Children Who Hurt, she has written a book that will help administrators and educators truly make schoolwide trauma sensitivity a regular part of the way their schools are run. A major contribution to education reform.” —Susan Cole, director, Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, Massachusetts Advocates for Children, and Harvard Law School. “Dr. Craig’s message is clear that promoting self-reflection, self-regulation and integration gives traumatized children the chance at learning that they’re not getting in traditional approaches. And she bravely points out that it’s critical for teachers to recognize the toll that this emotional work can take and the need for self-care. Being mindful of both the importance of trauma sensitive systems and the enormity of the task of helping vulnerable children build resilience is so critical for everyone working with and caring for our children.” —Julie Beem, MBA, Executive Director of the Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc.

Educators must both respond to the impact of trauma, and prevent trauma at school. Trauma-informed initiatives tend to focus on the challenging behaviors of students and ascribe them to circumstances that students are facing outside of school. This approach ignores the reality that inequity itself causes trauma, and that schools often heighten inequities when implementing trauma-informed practices that are not based in educational equity. In this fresh look at trauma-informed practice, Alex Shevrin Venet urges educators to shift equity to the center as they consider policies and professional development. Using a framework of six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education, Venet offers practical action steps that teachers and school leaders can take from any starting point, using the resources and influence at their disposal to make shifts in practice, pedagogy, and policy. Overthrowing inequitable systems is a process, not an overnight change. But transformation is possible when educators work together, and teachers can do more than they realize from within their own classrooms.

Providing school-based mental health providers with the necessary tools to help intervene on behalf of students struggling to overcome trauma, this volume features engaging case studies and an overview of evidence-based interventions.

Developing a Trauma-Informed Perspective in School Communities: An Introduction for Educators, School Counselors, and Administrators provides future and current school counselors, educators, and leadership teams with relevant research on brain and human development to assist them in developing a trauma-informed perspective. Readers are encouraged to leverage this knowledge to create positive and formative change within schools and provide effective support for students struggling with potentially traumatic experiences, as well as those without trauma histories to ensure positive and healthy development. The text introduces key topics in brain and trauma research including attachment, neuroscience, adverse childhood experiences, toxic stress, mindfulness, restorative discipline, self-care, and resiliency. Readers learn how to recognize the signs of potential trauma and how to best support individuals exhibiting certain behaviors through a whole-school approach. The text demonstrates how a holistic and collective approach that addresses student behaviors through relationships to encourage development of self-efficacy skills is more effective than the "quick fix" often used to address student issues. Throughout the text, opportunities for personal connection, practice, and reflection underscore key concepts and build relevant knowledge that may be applied to future work with students and school staff. Developing a Trauma-Informed Perspective in School Communities is an ideal supplemental resource for courses and programs in education. It is also a powerful reference for professionals currently working within school and community settings.

In this galvanizing book for all educators, Kristin Souers and Pete Hall explore an urgent and growing issue--childhood trauma--and its profound effect on learning and teaching. Grounded in research and the authors' experience working with trauma-affected students and their teachers, Fostering Resilient Learners will help you cultivate a trauma-sensitive learning environment for students across all content areas, grade levels, and educational settings. The authors--a mental health therapist and a veteran principal--provide proven, reliable strategies to help you * Understand what trauma is and how it hinders the learning, motivation, and success of all students in the classroom. * Build strong relationships and create a safe space to enable students to learn at high levels. * Adopt a strengths-based approach that leads you to recalibrate how you view destructive student behaviors and to perceive what students need to break negative cycles. * Head off frustration and burnout with essential self-care techniques that will help you and your students flourish. Each chapter also includes questions and exercises to encourage reflection and extension of the ideas in this book. As an educator, you face the impact of trauma in the classroom every day. Let this book be your guide to seeking solutions rather than dwelling on problems, to building relationships that allow students to grow, thrive, and--most assuredly--learn at high levels.

Selected as a "Favorite Book for Educators in 2018" by Greater Good. From the author of Mindfulness for Teachers, a guide to supporting trauma-exposed students. Fully half the students in U.S. schools have experienced trauma, violence, or chronic stress. In the face of this epidemic, it falls increasingly to teachers to provide the adult support these students need to function in school. But most educators have received little training to prepare them for this role. In her new book, Tish Jennings—an internationally recognized leader in the field of social and emotional learning—shares research and experiential knowledge about the practices that support students' healing, build their resilience, and foster compassion in the classroom. In Part I, Jennings describes the effects of trauma on body and mind, and how to recognize them in students' behavior. In Part II, she introduces the trauma-sensitive practices she has implemented in her work with schools. And in Part III, she connects the dots between mindfulness, compassion, and resilience. Each chapter contains easy-to-use, practical activities to hone the skills needed to create a compassionate learning environment.

Trauma in Schools and Communities uses the power of first-hand, autobiographical narratives to illustrate the advantages and pitfalls of specific interventions implemented in the wake of tragedies. This book addresses short- and long-term impacts of traumatic events and the challenges both survivors and responders face, using case studies from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; the Gulf War; the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; student suicides; the killing of a teacher; and the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech, and Chardon, Ohio, among others. Each story features reactions and lessons that are unique and support specific, multidisciplinary, structured interventions that should be a part of every crisis team’s protocol and every community’s recovery effort. An appendix features a summary of the lessons learned, a "what if?" scenario, time-specific trauma recovery interventions, a fan-out meeting agenda, a traumatic event crisis intervention plan, and answers to questions commonly asked by students about suicide.