Trauma-Responsive Schools

Enjoy the collated resources in Trauma-Responsive Schools. If you have suggestions, please submit suggestions using the form on the right.

The ACEs Connection supports the ever-expanding ACEs movement by educating people about ACEs science. We engage them in the movement by increasing the number of people who join ACEs Connection. We help communities launch and grow ACEs initiatives, online and in person, and provide tools to help them measure their progress. We act as the information resource for the ACEs movement by telling its stories and providing resources.

Access: ACES Connection 

 

 

Becoming a trauma responsive school is a multiyear process that requires improvements on all levels. Sometimes they are small adjustments, other times they are whole paradigm shifts. Change can be managed by considering whether it is a technical or an adaptive change.

Access: Becoming a Trauma-Responsive School

 

Iowa ASCD presenter at the Fall Academy in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 helps educators respond effectively to the impact of trauma on our students.

Be sure to check out her resources on trauma-responsive schools.  She also has a great infographic on the connections between MTSS and Teach to Heal.

Access:   Danielle Theis Consulting

 

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), child trauma is when a child witnesses or is involved in an event and, as a result, feels intensely threatened.

Access: Essential Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies

 

This website provides downloadable information (e.g., A Report and Policy Agenda, Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools.   The organization strives to help schools create trauma-sensitive environments; advocate for laws, policies and funding streams that will enable schools to create trauma sensitive learning environments; improve trauma-sensitive approaches to meeting the needs of individual children at school in both regular and special education; and engage in a public education campaign to teach policymakers, educators, administrators, health and mental health providers and parents about the impact of trauma on learning and the need for trauma sensitive schools. 

Access:  Helping Traumatized Children Learn

The National Child Traumatic Stress Center offers resources for addressing trauma in a school setting.

Access: The National Child Traumatic Stress Center

Trauma-Invested Practices for Fostering Resilient Learners.    In this stirring follow-up to the award-winning Fostering Resilient Learners, Kristin Van Marter Souers and Pete Hall take you to the next level of trauma-invested practice. To get there, they explain, educators need to build a "nest"—a positive learning environment shaped by three new Rs of education: relationship, responsibility, and regulation.  There is a Study Guide for this book.

Access: Relationship, Responsibility, and Regulation

 

The National Association of Agricultural Educators provides lesson plans, games, and activities.

Access: Responding to Student Trauma

 

Kristin Souers in the December, 2017, edition of Educational Leadership (ASCD) helps educators in responding effectively to their students’ needs.

Access: Responding with Care to Students Facing Trauma

The Safe Start National Resource Center supports those working or interested in the field of Children Exposed to Violence (CEV). It helps by raising awareness, effective community action, and moving from evidence to action to prevent and reduce the impact of violence on children and their families. 

Access: Safe Start Center

 

A Systemic Approach to Trauma-Responsive Schools

This is a complex issue for kids, adults, and schools. My services provide specific training and consultation to better serve this unique student population.

Access:  Teach to Heal with Danielle Theis

Debbie Zacarian, Lourdes Alvarez-Ortiz, and Judie Haynes provide a strength-based approach to serving these students. 

ASCD also provides an on-demand archived presentation.  

Access: Teaching to Strengths:  Supporting Students Living with Trauma, Violence, and Chronic Stress  

Wayne D’Orio shares how one district uses the administrators in the building to assist in minimizing the disruption and refocus the student on his/her learning. 

Access: Trauma-Informed Leadership

Susie Terry and Michelle Lustig of the San Diego County Office of Education provide information on prevalence and response, triggers, tools, and self care. 

Access:  Trauma Informed Practices for Schools – Tips

Concordia University of Portland share statistics, challenges, and tools. 

Access: Trauma-Informed Practices in School – Teaching and Self-Care

Trauma-Informed School shares the progress of the Santa Ana Unified School District, including resources and promising practices.  

Access:  Trauma-Informed School

Empowering Education – Mindfulness-Based Social and Emotional Learning shares examples for Grades K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. 

Access: Trauma-Informed Schools – Resources and Curriculum

Jessica Minahan shares in the October, 2019 edition of Educational Leadership (ASCD) strategies that positively impact the learning of students experiencing trauma.

Access:  Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies

Susan E. Craig shares in the September, 2017, edition of Educational Leadership (ASCD) promising practices of teachers who deal with students experiencing trauma.

Access:  The Trauma-Sensitive Teacher

Promoting trauma-informed school systems that provide prevention and early intervention strategies to create supportive and nurturing school environments. Trauma Responsive Schools  - meeting the needs of trauma-exposed students is best accomplished by a holistic, school-wide approach.

Access:  TSA -   Support and Resources for Trauma-Informed Schools


Resilience is front of mind for business leaders. Our times are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous
(VUCA). Many aspects of daily life and work are testing humanity. Effective business requires effective performance, which is only sustainable if organizations care for their employees and help them meet the challenges posed.

Access:  The 2022 Global Resilience Report

Dr Mary Crnobori, Coordinator of Trauma-Informed Schools for a large urban public school district in the Southeast shared this talk in January, 2019.  (13 minutes)

Access:  Why All Schools Should be Trauma-Informed - TEDxTalk 

This page was last updated: 5/31/24