About the Program

Relationships are the foundation to learning and growth for students, staff, and families. Connections, warmth, and positive interactions are at the heart of Path. These relationships not only help build trust and stronger use of supportive practices, but they are protective for children and an essential part of healing-centered work.

Recognizing and valuing students’ strengths creates starting points for connection and opportunity. Every student, as well as family members and school staff, brings their own unique skills and expertise to the school community. Emphasizing and building on these strengths enables everyone to meaningfully contribute, rather than being viewed through a deficit lens. 

CRSE encourages educators to embrace all of students’ social identities (e.g., racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, gender and sexuality, disability, immigration status) and recognizes these identities as indispensable sources of knowledge for rigorous teaching and learning. Using the rich cultural, racial, historical, linguistic characteristics of students to provide mirrors that reflect the greatness of who their people are and windows into the world that allow students to connect across cultures.

When adults are able to be aware of their emotional state and can regulate themselves, they support students needing self-regulation. When students experience big emotions—sadness, frustration, anger—staff model this self-regulation, acting as a thermostat rather than a thermometer, setting the foundation for a calm, safe classroom community. 

Safe Spaces are environments that are predictable, structured, and responsive to the needs of those who work in them and the families /students served. Path aims to create safe spaces that are inclusive of students with all different needs, strengths, and backgrounds, and that empower staff, families, and students to ask for and receive what they need to succeed.