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5th Grade Job Application (Shared in Garden City)

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5th Grade Job Application (Shared in Garden City)

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HB 2567 - Nonacademic Surveys Dr. Proctor

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HB 2567 - Nonacademic Surveys Dr. Proctor

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Mental Health First Aid USA - Mental Health First Aid

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Mental Health First Aid is a national program to teach the skills to respond to the signs of mental illness and substance use.

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Nicky's Version II Pocket Plastic Folders  Rochester 100 Inc

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Capturing Kids' Hearts® equips professionals in K-12 education to implement transformational processes focused on social-emotional wellbeing, relationship-driven campus culture, and student connectedness.

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Training and professional development for educators nationwide. Through experiential training, expert coaching, and personalized support, Capturing Kids' Hearts equips professionals in K-12 education to implement transformational processes focused on social-emotional wellbeing, relationship-driven culture, and student connectedness.

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Work To Be Well-Self Care/Mental Wellness

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Work To Be Well-Self Care/Mental Wellness

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Mental Health Resilience Support for Teens and Adults

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Build resilience by reading about Mental Health Awareness and Wellness Strategies at Work2BeWell.

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Copy for Summer Academy 2021-2022 Mental Health Resources

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For Summer Academy 21-22 Grades 9-12 Annual Calendar.docx

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California Healthy Minds, Thriving Kids Project

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A series of free, evidence-based video and print resources that caregivers and educators can use to teach their kids critical mental health and coping skills.

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Copy of Augusta High School Individual Plan of Study Checklist

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Copy of AHS IPS Scope and Sequence 9th Grade

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Copy of Re-Entry Plan for Summer Academy

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Copy of Mental Health Intervention Procedures (MHIP) for Summer Academy

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Copy of Dodge City High School-Student Response Manual 2021-22 for Summer Academy

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Summer is the perfect time to engage in deep reflection about your teaching practice. You've had a few weeks to catch your breath, relax, and replenish your energy, and there is still a respectable amount of time before you have to dive back in.

Taking time to reflect on what went well in the past and what you want for the future is an integral part of professional growth. While you're reflecting, why not try a fun and creative project to help you solidify your intentions-a teacher vision board?

Think of a vision board as a creative road map to your dreams, aspirations, and desires-a tangible representation to keep you focused on your goals. And the great thing is, there is no right or wrong way to do it. Every person's vision board is, by design, deeply personal and perfectly unique.

Here are a few tips to help you get started.
Top image credit: @rpg.teach on Instagram
1. Think big picture.

What are your professional hopes and dreams? How do you want to evolve as a professional educator? More than likely you've invested loads of time, money, and effort to get where you are. Focus on your true desires-where do you want to go next? If it's your intention to be in this profession for the long run, you have to step back every now and then and tweak your master plan.

2. Clarify your intentions and set goals.

What is your Vision and how does it relate to our school vision. Teachers created their own Vision Boards. #InspireInfluenceImpact #OneTeamOneGoal# #Trusttheprocess @DCLeads4Change @drhelencoley pic.twitter.com/WQa0gBcCn8

- Michelle Monroe (@MonroePrincipal) August 28, 2018

Now, time to narrow your focus. Get quiet and reflect on the past school year. What worked really well? What would you do differently? Be specific. Do you want your classroom environment to look and feel different? Do you want to deepen relationships with your students and/or colleagues? Are you interested in a leadership role?

Setting goals and taking specific action to achieve them is what it takes to make the impossible possible. In fact, studies show that if you take the time to create a clear intention for your future and write down your goals, you are 42 percent more likely to achieve those goals.

3. Dream big but don't get overwhelmed.

Try to narrow down your actionable goals to three or four areas. More than likely your practice doesn't need a complete overhaul, and you're more likely to see progress if you focus your energy on your top priorities. Usually, as part of a district's evaluation process, teachers are required to submit a professional improvement plan. Think of your vision board as an extension of your improvement plan but on a more personal level.

4. Focus on your feelings.

2day, in prep for next year, teachers submitted Vision Boards. Representative of their own professional goals and hopes for the future of @LetoHighSchool, these boards and our teachers' visions will, ultimately, determine our trajectory! @HCPSArea2 @Jeff_Eakins @HarrisonPeters pic.twitter.com/WQXS1hf2YA

- Larissa McCoy (@LHSMcCoy) April 2, 2018

Now, time to narrow your focus. Get quiet and reflect on the past school year. What worked really well? What would you do differently? Be specific. Do you want your classroom environment to look and feel different? Do you want to deepen relationships with your students and/or colleagues? Are you interested in a leadership role?

5. Be creative and have fun!

Now for the actual process. To create your vision board, all you need is a poster board, magazines, scissors, and a glue stick. You're basically creating a giant collage, but a very focused collage with a very specific purpose.

Pick a serene work place where you can focus on being inspired. Play your favorite music in the background, have a cup of tea (or a glass of wine!) handy, then page through the magazines looking for words, titles, and pictures that match your vision. Cut them out and paste them onto your poster board however you like. Remember you're not aiming for perfection-you're looking to produce a vision board that is meaningful to you personally. So focus on engaging in the process more than on the final product.

6. Give your vision board high visibility.

Residents of #DC #Cohort2016 hard at work creating Vision Boards of the type of teacher they want 2 B #UrbanTeachers pic.twitter.com/29n8hhiTpE

- Urban Teachers (@Urban_Teachers) July 6, 2016

After you've completed your vision board, you'll need to find the perfect place to display it. Think about it: The more often you see and think about what you want, the more you will focus on opportunities to meet your goals. And your vision board is the perfect reminder of your top priorities. It will help you stay the course and keep moving in the right direction. One teacher I know creates a vision board every summer, but instead of using poster board, she creates two 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheets that she uses as the front and back covers for her planning binder-something she uses practically all day.
Have you ever created a teacher vision board? Come share how it made a difference for you in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE! Facebook group. Plus, back-to-school resolutions for teachers.

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How a Vision Board Can Help Guide You Through Teaching's Ups and Downs

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Summer is the perfect time to engage in deep reflection about your teaching practice. You've had a few weeks to catch your breath, relax, and replenish your energy, and there is still a respectable amount of time before you have to dive back in.

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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, so many of us have been longing to go back to normal. However, what would be more helpful is examining which parts of “normal” are worth going back to.

Now is the perfect time to examine what parts of our lives are no longer serving us—and create a reality that supports our goals, visions, and dreams.

Despite what you may think, there’s no need to put your dreams on hold due to the pandemic. While social distancing or working virtually at home, it’s an ideal time to dream about the future. Why not turn those dreams into action by creating a digital vision board?

Visualization is a powerful tool that allows us to vividly imagine our future life and success, using the power of the brain to manifest dreams into reality. By putting your goals into a tangible format, you bring yourself one step closer to creating a life you love.

The Power of Visualization

Did you know that visualizing yourself working out can actually help you build muscle? The brain is incredibly powerful, especially when it comes to harnessing your potential to make your dreams come true. Studies of the brain have found that the areas stimulated by visualizing ourselves playing music are the same as those activated by actually performing and playing music.

Like meditation, visualization allows you to focus your attention inward, bringing greater attention and awareness to your goals. You might think that visualization is the opposite of working to achieve our goals; however, visualizing can be a potent motivator, providing us with active reminders to pursue our goals. Vision boards are a great way to make your visualizations more tangible and concrete.

According to research, vision boards improve the odds of achieving our goals and increase our confidence that we will be able to accomplish them. Vision boards work by creating a multi-sensory experience that allows us to immerse ourselves in our dreams as if they’ve already come true and we are living them. In other words, vision boards accelerate our ability to turn dreams into reality.

Another reason vision boards promote action is because they do what psychologists call “priming the brain.” By providing the brain with a framework, your brain is better able to anticipate and seize opportunities that align with your desires.

Tara Swart, a neuroscientist, explains another way vision boards jumpstart action:

“…the brain has a process called ‘value-tagging,’ which imprints important things onto your subconscious and filters out unnecessary information. The brain assigns a higher ‘value’ to images than written words on a to-do list, and the more you look at those images, the more those images move up in importance. And if you look at it right before you fall asleep every night, the images will be imprinted even further.”

