Effective Implementation and Evaluation of Trauma-Informed Schools

In any given year, educators are inundated with innumerable products and processes that promise to advance the academic or social-emotional development of their students. Publishers often describe the great potential benefits of implementing a new approach or process yet often do not discuss how to sustainably implement in a way that fits the specific context. Thoughtful program implementation and evaluation remain essential to ensuring success, especially when a district or school decides to take up the challenges of becoming a trauma-informed school, an innovation with myriad strategies and programs that, when implemented and evaluated with intention, can make a meaningful impact on students, staff, and families. Using the phases of implementation, this chapter discusses the importance of program evaluation and lays out a framework to support district and school efforts in the transformative process of becoming a trauma-informed system.

Supporting Students Following Crises and Natural Disasters

Acute traumatic events have the potential to significantly disrupt the learning environment as well as the psychological functioning of students, staff, and the school community. Such events range in size and intensity, though all require careful planning to address the comprehensive safety and recovery needs of a school. Such planning includes considerations of prevention and preparedness, establishing crisis teams and crisis communications, and the selection and delivery of appropriate interventions given demonstrated need. This chapter discusses best practices in school safety planning and approaches to recovery after an incident to address crisis-generated problems, prevent trauma, and help restore the learning environment.

Students from Military Families

Military families face unique challenges during the various stages of the deployment cycle. The impacts of these challenges are felt by all members of the family and the children in particular. The social-emotional strains that children experience during a military parent deployment can negatively impact their emotional state as well as their school performance. The reintegration of the service member back into the family is typically stressful but more so when the service member has posttraumatic stress disorder or some other injury. Children respond to deployment stressors differently depending on their age. These responses are discussed along with strategies which are designed to help support the child and the family throughout the deployment. Strategies for the school setting as well as in the home are shared.

Research and Best Practices to Support Students with Incarcerated Parents

The understanding of the relationship between a parent’s incarceration and a child’s outcomes has continued to evolve since the 1950s. Until very recently, however, most researchers have undertaken small-scale studies focused on the period when the parent is imprisoned, and most advocates and practitioners have had few resources at their disposal. All educators benefit from understanding how and why children of incarcerated parents may need support and from recognizing gaps in research. This chapter addresses developmental and other associated outcomes of parental incarceration and offers concrete practices schools can use to support children. In order to most effectively help students, school-based professionals should recognize the myriad ways parental incarceration impacts children’s emotional, physical, social and academic well-being.

Students Affected by Interpersonal Violence

Interpersonal violence refers broadly to any actions between persons (i.e., interpersonal) that are hurtful or harmful (i.e., violence). Various forms of interpersonal violence (e.g., physical, emotional, sexual abuse; dating violence; bullying) are common among school-aged youth, and students may be both perpetrators and victims of interpersonal violence. The effects of interpersonal violence can impact various domains of functioning throughout one’s life, physically (e.g., increased risk of somatic symptoms) and emotionally (e.g., increased risk of depression, delinquent behavior). Cultural considerations of these effects warrant exploration. Further, schools represent a critical setting to monitor and address the impacts of interpersonal violence. The authors present both systems-level (e.g., Developmental Designs, Restorative Practices, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) and student-level approaches to support students. They also provide a list of external resources and discussion questions.

Students Experiencing Homelessness

Children and youth who experience homelessness are among the most vulnerable and invisible of at-risk students. Poor academic performance and low graduation rates result from school mobility, unmet basic needs, poor health, and trauma. Teachers can mitigate the impacts of homelessness on students by making the most of the brief time a homeless student may be in their classroom, being an accessible and caring adult in the child’s or youth’s life, and working with the school district’s homeless liaison to connect the child or youth to supports both in the school and in the community. Teachers should be familiar with the McKinney-Vento Act, which is federal legislation that ensures that schools and school districts remove barriers to the education of students experiencing homelessness. Services may include tutoring, transportation, free meals, and counseling. Schools can be a haven for safety, normalcy, and hope for children and youth who experience homelessness.

Understanding Post-Traumatic Adjustment Trajectories in School-Age Youth

Children and adolescents experience a wide range of reactions to trauma and loss, which can change over time and across development. Accurately recognizing and describing how youth are responding to life adversities is a key step in creating a trauma-informed school. Drawing on various theories, the authors propose 10 trajectories of post-traumatic adjustment. These consist of four trajectories of positive adjustment (stress resistance, resilient recovery, delayed recovery, and growth) and six trajectories of generally maladaptive adjustment (decline, delayed decline [sleeper effects], distress tolerance, phasic adjustment, severe decline, and chronic maladaptive functioning). The authors then describe key propositions of conservation of resource theory and propose how different resource qualities (e.g., potency, durability, accessibility) can contribute to different adjustment trajectories. They then consider how to use these resource qualities as a problem-solving tool for intervention planning and, more broadly, to help create school environments that steer children and adolescents towards positive post-traumatic adjustment trajectories, including stress resistance, resilient recovery, and growth.

A Trauma-Informed and Culturally Responsive Approach in the Classroom

Educating students who experience significant challenges outside the classroom can present opportunities for a strengths-based approach when effective tools are employed. Responsiveness to cultural and adverse life experiences sparks renewed pathways for connecting with students of all developmental levels. The trauma-informed, culturally responsive (TICR) approach represents a tool that gives educators insight into the impact of trauma and culture on students’ academic experience. The present chapter defines the TICR approach by outlining key tenets of trauma-informed practice and deconstructing the cultural context that impacts educators and students. Practical strategies for engaging the TICR approach in the classroom are reviewed. Implications for educator and student experiences in the classroom are discussed.

Developing School Staff Buy-In for Trauma-Informed Schools

Growing awareness of the prevalence and impact of adverse childhood experiences has spurred implementation, research, and policy on trauma-informed approaches in schools. School staff buy-in to trauma-informed schools (TIS) is an essential early step to building a schoolwide trauma-informed culture. Buy-in is developed by building knowledge and shifting attitudes through a full staff professional development training on trauma. Measuring school staff attitudes relevant to TIS can help ensure the effectiveness of TIS implementation. One available tool for this purpose is the Attitudes Related to Trauma-Informed Care (ARTIC) Scale. Even when school staff develop TIS-favorable attitudes after training, the TIS initiative can be difficult to maintain. Therefore, this chapter closes with a discussion of several key factors known to support the sustainability of complex educational interventions that can be incorporated into the TIS implementation plan.

Design as the Missing Variable in Trauma-Informed Schools

Trauma-informed school models are making important headway in the ability of properly trained and motivated teachers and staff to address the complex needs of traumatized students. However, there is a new and related avenue in the need for the school’s built and ambient environment to be able to support these trauma-informed practices and policies. This chapter provides context and insight to better understand the connection between the mental, emotional, and physiological responses of students with trauma histories and the built environment. With a theoretical lens of architectural psychology, the authors discuss how the physical environment may perpetuate students’ stress loads or, conversely, how school spaces can be thoughtfully designed so as to facilitate lower stress levels and increase perceived control and opportunities for reregulation, as well as support the teachers and staff implementing trauma-informed practices. The built environment can foster dignity, respect, and personal autonomy, which can support the development of self-regulation skills, healthy coping mechanisms, and, ideally, healing.