Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Your Guide to Creating Safe, Supportive Learning Environments for All Students

Some youth experience trauma severe enough to negatively affect their school success. Give hope and help to these students with this reader-friendly how-to guide, your springboard for building responsive, trauma-sensitive Pre K–12 schools.

Drawing on her extensive experience as a school counsellor, trainer, and mother, trauma expert Jen Alexander delivers a comprehensive framework for building a safe, supportive school environment that helps all students learn and thrive. You'll start with an evidence-based introduction to the profound impact of trauma on a child's development, attachment, and behaviour. Then you'll get an effective multi-tier system of support (MTSS) for developing a trauma-sensitive learning environment, including both universal strategies (Tier 1) and more intensive interventions (Tier 2 and Tier 3) for students who need more support. Compelling anecdotes and sample scripts illuminate challenges and solutions, and the included forms and worksheets are valuable tools for helping educators build the mindset and skills necessary for becoming trauma-sensitive. With this engaging, highly practical guide to what works and why, your school team will gain insights and develop action plans that make a real difference in the lives of all kids, including our most vulnerable youth.

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Table of Contents

About the Online Materials

About the Author

Introduction

I: UNDERSTANDING TRAUMA

1. Trauma & Its Effects
• What is Trauma?
• Trauma Defined
• Prevalence of Childhood Trauma
• The Effects of Trauma on the Body
2. The Role of Attachment in Development
• Healthy Attachment
• Attachment Issues
• Attachment-Trauma
3. Trauma's Impact on Youth at School
• Faces of Trauma in the Classroom
• The Effects of Developmental Trauma in School
• Triggers in the Classroom
• Common Approaches to Trauma in the Classroom

II. CREATING TRAUMA-SENSITIVE SCHOOLS

4. The Trauma-Sensitive School Framework
• What is a Trauma-Sensitive School?
• Trauma-Informed Response to Intervention
• Trauma-Sensitive Educators
5. Paradigm Shifts
• Paradigm Shifts for Trauma-Sensitive Educators
6. Essentials for Trauma-Sensitive Schools
• Essential #1: To Help Students Feel Safe
• Essential #2: To Help Students Be Connected
• Essential #3: To Help Students Get Regulated
• Essential #4: To Help Students Learns

III. IMPLEMENTING TRAUMA-SENSITIVE STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM

7. Universal Strategies for Trauma-Sensitive Classrooms
• Universal Strategies to Help All Students Feel Safe
• Universal Strategies to Help All Students Be Connected
• Universal Strategies to Help All Students Get Regulated
• Universal Strategies to Help All Students Learn
8. Supplemental and Intensive Trauma-Sensitive Interventions
• Supplemental & Intensive Interventions for Helping Students Feel Safe
• Supplemental & Intensive Interventions for Helping Students Be Connected
• Supplemental & Intensive Interventions to Help Students Get Regulated
• Supplemental & Intensive Interventions to Help Students Learn
• We are in this Together
9. The PACE Approach to Working with Traumatized Students
• Follow, Lead, Follow
• Playfulness
• Acceptance
• Curiosity
• Empathy
10. Trauma-Sensitive Discipline Practices
• Restorative Discipline Practices
• Trauma-Sensitive Consequences
• Ending on a Positive Note
11. Self-Care for Educators
• Job-Related Stress
• Final Lifeguarding Lessons
• Self-care Plans

Appendix

References

Index