Creating a life we love requires us to do more than piece together a puzzle; it requires us to take action. Therefore, a better description of a vision board might be a Vision Board for Action. The process of creating a vision board helps clarify your high-priority goals while unearthing practical actions to move closer to what’s most important to you. Visualizing what you want sets the stage for you to take illumined action to create a life you love.

Related reading: "How to Use Visualization to Get Amazing Results"

How to Create a Digital Vision Board

You might think a vision board is just a collage of magazine cut-outs and scribbled quotes on sticky notes, but there’s no reason why your vision board can’t step into the 21st century! A digital vision board provides a convenient portable format that encourages the likelihood you will see it often, allowing you to visualize your future self with greater ease.

To create a digital vision board of your own, follow these five simple steps to harness your creativity and empower yourself to fulfill your dreams.

Step 1: Choose Your Medium

Online vision boards are versatile. You can create your vision board online free using a Pinterest board full of images that spark your inspiration or a screensaver of rotating pictures on your desktop. A paid option is a video using software like Mind Movie.

Step 2: Gather Inspiration

Close your eyes and visualize your goals. What do you see, feel, and experience? Use what pops into your head to fuel your search for inspiration. Collect photos and words that call to mind the life you desire.

Step 3: Organize Your Ideas

Whether you put files in alphabetical order or create an Instagram collage, find a way to combine your inspiration into one digital vision board that pulls all the puzzle pieces of your dream life together. Be creative! And don’t be timid to use your tech-savvy!

Here's a tip: Silence the inner critic. When designing a vision board, don’t be afraid to dream big. There is no need to censor yourself or cloud your clarity with negative self-talk, such as “That will never happen.” Suspend limitation. Dare to dream. You can make practical plans later. For now, stretch to reach for the highest vision of your life.

Step 4: Put the Vision Board Where You Can See It

After gathering and arranging your materials in a way that pleases you, it’s crucial to make your vision board, well, visible. Place your vision board in your office or home, where you will see it frequently. By looking at it daily, you’re supporting your conscious mind to calculate ways to achieve your goals; then, you’ll be more likely to take effective action. The visuals also imprint the subconscious mind with the ingredients of your dream, helping to facilitate manifestation.

Step 5: Visualize Your New Life

Take a few minutes right before bed and focus on your new life. When visualizing, see yourself going through the steps of completing all the milestones to get there. Imagine yourself accomplishing the goal. Then, in a spirit of gratitude and joy, see yourself in the life you imagine. The more vividly you picture your dream with elevated emotions, the quicker you’ll turn dreams into reality. Revel in the vision as you drift off to sleep.

Ready to Dream Big?

Creating a digital vision board is a powerful way to assist you in turning your visions into reality. If you’re ready to act and dare to dream, try Mind Movies’ digital vision boarding tool. Mind Movies let you create a “movie” of your dream life, allowing you to watch your goals unfold before your very eyes with sounds and words that inspire you. And it can easily be updated as you reach your goals.

What you desire IS possible!

If you’d like a mentor who has studied the brain for over a decade and utilized these methods successfully and repeatedly in her life and business, reach out today. Heartmanity’s team loves helping people become the best versions of themselves and fulfill their dreams. Transforming lives is our business!

Like the article? Help us spread the word and share it!

Jennifer’s passion is to help people create thriving relationships first with themselves and then with each other. She teaches emotional intelligence skills and a step-by-step process that removes the obstacles to growth, loving connection, and communication. Her popular One Year Makeover and Return to Serenity programs provide a personalized approach to transformation. By utilizing brain science, clients integrate unresolved pain and restore inner peace and well-being through a fun learning experience. Jennifer also creates cultural transformation in companies with leaders and teams. Jennifer is happily married to her beloved husband and is the mother of three grown children.

Posted in Brain Fitness, Mindfulness and Perspective, Emotional Intelligence

© Heartmanity 2022

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Jennifer A. Williams / Emotional Intelligence Coach

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Athletes use visualization to promote performance; harness your imagination, too. A digital vision board is a fun way to support and manifest your dreams.

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How to Make the Most Mind Blowing Vision Board | Powtoon

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What is a vision board? Learn how to make a mind-blowing vision board in 4 steps tp help you achieve your goals.

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1. With everything going on in the world, and in our lives, is "Burnout" the reason we all feel like zombies?
2. Why stress is like trash: You have to get rid of it often or your life starts to stink.
3. Emily and Amelia Nagoski - the authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle - answer our Pod Squad's burning questions about how to bounce back from burnout.

About Emily:
EMILY NAGOSKI is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Come As You Are and The Come As You Are Workbook. She earned an M.S. in counseling and a Ph.D. in health behavior, both from Indiana University, with clinical and research training at the Kinsey Institute. Now she combines sex education and stress education to teach women to live with confidence and joy inside their bodies. Emily's new podcast, Come As You Are, is launching this Summer and her forthcoming book, Come Together, will be released in 2023. She lives in Massachusetts with two dogs, a cat, and a cartoonist.

TW: @emilynagoski
IG: @enagoski

About Amelia:
AMELIA NAGOSKI, Amelia is the co-author with Emily, of the New York Times bestseller Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. A Doctorate of Musical Arts, her job as she describes it is to run around waving her arms and making funny noises and generally doing whatever it takes to help singers get in touch with their internal experience. She lives in New England with her husband, one cat, and two rescue dogs.

IG: @amelianagoski

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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we can do hard things with glennon doyle

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‎We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle: BURNOUT: Do You Feel Half Alive? on Apple Podcasts

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1. With everything going on in the world, and in our lives, is "Burnout" the reason we all feel like zombies? 2. Why stress is like trash: You have to get rid of it often or your life starts to stink. 3.

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Kansas State Capitol - 300 SW 10th St. - Topeka, Kansas 66612 Portal Policies | Help Center

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On May 13, 2016 Governor Sam Brownback signed The Jason Flatt Act - Kansas in memory of Cady Housh (SB323) into law, making Kansas the 19th state to pass The Jason Flatt Act since 2007.

The Jason Flatt Act
SB323
Effective May 13, 2016

The Bill was sponsored by Senator Greg Smith of Kansas Senate District 21.

Major components of the legislation are:

Requiring suicide prevention training for school district personnel; amending K.S.A. 2015 Supp. 75-2319
The board of education of each school district shall provide suicide awareness and prevention programming to all school staff and shall notify the parents or legal guardians of students enrolled in such school district that the training materials provided under such programming are available to such parents or legal guardians.

Such programming shall include, at a minimum:

1. At least one hour of training each calendar year based on programs approved by the state board of education. Such training may be satisfied through independent self-review of suicide prevention training materials; and

2. A building crisis plan developed for each school building. Such plan shall include:

Steps for recognizing suicide ideation;

Appropriate methods of intervention; and

A crisis recovery plan

On or before January 1, 2017, the state board of education shall adopt rules and regulation necessary to implement the provisions of the section.

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Learn more about our mental health services. If you or a loved one is struggling, give us a call today, as we would love to help.

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The Mission of Kansas Comprehensive School Counseling Program:
The mission of school counseling programs in Kansas is to facilitate, support and enhance all students' learning; academic development, social-emotional development, career development and postsecondary readiness.

This is accomplished by providing all students with comprehensive school counseling programs that are integral to the mission of schools. In collaboration with teachers, administrators, parents and the community, professional school counselors will help all students to be successful lifelong learners and problem solvers.

Define
Five sets of school counseling standards define the school counseling profession. These standards help new and experienced school counselors develop, implement and assess their school counseling program to improve student outcomes.

Student Standards
● KSDE's Curricular Student Standards for School Counseling
● ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors for Student Success: K-12 College- and Career-Readiness for Each Student.

Professional Standards
● Kansas Professional Licensure Standards
● ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors
● ASCA School Counselor Professional Standards and Competencies

Manage
To be delivered effectively, the school counseling program must be efficiently and effectively managed. The ASCA National Model provides school counselors with the following program focus and planning tools to guide the design and implementation of a school counseling program that gets results.

