Education

A trauma-informed school focuses on these steps

• Ensure all school staff are trained in trauma, signs and symptoms and trauma informed school practices.
• Create a sense of safety, both emotionally and physically (such as a safe space, like a “peace corner,” for students to safely emotionally regulate, when triggered).
• Help students regulate th eir emotions before solving the issue at hand, use active listening techniques to ensure children’s feelings are validated and heard.
• Build connected relationships with adults (healing happens through relationship!). Establish routines and predictability to reduce student anxiety and foster a greater sense of control and trust in their world.
• Build social emotional and resiliency skills (integrate social emotional learning, especially focusing on emotional regulation, movement and mindfulness into the daily classroom experience).
• Connect students in need with additional school-based services (basic needs, family services, behavioral health services, etc.).
• Review discipline practices and policies to align with a trauma-informed approach (discipline is to teach, not to punish).
• Recognize the impact of secondary and vicarious trauma on staff and support staff wellness to prevent compassion fatigue and burn out (tap in-tap out for teachers, faculty lounge as mindfulness space, book clubs, walking clubs, staff yoga before or after school, etc.).