Connections Go a Long Way for Students with Trauma - Initiating short personal interactions may help students cope with adverse childhood experiences.

Source: Edutopia

The How and Why of Trauma-Informed Teaching - Teachers from across the country weigh in on how to build a trauma informed classroom.

Source: Edutopia

How Group Therapy at School Helps Kids Manage Trauma, Anxiety

When Alvord offered to bring the Resilience Builder Program to Cresthaven pro bono as part of a research project, Sklias selected a group of students she thought could benefit from it. It has been used especially with students dealing with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or anxiety or trauma — officially, students with "social competence deficits." She met with parents, and many agreed to sign up their kids.

The program focuses on fifth-graders, Alvord explains, to prepare them for middle school, where pressures like dealing with sex or substance use really kick in. It's a time that can be especially hard for kids already struggling with social and emotional issues.

Source: KQED Mindshift

Resources for Responding to Trauma and Tragedy - Extensive resource list providing guidance for supporting students who have experienced trauma or grief and for coping with violence and disasters.

Source: Edutopia

Responding to Trauma in Your Classroom: Spot signs of trauma and learn how you can help - There are things schools can do to mitigate the effects of trauma for individual students and for all students in the classroom. Scroll down to find a checklist to see if your school is trauma informed.

Source: Teaching Tolerance

Migration, Separation, and Trauma

What educators should know about the often-painful experiences of newly arriving children — and how to help.

Stories of family separations at the U.S. border have unsettled and angered the nation over the past month, and childhood development experts have raised alarms that the trauma of these separations can have lasting consequences.

When these children finally enroll in school in the United States, their traumatic pasts may still be affecting them. Educators and caregivers need to understand the collective weight of these journeys in order to help children recover, stabilize, and thrive. Here's what to know and how to help.

Source: Harvard Education

Early Lessons in Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools

Since the spring of 2015, the Education Redesign Lab has partnered with the Partnership for Resilience to accelerate collaboration between the Illinois Education Association (the NEA affiliated teacher’s union) and the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Their new report, Early Lessons in Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Creating School-Health-Community Partnerships to Improve the Lives of Children, describes the launch and early lessons of the Partnership for Resilience and its efforts to foster and build health and resilience among children and teenagers, initially focused on the low-resource/high-need southern suburbs of Chicago.

Source: Harvard Education

How Trauma, Abuse and Neglect in Childhood Connect to Serious Diseases in Adults

Adverse Childhood Effects -- such as trauma, abuse and neglect -- have been connected to serious diseases in adulthood. Understanding childhood adversities can help educators, the medical community and governments better treat the issues in the early stages instead of waiting for adult diseases.

Source: KQED Mindshift

Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Learning Communities Transforming Children's Lives, K–5

by Susan E. Craig (Author), Jane Ellen Stevens (Foreword)

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.

Trauma-Sensitive Schools for the Adolescent Years: Promoting Resiliency and Healing, Grades 6–12

by Susan E. Craig (Author), Jim Sporleder (Foreword)

Craig provides secondary school teachers and administrators with practical ideas for how to improve students’ achievement by implementing a trauma-sensitive approach to instruction. Along with clear explanations of the role that childhood adversity and trauma play in determining academic success, readers will find dozens of concrete strategies to help them.

Trauma-Informed Practices With Children and Adolescents

by William Steele (Author), Cathy A. Malchiodi (Author)

Practical approaches to working with children and adolescents that synthesizes research from leading trauma specialists and translates it into easy-to-implement techniques. The approaches laid out address the sensory and somatic experiences of trauma within structured formats that meet the "best practices" criteria for trauma-informed care: safety, self-regulation, trauma integration, healthy relationships, and healthy environments. Each chapter contains short excerpts, case examples, and commentary relevant to the chapter topic from recognized leaders in the field of trauma intervention with children and adolescents.

Fostering Resilient Learners

by Kristin Souers (Author), Pete Hall (Author)

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

Trauma Sensitive Schools

The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative’s (TLPI) mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school. To accomplish this mission, TLPI engages in a host of advocacy strategies including: providing support to schools to become trauma sensitive environments; research and report writing; legislative and administrative advocacy for laws, regulations and policies that support schools to develop trauma-sensitive environments; coalition building; outreach and education; and limited individual case representation in special education where a child’s traumatic experiences are interfacing with his or her disabilities.

Trauma-Informed Schools

Kansas Technical Assistance System Network (TASN) provides technical assistance to support school districts’ systematic implementation of evidence-based practices.