Program Focus
● Beliefs
● Vision Statement
● Mission Statement

Program Planning
● School data summary
● Annual student outcome goals
● Action plans
● Classroom and group
● Closing the gap
● Lesson plans
● Annual administrative conference
● Use of time
● Calendars
● Annual
● Weekly
● Annual administrator conference

Deliver
School counselors deliver developmentally appropriate activities and services directly to students or indirectly for students as a result of the school counselor's interaction with others. These activities and services help students develop the Kansas Curricular Standards for School Counseling and the ASCA National Model.

Direct Services
Within the ASCA Model, direct service has been defined as "face-to-face" interaction and includes the application of counseling or human development skills (such as assessment, training, classroom curriculum etc.).

Individual Counseling:
● Meet with individual student to address needs, concerns and barriers to success.
● Meet with individual student to address attendance and school performance.
● Check in with student to identify progress (brief contacts).

Group Counseling
● Specific-topic, small-group sessions.
● Academic study skills groups.
● Peer mediation training with students.
● Non-confidential small-group session, such as new-student groups.
● Mediation between students.
● Psycho-education groups. Classroom/Large Group

Instruction
● Facilitating classroom guidance lessons meeting Kansas Standards.
● Facilitating the implementation of post-secondary. career or college day.
● Facilitating the implementation of a schoolwide character education presentation.
● Presentations to students for transition to middle and high school.
● Bullying prevention classroom guidance.
● Student/parent orientation presentations.
● Leading a college-access/scholarship presentation for parents.
● Facilitating a financial aid or student/ parent information nights.
● Facilitating a career night for students/parents.
● Co-teaching collaboratively with teachers.

Individual Student Planning/Individual Assessment
● Student course advisement and placement (individual or pairs).
● Student career development/Individual Plan of Study (IPS) advising.
● Conducting student meeting of graduation requirements (individual or pairs).
● Collecting data from student records/consultations for creating a functional behavior assessment.
● Observing a student or group of students for purpose of assessment of student behavior.
● Interviewing individual or paired students for appropriateness for small-group counseling.
● ACT/SAT test interpretation/information sessions for individual or small groups of students.
● Student achievement individual meetings.
● Graduation conferences with students (individual or pairs) to assess needs and develop college plan/college access.
● Conducting mock interviews for scholarships/employment.
● Completing student enrollment documents with student/ parent.
● Leading a small group (or individual) of high school students to review their transcript, consider four-year plan and selecting courses for the upcoming school year.
● Advising for elementary to middle school and middle to high school regarding course selection and registration.
● Meeting with individual students about scholarship/summer camp opportunities.
● Working with students to understand their results on the ACT or SAT assessments.
● Administering or proctoring annual assessment of academic progress (i.e., EOGs).
● Presenting at a district, state or other professional conference (classifies as other).
● Providing staff development segments to address student barriers, cultural diversity and differentiation (classifies as other).
● Facilitating staff in-service training on student development, college recommendation letter writing, coping and stress management, student test-taking anxiety/coping skills, etc. (classifies as other).
● Leading a college-access/scholarship presentation for parents (classifies as other).

Program Planning is separate from Indirect Service. A minimum of 80% of time is recommended for Direct and Indirect Services, and no more than 20% of time is recommended to be in program planning and school support activities. Program Planning/Coordinating

● Coordination and planning of schoolwide activities and programs.
● Creating and maintaining a program calendar.
● Conducting analysis of data to drive program.
● Working within Teacher PLC's to integrate the Kansas Standards.
● Integrating character traits into classroom lessons.
● Data evaluation meeting as it pertains to school counseling program which supports the school improvement plan.
● Coordinating testing or annual assessment of academic progress (i.e., EOGs).
● Planning and coordinating a career day.
● Planning and implementation of PALS mentor program.
● Leading schoolwide programs and activities, such as Red Ribbon Week, College/Post-Secondary Application Week, Food Drives, Thanksgiving and Christmas lists of needy buddies.
● Community outreach.
● Consultations with community and school resources (career development coordinators, social workers, SROs, community agencies) and college liaisons about services they provide. Implementing schoolwide positive behavior programs, such as Bucket Filling.
● Participating on committees (RTI, SSMT, PBIS, 504, IEP, School Improvement Team, etc.).
● Facilitate grade-level meetings.
● Distribute scholarship information and head the scholarship committee.
● Substance abuse initiatives with community agencies.
● Work to develop programs of study and assist with student registration and schedule changes.
● Academic awards night preparations/ presentations.
● Planning and assessing a career night for students/parents.
● Serving as a resource for staff, parents, community.
● Website planning/creation/updating.
● Planning and coordinating open house, parent night, special seasonal night meetings.
● Collaborative planning with staff for specific unit related to the counseling curriculum.

Consultation (with teachers, parents, student support personnel, referring agencies, etc.)
● Conducting a home visit.
● Participating in parent/teacher conferences.
● Consultations about a specific student with community and school resources (school psychologist, social workers, administrators, DCF and other community agencies service providers).
● Consulting with teachers/parents/other school personnel about a student's functional behavior assessments.
● Referrals to outside agencies for specific student/family services.
● Calling in and working with the crisis team regarding specific student(s).
● Student success team consultation or grade level consultation with stakeholders regarding a student's behavioral concerns.

Assess
To achieve the best results for students, school counselors regularly assess their program to:
● Determine its effectiveness.
● Inform improvements to their school counseling program design and delivery.
● Show how students are different as a result of the school counseling program school counselors also self-assess their own mindsets and behaviors to inform their professional development and annually participate in a school counselor performance appraisal with a qualified administrator.

The ASCA National Model provides the following tools to guide assessment and appraisal:
● Program Assessment
● School Counseling Program Assessment
● Annual Results Reports School Counselor Assessment, Classroom/Group and Closing the Gap
● ASCA School Counselor Professional Standards and Competencies Assessment
● School Counselor Performance Appraisal Template

To Accomplish this Mission:
The comprehensive guidance and counseling program is an integral part of the school district's total educational program. It is developmental by design and includes sequential activities organized and implemented by school counselors with the active support of parents/guardians, teachers, administrators, and the community. As a developmental program, it addresses the needs of all students by facilitating their academic, career development, personal/social development, helping create positive and safe learning climates in schools, as well as helping students feel connected to school and to at least one caring adult.

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The Mission of Kansas Comprehensive School Counseling Program: The mission of school counseling programs in Kansas is to facilitate, support and enhance all students' learning; academic development, social-emotional development, career development and postsecondary readiness. This is accomplished by providing all students with comprehensive school counseling programs that are integral to the mission of schools.

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The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education from preschool through high school.

Learn about the Fundamentals of SEL Learn more about SEL

Getting started with systemic implementation

Our SEL is strategically placed as a universal strategy to build resilience, cultivate protective factors, like strong relationships with peers and adults, and reduce stigma around mental health help-seeking.

Dr. Susan Bunting
Former State Secretary of Education

We need to address inequities in education and we need better pathways to success... [which requires recognizing that students' social and emotional learning] is just as important as their academic growth.

Miguel Cardona
US Secretary of Education

Learning should be inherently joyous. It should be a joyous pursuit, enabling all students to have fun and find their passions. It's the purpose of learning.

Dr. D'Andre Weaver
Superindentant

Our platform is made possible by:

This site uses cookies to improve your experience and help CASEL understand how our site is being used. By continuing to use our site, you consent to the use of cookies. Review our Privacy Policy for more information.

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Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL

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CASEL is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education, preschool through high school.

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College and Career Compentency Framework

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College and Career Compentency Framework

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The College and Career Competency Framework, developed by Drs. Gaumer Erickson and Noonan, supports educators in systematically embedding intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competencies into course content.

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0:00 / 1:03:38•Watch full video

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Data in Comprehensive School Counseling Programs

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0:00 / 18:16•Watch full video

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MTSS, RTI, and IEPs - What They Can and Cannot Do with Sarah Kirk (Ep 133)

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59uqGMVpZjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3knQAUN1kcY

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Sevens Rhythm and Clapping Game! | Color Me Mozart

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https://www.pbisworld.com/

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PBIS World | A Complete Tier 1 Through Tier 3 Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports System

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PBIS World is in no way affiliated, associated, or connected with any other website, entity, organization, or federal, state, local, or other government agency, department, program, policy, organization, or initiative.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw

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Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson | TED

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https://www.centervention.com/morning-meeting-questions/

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Morning meetings are an excellent way to help students transition from home to school and help them get ready to learn. In addition, these meetings can help you connect with your students, help students build relationships with each other, and promote an overall sense of community in the classroom.

Typically the meeting begins with students coming together to sit or stand in a circle. The first item on the agenda is to greet each other by name, then have a short activity or a discussion about a specific topic. In most cases, the meeting takes less than 15 minutes.

But what should students talk about?

If you need a few ideas for prompts, we've curated a list of morning meeting questions and grouped them for students in elementary and middle school. And if you need more ideas, please take a look at our list of " Would You Rather Questions for Kids."

To get a better idea of what morning meetings are about, please watch the short the video produced by Edutopia or check out our overview of a morning meeting:

Recommended Grade Level: Elementary and Middle

SEL Skill(s): Communication

Duration: 10 - 30 minutes (per meeting)

Materials: Morning Meeting Questions Printable Cards

Morning Meeting Questions for Students in Elementary School

1. What do you like most about school and why?

2. What are you the most proud of?

3. What do you want to be when you grow up?

4. What do you think about when you want to cheer yourself up?

5. What is your least favorite rule at school?

6. What is your favorite season?

7. Who is someone you admire?

8. What is your favorite book? TV show?

9. What do you like to do the most when you are not at school?

10. What is your favorite [pick a color] object?

11. What superpower would you like to have?

12. Is your room at home messy or clean?

13. If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go?

14. What is your least favorite food?

Morning Meeting Questions for Students in Middle School

1. What is one thing that you wish had never been invented?

2. If you could design a new app, what would it do?

3. If you were in charge, and could make one rule, what would it be?

4. If you wrote a novel, what would the title be?

5. What is your favorite present of all time?

6. What is a book you read for fun?

7. If you were to create a meme about yourself, what would it be?

8. If you could be someone else, who would you choose to be?

9. What is something you are really good at that people at school don't know about?

10. What do you want to do as a career when you grow up?

11. What is your favorite movie of all time?

12. If your friend were assigning an emoji to represent you, what would it be?

13. Do you think it would be more fun to visit the past or the future?

14. Of everything you want to achieve, what do you think will be the hardest?

If you think of additional questions we should add to the list of morning meeting questions, just post them in our Social Emotional Leaders Facebook Group!

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Morning meetings are an excellent way to help students transition from home to school and help them get ready to learn. In addition, these meetings can help you connect with your students, help students build relationships with each other, and promote an overall sense of community in the classroom.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN5j33rOeeg

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Educators Tell Students "I Believe In You"

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXzk5i4Ofe8&t=25353s

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https://musiccitycounselor.com/

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I'm Laura

Thanks so much for stopping by! I am an Elementary School Counselor turned Curriculum Writer. At my precious school in Nashville, TN, my students taught me each and every day why school counseling, SEL, and mental health MATTER. I hope that this website offers you helpful tips, tricks, advice, and resources to make your school counseling program all that you dream it to be!

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I am an Elementary School Counselor turned Curriculum Writer. At my precious school in Nashville, TN, my students taught me each and every day why school counseling, SEL, and mental health MATTER.

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https://www.juliacookonline.com/

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https://sites.google.com/view/tps-counseling-calming-room/

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Take a few deep breaths and remember you are doing the best you can.

We are all in this together.

If you need anything, please reach out to your building school counselor or school social worker. We are still here for you!

Feel free to use these resources and feel your body and mind calm.

As always, use good judgement and kindness while you are online. Safety is very important!

Station #1-Music and Sounds

Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and feel your stress leave your body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gHKDHmgVlU- Jellyfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AkbUfZjS5k- Nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f77SKdyn-1Y- Beach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3ji6fvzEk- Calming Bottle

Station #2- Calming Bottles DIY

Here is a great way to get hands moving and minds busy at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7zp7KbxbKY

Station #3- Online Coloring Pages

No printer? No problem! Color these pictures online for free!

https://www.thecolor.com

Station #4- Pop Bubble Wrap

Almost as fun as the real thing!

http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/popnow.shtml

Station #5- Journaling

Sometimes, typing or writing things down make us feel better. Try that here! Show a grownup when you are done and share out how you are feeling. Make a copy if you would like to type and keep it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AVwF-MBd11Kc4zhAuPC7o14G0khVfd4zRBdJHTPIEao/edit?usp=sharing

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Hello and welcome! I'm so glad you are here!

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https://open.spotify.com/show/51mVbZ74ec4jOrhm6skNcL

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Kickin' It With KSCA

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Kickin' It With KSCA

Hanna Kemble

About

Hosts Mallory Jacobs and Hanna Kemble are both Elementary School Counselors and members of the Kansas State Counseling Association Board. Together they created Kickin' It With KSCA. Their mission is to provide meaningful content and resources to School Counselors and educators alike.

All Episodes

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Sit back, relax, and kick it with Mallory Jacobs and Hanna Kemble, the co-hosts of “Kickin’ It with KSCA.” They are on a mission to generate ideas, resources, and good vibes for school counselors.

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Leading the world in the success of each student depends upon the empowerment of student capacity in the pursuit of the high school diploma. Continuous development throughout a student's learning experiences, coupled with collaborative exploration involving school staff members, family and community, are the platform for the successful launch into postsecondary success.

The Kansans Can Individual Plan of Study Star Recognition program recognizes school districts that offer quality and inclusive opportunities for each student to experience connected learning which develops academic knowledge, as well as technical and employability skills.

Districts will have the opportunity to apply for IPS recognition.

Suggested Artifacts:

Deadline to submit applications June 30, 2022.

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Leading the world in the success of each student depends upon the empowerment of student capacity in the pursuit of the high school diploma. Continuous development throughout a student's learning experiences, coupled with collaborative exploration involving school staff members, family and community, are the platform for the successful launch into postsecondary success.

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The Kansas School Counselor Association invites all school counselors and counseling students to join KSCA. We hope you will find information and resources to assist you in our common goal to collaboratively address the mental health needs and support the academic, career, and social-emotional development of each student in Kansas.

KSCA, a state division of ASCA, is the professional association for school counselors in Kansas. KSCA is uniquely designed to provide both preventive and developmental instruction, support, and services within an educational setting. Through the management and delivery of school counseling core curriculum, individual student planning, and responsive services, our programs focus on both student and professional competencies developed for and within our schools. Kansas counselors use data to demonstrate the impact of Kansas school counseling programs on student achievement, attendance, and behavior to guide future action and improve results for all students.

Thank you for visiting the Kansas School Counseling website and KSCA to learn more about the school counseling profession. We value the opportunity to work closely with individuals and organizations that promote student mental health and achievement. There are many exciting opportunities ahead to grow through our service in the areas of leadership, collaboration, and advocacy. We hope you will join us!

Check out the latest KSCA/ASCA Newsletter, https://asca.informz.net/informzdataservice/onlineversion/ind/bWFpbGluZ2luc3RhbmNlaWQ9ODQ1OTM1OCZzdWJzY3JpYmVyaWQ9MTEyMTU3NTA0OA==

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The Kansas School Counselor Association invites all school counselors and counseling students to join KSCA. We hope you will find information and resources to assist you in our common goal to collaboratively address the mental health needs and support the academic, career, and social-emotional development of each student in Kansas.

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If you're an administrator, teacher, or counselor, this has likely been on your mind-more than ever-this school year.

Checking in with students has always been important. But when routines are disrupted and we may not be in the same physical location as students, it's even more critical to keep a regular pulse on how students are doing.

Bi-weekly or monthly student "check-ins" are a great way to gather quick feedback and find the students who need extra help right now-academically, socially, and emotionally. They can also be an effective relationship-building tool to get to know students, especially in a virtual environment.

Below, explore a question bank and guidelines for designing your own check-in for students. The questions cover areas such as student well-being, the learning environment, and what students may need immediate help with. Feel free to take and modify the questions as you see fit! If you'd like to learn about administering these questions through the Panorama platform, please contact us.

Download our full Check-ins Question Bank (includes 80 questions!)

Guidelines: How to Use These Questions

What and Who

A teacher, counselor, or administrator creates and administers a check-in survey (maximum of five questions) asking students about their well-being.

Teachers and counselors individually review the answers and follow up with specific students.

Frequency

Taking Action on Responses

Strengthen Tier 1 practices.

Follow up with individual students.

Set up interventions for individual students or groups of students.

Question Bank: Student Well-Being Check-ins

1. How are you feeling today?

2. What emotion are you feeling the most today?

3. What was the best part of the past week for you?

4. What was the hardest part of the past week for you?

5. What can teachers or other adults at school do to better help you?

6. During the past week, how often did you feel [Excited? Happy? Loved? Safe? Hopeful? Angry? Lonely? Sad? Worried? Frustrated?]

7. How clearly did I teach things in class today?

8. If your friend missed class today and asked you to explain the lesson, what would you tell them?

9. What was confusing for you today?

10. How much did students in class help each other learn today?

11. How included did you feel in class today?

12. What was your favorite part of class today?

13. What got in the way of your learning today?

14. What's the biggest thing I/you could do better tomorrow to help you learn?

15. Do you feel bullied by other students?

16. How have you been sleeping recently?

17. If we had free breakfast at school, how much would that help you?

18. If you could do laundry at school, how much would that help you?

19. If you could get free clothes (like jackets and shoes) at school, how much would that help you?

20. If we could improve your internet access outside of school, how much would that help you?

21. Would you like to talk privately with an adult from school about how you're feeling or something on your mind?

If you use Panorama: You can send a check-in to students using our pre-built question sets. Choose the questions you want to ask, and send it to your students within minutes.
Interested in bringing Panorama to your district? Get a demo of our SEL measurement and check-ins platform. Example of reviewing check-in responses in Panorama (mock data pictured)

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21 Quick Questions to Check-in on Your Students' Well-Being in 2021-22

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If you're an administrator, teacher, or counselor, this has likely been on your mind-more than ever-this school year. Checking in with students has always been important. But when routines are disrupted and we may not be in the same physical location as students, it's even more critical to keep a regular pulse on how students are doing.

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The last few years have highlighted the importance of relationship-building and checking in with students on a regular basis.

For learning to happen, students need to see their identities valued. They need to feel safe physically and emotionally-and they need to feel a sense of connection to peers and adults. You can do that by creating space for students to tell their stories, learning about their lives outside of school, and creating rituals that cultivate belonging and connectedness.

To help you get to know your students, we've curated this list of 101 asset-based, inclusive questions. Most are open-ended questions, but you can also adapt them into a multiple-choice format.
Free PDF Download: Panorama's Full Check-Ins Question Bank
How to Use These Questions

If you are a district or school administrator focused on improving relationships and belonging campus-wide, we invite you to share this article with your teachers and staff. This is a great resource to include on district or school resource sites, Tier 1 resource hubs, or in staff newsletters.

If you are a teacher, practitioner, or instructional coach, feel free to borrow these questions to get to know your students in the classroom-virtually or in person! These questions are great for small group brain breaks, icebreaker games, morning meetings or morning circles, and advisory periods. Or, use them as conversation starters in a 1:1 setting.

Click on the following links to jump to a section:

Interests and Hobbies

1. What are your favorite hobbies?

2. In your free time, what do you like to do?

3. Have you volunteered in your community?

4. What was the hardest part of the past week for you?

5. What is your favorite book?

6. What is your favorite TV show?

17. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

18. What is your favorite thing to do over the weekends?

19. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

20. What is your most frequently-used or favorite emoji?

21. What are three awesome things about yourself?

22. What is something people don't know about you that you wish they knew?

23. What is a unique talent you have?

24. What do you want to be when you grow up?

25. What is a big world problem that you would like to change?

26. What is your biggest dream or goal in life?

Relational and Social-Emotional Learning

27. What is your social-emotional learning superpower?

28. Which of the following traits do you think best describes you: funny, thoughtful, caring, or outgoing?

29. How do you most like to connect with your friends? Through social media, by talking over the phone or texting, or by meeting up in person?

30. What is one thing your teacher can do to get to know you better?

31. How can your teacher help you if you are feeling down?

32. What is one thing you want to know about your teacher?

33. What do you think is the most important quality for a teacher to have?

34. Who is an adult at school that you know you can count on?

35. Who is a friend at school that you know you can count on?

36. When you are stressed, what do you do to relax?

37. What makes you feel the most appreciated and understood?

38. How would your friends or a relative describe you?

39. What is something that you are thankful for?

Family and Cultural Background

40. Where do your family members work?

41. What does dinner time look like at your house?

42. What are some family items or artifacts that represent your culture and identity?

43. Which languages do you speak (even just a little bit)?

44. Who is someone in your family that you look up to?

45. What is a favorite memory you have with a family member?

46. What do you like most about your family?

47. What is a family tradition that you have?

48. Does your family have pets? If not, would you like to have a pet? What kind?

49. What is your favorite family recipe?

50. Do you have siblings? If not, would you want to have siblings or do you like being an only child?

Academic Strengths and Opportunities

51. What is your favorite subject and why?

52. What is your least favorite subject and why? What is the best way I can support you when we work on that subject?

53. What is one thing you think you do well as a student?

54. What is one thing you would like to do better as a student?

55. What do you like most about school?

56. What do you like least about school?

57. What is something you would really want to learn about at school?

58. Which of the following is your favorite way to learn: by talking with others, by listening, or by reading?

59. What would be your dream field trip?

60. Would you rather do schoolwork as a group or by yourself?

61. What is the best school project or lesson you can remember?

62. What is the best way I can support you outside of class?

63. How would you like to be recognized if you get a good grade on an assignment or project?

The Transition Back to School / First Day of School

64. What is one thing you are looking forward to this school year?

65. What is something you learned over the summer?

66. What is something you would really want to learn about this year?

67. What is one thing you would like your classmates or teacher to know about you this year?

68. What is one thing you want to know about your teacher(s) this year?

69. What was the best part of the past week for you?

70. What was the hardest part of the past week for you?

71. What can teachers or other adults at school do to better support you?

72. How much did you enjoy class today?

73. How included did you feel in class today?

74. What was your favorite part of class today?

Virtual Learning

75. What is the best part of virtual learning?

76. What is the most challenging part of virtual learning?

77. How is your internet connection at home?

78. Where do you do your school work?

79. What is something your teachers could do to improve virtual classroom time?

80. What is your favorite Zoom background?

81. How do you prefer to be communicated when learning online? By email, a messaging app, on a video call, or by phone?

82. When you take breaks from school at home, what do you like to do?

83. What is your favorite way to get in touch with your classmates and friends online?

84. What would help you feel more connected to your classmates and your school?

"Would You Rather" Icebreaker Questions

These questions can also be used between classmates to help students reconnect with one another, discover similarities, and learn new things about one another.

85. Would you rather read a book or watch a movie?

86. Would you rather eat pizza or ice cream?

87. Would you rather do a school project by yourself or with friends?

88. Would you rather play a video game or play outside?

89. Would you rather have a dog or a cat?

90. Would you rather have chocolate or vanilla?

91. Would you rather go to the beach or go camping?

92. Would you rather eat salty or sweet snacks for the rest of your life?

93. Would you rather win the lottery or be famous?

94. Would you rather dance or sing in front of a group of people?

95. Would you rather be the oldest sibling or the youngest sibling?

96. Would you rather give a presentation or write a long paper?

97. Would you rather do your homework or do chores?

98. Would you rather travel back in time or travel to the future?

99. Would you rather live in snow or rain for the rest of your life?

100. Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible as a superpower?

101. Would you rather live without Netflix or live without YouTube?
Download Panorama's Check-Ins Question Bank

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101 Inclusive Get-to-Know-You Questions for Students [+ PDF Download]

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Explore 101 inclusive "get-to-know-you" questions for students. Ask students about their family, interests, hobbies, academic & social-emotional strengths, learning preferences, and more.

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When kids repeatedly act out in class, it's disruptive and frustrating. When we look beneath the surface, however, we often find that frequent outbursts are a symptom of bigger issues, especially for children who have experienced trauma.

Usually, it's a response to unmet needs or coping mechanisms children have developed to protect themselves. Kids living in chaos, neglect, or abuse are often stressed to the max. And if there's one thing that's certain, it's that stressed brains have difficulty learning .

The good news is that teachers can have a positive impact by choosing our responses when disruptions happen. Here are seven resilience-focused, trauma-informed classroom strategies to help you handle classroom disruptions. They'll work with all of your students-not only the children who have experienced trauma.

Here's a video to give some ideas. Then keep reading for even more.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUjQAAQPWM0[/embedyt]

Instead of saying, "This kid is trouble."

Ask yourself, "What's going on with this child?"

Obviously, this isn't something most teachers would say out loud, but it may be part of an inner dialogue that needs to be challenged. All behavior serves a purpose, even when it doesn't make sense to us. And once we understand that, and are able to see the as separate from their , we can experience a huge shift in perspective.

Instead of assuming a child's behavior is intentional or labeling their behavior, get curious. What is happening in this child's life? How does that impact the way they behave? How can we provide opportunities that support and nurture their growth?

According to Dr. Caelan Soma, chief clinical officer with Starr Commonwealth, an organization that provides training and resources to professionals who work with traumatized children, 'badness' is not a normal condition for children. It is the result of misdirected energy and unmet needs. "Every child will be good," Soma says, "if given an opportunity in an environment of love and activity."

Instead of saying, "You're disrupting my lesson!"

Ask, "Is everything okay?"

Resilience is nurtured and restored best in the context of caring, supportive relationships in a trauma-informed classroom. Students who feel seen and heard, and most importantly valued, feel a greater sense of belonging and are more likely to respond to guidance from a teacher. So when a child is being disruptive, let them know that you care about them and want to help them find a solution. Gently ask them what's really going on. Listen with empathy and help them sort out what it might take to get back on task.

Instead of saying, "Why aren't you following directions?"

Ask, "How can I help you?"

Sometimes disruptions occur in the classroom when a student feels stuck and needs a different way to proceed, but doesn't know how to ask for help. Be open to adapting lessons and circumstances to meet students' needs. If a child is acting up because they're having trouble with a classroom assignment, perhaps they need clarification on a key concept. Maybe they need the work to be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Or maybe they need to work with a partner or small group. One of the most important elements of a trauma-informed classroom is to provide opportunities for students to feel successful. Success strengthens the desire to achieve.

Instead of saying, "What do you think you're doing?"

Ask, "What do you need right now?"

While it is important to provide a supportive environment, one thing to avoid is being overly involved in solving students' problems for them. Trauma-informed teaching is designed to foster independence, build respect, and teach inner discipline. So our role as teachers is to give students choices and options, then let them decide what works best, without coercion. For example, if a child causes a disruption that impacts others, we need to encourage them to show personal responsibility for making things right, whether that's a note of apology or fixing something that is broken.

Instead of saying, "You're interfering with others' learning."

Ask, "Can you take a body scan?"

Emotional awareness is a learned skill. Children, especially children of trauma, often have trouble regulating their emotions (and therefore their bodies) because they haven't yet learned to identify the sensations they feel inside. Teach students to pay attention to the messages their bodies are sending them. (How do I feel this very moment? Am I tense? Do I feel hot? Does my belly hurt?) Help them name the emotion that matches these messages. As they learn to differentiate between emotions, they can learn strategies to deal with them constructively. Teaching students emotional awareness and giving them the chance to practice regulation helps them make better choices.

Instead of saying, "Focus. Get to work."

Ask, "Would a movement break help?"

Stressful emotions live in the body. Sometimes, when students engage in disruptive behavior, they need physical activity to help them cope with overwhelming feelings. This is especially true for students who have experienced trauma. Oftentimes their bodies remember things they do not consciously recall. Mind-body skills, such as deep breathing and yoga, and frequent movement breaks help students release pent up energy and get back on track.

Instead of saying, "One more outburst and you're out of here."

Say, "Would you like to take a break in the calm corner?"

When a student gets worked up to the point of throwing your whole class off track, they need a safe space to calm down and reset their behavior. Designate an area of your classroom as a calm corner, peace place, or reset space and stock it with comforting amenities such as stuffed animals, cozy pillows, headphones, fidget toys, drawing materials, or other calming activities.

Teach all of your students how to use this reset space before they need it . When a student becomes overloaded, ask them if some time in the reset space would help. Always present it as a choice, never a demand. This space is not intended as a punishment, rather it should be a strategy to help students hit the reset button.

Create a trauma-informed classroom.

It's a sad fact that sometimes our students come to us carrying a heavy burden. While there's not much we can do about what happens outside of school, we have unlimited power to create a trauma-informed classroom that's safe and supportive. Building solid relationships, concentrating on children's strengths, and using strategies that preserve students' dignity are the key to restoring hope and helping kids succeed.

Learn how to create a trauma-informed classroom where all students thrive. Check out Trauma-Informed Resilient Schools, one of Starr Commonwealth's online professional development courses for teachers.
Yes! I Want to Create a Trauma-Informed Classroom

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When Students Act Out, Ask This Instead of "Why Did You Do That?"

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When kids repeatedly act out in class, it's disruptive and frustrating. When we look beneath the surface, however, we often find that frequent outbursts are a symptom of bigger issues, especially for children who have experienced trauma. Usually, it's a response to unmet needs or coping mechanisms children have developed to protect themselves.

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Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast

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Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast

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Podcast by Mathew Portell

Podcast by Mathew Portell

The power of connecting Trauma informed educators and the amazing change this could do to the world!

It's so important to connect educators to share their ideas but TRAUMA INFORMED EDUCATORS! this is powerful! I love what you are presenting Mathew!

Thank you

Special thanks to you, Mathew, for being a leader in this journey. Especially loved Dr. Perry's concentration on specific insight for educators.

Real talk

I've learned so much hearing experts and people in the work be open and vulnerable. There are so many great stories in this podcast. Thanks!

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trauma informed educators network podcast

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‎Trauma Informed Educators Network Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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Podcast by Mathew Portell Podcast by Mathew Portell It's so important to connect educators to share their ideas but TRAUMA INFORMED EDUCATORS! this is powerful! I love what you are presenting Mathew! Special thanks to you, Mathew, for being a leader in this journey. Especially loved Dr. Perry's concentration on specific insight for educators.

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MTSS Alignment Resources

ASCA Model aligned with MTSS

We aligned the ASCA National Model within and across MTSS tiers. Available free through the link below!

School Counselor Role in MTSS

We created a document that aligns the role of the school counselor within each tier. Available through the link below for a small fee.

MTSS Alignment Activities

MTSS Across domains

Download this resource to help with school based mental health professionals (school counselors, psychologists, etc.) align their work across domains (social/emotional, academic and career)

Initiative Alignment

This planning document will help your school staff take stock in the current initiatives and their foci. We want to help you work smarter not harder!

REsource Mapping

Download this resource to help you align teams within your school and/or district. The goal fo alignment? Fewer teams working in concert to meet the needs of all students and families

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MTSS Alignment | School Counselors for MTSS

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MTSS Alignment Resources ASCA Model aligned with MTSS We aligned the ASCA National Model within and across MTSS tiers. Available free through the link below! School Counselor Role in MTSS We created a document that aligns the role of the school counselor within each tier. Available through the link below for a small fee.

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Revelations in Education-Dr. Lori Desautels

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Revelations in Education-Dr. Lori Desautels

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WHAT'S NEW

LATEST REVELATIONS

HOW CAN WE SERVE YOU?

Dr. Desautels is a pioneer in bringing an understanding of how the autonomic nervous system relates to behavior into classrooms...So inspired to talk with Dr. Lori L. Desautels about how she is bringing nervous system education to kids and classrooms...This feels magical and glittery and makes me want to dance!!! read more

Robyn Gobbel

robyngobbel.com

You are such an inspiration to me as an educator, administrator and as a parent. If I knew then what I know now…Also, a true comment from the elementary physical education teacher who is retiring this year. He said: “Tammie, where was she 35 years ago when I needed this the most? I had to wait this long to learn how to do it right.

Tammie Mckenzie

teacher

What if students and educators could begin to feel understood and capable when walking through the doors of public, charter and private schools, entering their world of classrooms, with enthusiasm and curiosity?  Lori Desautels imagines and brings to life just that; discussing the powerful impact and philosophy that "service" and "compassionate presence" germinate in this time of educational and global reform and change.

Minnietta M. Millard

Educator, M.R.E Boston University School of Theology and Stained Glass Artist

FREE

RESOURCES & TEMPLATES

DOWNLOAD educational resources, lesson plans, templates, articles, and more...for EDUCATORS, STUDENTS & PARENTS

EXPLORE

SOCIAL & EMOTIONAL

Learning Competencies & Practices for Educators

RACIAL & SOCIAL

PRESENTATIONS & WORKSHOPS with

Dr. Lori Desautels

Mark Your Calendar and Come Learn With Us!

EYES ARE NEVER QUIET. Listening Beneath the Behaviors of Our Most Troubled Students

Unwritten The Story of a Living System

HOW MAY I SERVE YOU? Revelations in Education

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REVELATIONS IN EDUCATION - Lori Desautels, Ph.D

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What if students and educators could begin to feel understood and capable when walking through the doors of public, charter and private schools, entering their world of classrooms, with enthusiasm and curiosity? Lori Desautels imagines and brings to life just that; discussing the powerful impact and philosophy that "service" and "compassionate presence" germinate in this time of educational and global reform and change.

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Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, and Best Practices for Newcomers and Schools

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Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, and Best Practices for Newcomers and Schools

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Welcome to the companion site for the eBook Journey to Refuge: Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, and Best Practices for Newcomers and Schools, edited by Trina D. Harlow.
"If we all did something right where our two feet stand, collectively we might do something to help make the world a better place for the children, adolescents, and adults that call it home."
- Dr. Trina Harlow
One cannot work on a project like this refugee book and film without it having a profound effect on your thoughts and emotions, and that is simply because the subject is literally the thoughts and emotions of people - refugees - who have lost nearly everything and now try to find a new life here in Kansas and elsewhere in the various places they resettle. This book, and Refuge in the Heartland, the film it is a companion to, have the singular goal of expanding the knowledge base of teachers, other educators, and volunteers who work with newcomer students, especially refugee children and adolescents.
Download the eBook at New Prairie Press.
We wish to thank the many authors and contributors who came together from all over the world to help bring this book to fruition - world policy makers, refugees, UNHCR staff, refugee camp volunteers, scholars, biography and linguistic specialists, counselors, therapists, social justice experts, art teachers, ESOL teachers, university education professors, and global visionaries and experts in the field who are leading initiatives all over the world. It is our goal for the reader to learn more about this issue and apply that learning in the local school and community, wherever that local school may be. Through the personal and professional sharing of story and experience, the authors and contributors boldly lend their own story and voice to this world issue, as a collective body of knowledge to influence and affect education of real children, real adolescents, real teachers, real educators, and real schools... now doing their part to contribute to a global issue that affects us all.

Recommended Citation: Harlow, Trina D., "Journey to Refuge: Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, and Best Practices for Newcomers and Schools" (2019). NPP eBooks. 26. https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/26/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This book and the corresponding film, Refuge in the Heartland, while born in the minds of Kansas State University College of Education faculty member, Trina Harlow, and video producer, Rusty Earl, materialized because of the vision of Dean Debbie Mercer and her desire for the college to be educational leaders not only in Kansas, but also in the United States and around the world. While Dean Mercer is a scholar, researcher, and leader, she is a teacher at her core. She is a champion for children, adolescents, and adults and knows the power of education in the lives of human beings and society. Dean Mercer knew this was a difficult topic to address, especially from Kansas which is geographically located in the heartland of America, and a very long way from where most of the people UNHCR lists as forcibly displaced experience the life-changing difficulties that uproot them from their homes and communities. Dean Mercer, Rusty Earl, and Trina Harlow worked together to bring this important world story to light, and to not only tell the story, but to tell the story well through both the film and the companion book.

Pat Rubio Beltran, Lighthouse Relief, Chalkida, Greece

Joel Bergner, Artolution

Professor Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Borderless Higher Education for Refugees

Diana Delbecchi, St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin

Rusty Earl, Kansas State University

Max Frieder, Artolution

Paola Gomez, Muse Arts, Toronto, Canada

Mary Hammel, Kansas State University

Dr. Trina Harlow, Kansas State University

Dr. Socorro Herrera, CIMA, Kansas State University

Melissa Holmes, CIMA, Kansas State University

Dr. Judy Hughey, Kansas State University

Dr. Sally Adnams Jones, Victoria, British Columbia

Shabina Kavimandan, CIMA, Kansas State University

HaEun Kim, York University, Borderless Higher Education for Refugees

Holly Kincaid, Skyline Middle School, Harrisonburg, Virginia

Dean Debbie Mercer, Kansas State University

Jessica Mow, Curtis Middle School, Wichita, Kansas

Joshua Orawo, UNHCR, Senior Protection Assistant, Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya

Nicole Palasz, Institute of World Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Andrea Davis Pinkney, Internationally Acclaimed Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author

Johanna Reynolds, York University, Muse Arts

Hawa Sabriye, York University, Borderless Higher Education for Refugees

Leah Spelman, Partnerships for Trauma Recovery, Berkeley, California

Dr. Be Stoney, Kansas State University

Marie Taylor, Valley Center Middle School, Valley Center, Kansas

Alex Wakim, musician

Dr. Lily Yeh, Barefoot Artists, Global Genius

Dr. Susan Yelich Biniecki, Kansas State University

Dr. Jeff Zacharakis, Kansas State University

Note: Other organizations and publications have been featured in Journey to Refuge. This list represents those that contributed chapters, spotlight sections, or made other contributions.

The book is organized into three sections. The first section informs the reader about what it means to be a refugee, explains some world policy related to child refugees, gives a glimpse into what it is like to live in or volunteer at refugee camp, and explains some of the linguistic needs of refugee children. The second section of the book explains basic knowledge about trauma and the brain as it affects refugee children, explores the social justice aspect of being a newcomer student, and discusses using art as a therapeutic tool. The third section of the book provides some best practices for the classroom from art teachers, ESOL teachers, discusses the need for teachers of color in the United States, and also explains school newcomer programs. All throughout the book there are Spotlight features that explore many non-profit organizations and resources for those who work with refugee or newcomer children. There is also a behind the scenes section on the filming of the documentary film, Refuge in the Heartland .

"This book is an absolute must for any educator or concerned community member situated within the world's refugee reality. No one - anywhere - is currently exempt from the world's refugee situation, and therefore, this book is relevant to all! Journey to Refuge is especially helpful to committed educators within the U.S. who are new to this reality, but also to long-term practitioners in the humanitarian and development fields. Refugees are displaced for more extended periods, and half of all refugee children are out of school. Education is, therefore, transformative in emergency and protracted refugee situations. Diverse, expert voices define key terms, introduce a legal framework that is crucial to understanding forced migration, and unpack trauma."
" The global refugee situation can feel so overwhelming that at times, people wonder how they could make a difference. Amid this reality, Journey to Refuge offers a path forward for anyone who wants to move beyond despair to action, with concrete tools. The book engages the reader beyond the pages with short video features and a full-length documentary for those who want to go deeper, or even deep dive into one of the greatest moral and practical challenges of this age. Regardless of where you are from - from Kansas to a refugee camp in Kenya - the reader feels compelled to act and be part of solutions in this unprecedented age of human displacement."
- Jill Drzewiecki, Jesuit Refugee Services, Rome, Italy

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Welcome to the companion site for the eBook Journey to Refuge: Understanding Refugees, Exploring Trauma, and Best Practices for Newcomers and Schools , edited by Trina D. Harlow. "If we all did something right where our two feet stand, collectively we might do something to help make the world a better place for the children, adolescents, and adults that call it home."

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Becoming Trauma Responsive- K-State Documentary

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Becoming Trauma Responsive- K-State Documentary

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Becoming Trauma Responsive documentary produced by the K-State College of Education

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The vast majority of students, educators, and families agree: Social and emotional learning (SEL) belongs in schools. Multiple independent surveys show that people across backgrounds and experiences understand the value of an education that promotes the social, emotional, and academic development of young people.

If your community does not yet prioritize SEL, you can make a strong case for SEL by sharing the evidence and the perspectives of important stakeholders: parents, educators, students, and more. Use the material below to advocate for high-quality SEL on social media, websites, presentations, and other digital materials.
If you care about kids and if you care about academic achievement, if you care about outcomes in life, SEL is the way to get there.
Take action today

Key Messages: Explaining SEL
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More than ever, SEL is critical to supporting the academic recovery, mental well-being, and safety of all young people. In addition to sharing the definition and framework [link] for SEL, here are three core messages to highlight when explaining SEL.

SEL is for everyone. SEL develops skills that help us be successful in all parts of our lives-like communicating effectively, setting goals, staying motivated, and making decisions that benefit ourselves and others. With these skills, we can build healthy relationships, succeed in schools and workplaces, and contribute to our communities.

SEL is based in science. Hundreds of independent studies show that SEL leads to better academic performance, improved well-being, and safer schools. It creates positive school environments where children learn the skills they need to succeed in school and in their futures.

SEL brings families, schools, and communities together. The way SEL is implemented in schools and which skills are emphasized are driven by partnerships between families and schools and tailored to the local community's priorities, cultures, and needs.

Surveys: Broad Support for SEL
Back to top Parents and caregivers support SEL ... Real Stories, Real Families: Educators support SEL ... Superintendents nationwide Employers support SEL ... Young people support SEL ... talk about the value of SEL in their communities. Listen to an audio series featuring parents talking about the benefits of SEL in their own words. Back to top
Help us make the case for a quality education with SEL. Download the graphics below and feel free to tag us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook. (@caselorg)

Select a topic below to download the infographic:

Additional Resources
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Implement SEL in your district. Use CASEL's District Resource Center to find research, knowledge, and resources curated from school systems across the U.S. to support high-quality, systemic implementation of SEL. Visit the website.

Implement SEL in your school. Use the CASEL Guide to Schoolwide Social and Emotional Learning to help students excel academically, build stronger relationships, and lead happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives. Visit the website.

Select an evidence-based program. The CASEL Guide to SEL Programs is designed to help educators and school administrators select an evidence-based SEL program that best meets the needs of their community. Visit the website.

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The vast majority of students, educators, and families agree: Social and emotional learning (SEL) belongs in schools. Multiple independent surveys show

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We define social and emotional learning (SEL) as an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

New to Social and Emotional Learning? Start here (2 min. read).

Think of a young person in your life. What skills will they need to achieve their hopes and dreams?

Chances are, you just named social and emotional skills - like staying motivated, communicating effectively, practicing curiosity, and working with others to solve problems. Social and emotional learning, or SEL, helps develop the skills we need for life.
Hear why students, parents, and educators want SEL in schools. Here are 3 things to know about social and emotional learning:

1. Social and emotional learning is a foundation for many of our most pressing priorities: SEL helps young people - and adults - learn and practice skills that set them up for academic success, fulfilling careers, healthy relationships, and responsible civic engagement.

2. The research is clear: Social and emotional learning in schools leads to positive outcomes, including better academic performance, and decreases in stress and anxiety.

3. There's no one-size-fits-all approach: Social and emotional learning brings families, schools, and communities together to make sure every child has caring relationships and what they need to learn, grow, and thrive.

Subscribe now for our expertly curated 3-part email series delivered straight to your inbox. We'll roundup the key facts from our website on SEL is, it matters, and it shows up in schools.

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

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SEL can help all young people and adults thrive personally and academically, develop and maintain positive relationships, become lifelong learners, and contribute to a more caring, just world.

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After a School Shooting Resources - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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ASCA has a number of standards and information related to school counselor preparation.

ASCA Standards for School Counselor Preparation Programs
These standards are a unified set of principles guiding school counselor preparation programs in training effective future school counselors in areas of professional practice and ethical behavior. Learn about the ASCA-Recognized School Counselor Preparation Program.

School Counselor Educator Ethical Standards
Faculty who teach in school counselor education programs to prepare school counselors are knowledgeable about current school counseling practice and school counselors’ ethical and legal obligations. This document sets forth the ethical responsibilities for school counselor educators.

School Counseling State Requirements & Programs
School counselors are licensed and credentialed by the state where they are employed. Typically, licensure requires documented school counseling education and coursework from an accredited college/university, completion of practicum and internship in a K-12 school, as well as passage of a state or national comprehensive test (e.g., Praxis).

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ASCA Standards for School Counselor Preparation Programs These standards are a unified set of principles guiding school counselor preparation programs in training effective future school counselors in areas of professional practice and ethical behavior. Learn about the ASCA-Recognized School Counselor Preparation Program.

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Appropriate and Inappropriate Activities for School Counselors

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Appropriate and Inappropriate Activities for School Counselors

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School counselors are highly educated, professionally certified individuals who help students succeed in school and plan their career. An integral part of the total education system, school counselors help students form healthy goals, mindsets and behaviors.

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National School Counseling - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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National School Counseling Week 2022 (#NSCW22) is Feb. 7-11, 2022, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career. National School Counseling Week is always celebrated the first full week in February.

The 2022 theme is School Counseling: Better Together. Check out the lineup of events for the week.

Photo Challenge

Celebrate school counseling by taking part in the 2022 National School Counseling Week photo challenge. Simply download each day's sign, write in your response and then take a picture with it to post to your social media channels. Be sure to tag ASCA and #NSCW22.

Monday, Feb. 7: School counselors and other school-based mental health professionals are better together because ...

Tuesday, Feb. 8: School counselors and administrators are better together because…

Wednesday, Feb. 9: School counselors and teachers are better together because…

Thursday, Feb. 10: School counselors and the community are better together because…

Friday, Feb. 11: School counselors are better together because…

Downloads

Download templates and samples for press release, certificate of appreciation, proclamation and morning announcements. Also download a variety of National School Counseling Week logos; photo challenge signs; and images for Twitter, Facebook and other uses.

Promotional Materials

Check out the selection of posters, stickers bookmarks and door hangers available for purchase to help you promote school counseling.

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National School Counseling Week - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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National School Counseling Week 2022 (#NSCW22) is Feb. 7-11, 2022, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week, sponsored by ASCA, highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students…

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School counselors design and deliver school counseling programs that improve student outcomes. "The ASCA National Model: A Framework for School Counseling Programs" outlines the components of a school counseling program that is integral to the school's academic mission and is created to have a significant positive impact on student achievement, attendance and discipline.

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Kansas Suicide Prevention, Response and Postvention Toolkit

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Kansas Suicide Prevention, Response and Postvention Toolkit

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Having a prevention, response and postvention plan in place before suicide occurs enables districts and schools to respond in an organized and eﬀective manner. This toolkit contains information that schools can use to coordinate the development of a plan that ﬁts the needs of their speciﬁc community.

The Kansas Suicide Prevention, Response and Postvention Toolkit is a comprehensive guide that provides step-by-step guidance for setting up a systematic approach to suicide prevention, response and postvention. The essential forms from the toolkit are available below as fillable word documents that can be downloaded for easy access and use by the appropriate school personnel.

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Kansas Suicide Prevention, Response and Postvention Toolkit

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Having a prevention, response and postvention plan in place before suicide occurs enables districts and schools to respond in an organized and eﬀective manner. This toolkit contains information that schools can use to coordinate the development of a plan that ﬁts the needs of their speciﬁc community.

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ASCA position statements describe the organization’s position on specific topics in education and define the role of the school counselor relative to those topics. Download a PDF of all position statements. Or, click on the links to the right to view and/or print individual position statements.

ASCA creates and maintains position statements based on the following criteria.

The issue has an impact on students in one or more of the following areas: academic development, career development, social/emotional development.

Activities relative to the topic provided by a school counselor within a school counseling program may be affected by differences in opinion or educational philosophy.

The issue is of national interest.

The issue arises in the regular implementation of the school counseling program.

Process to Request a New Position Statement

The following items should be received by the Position Statements Committee chair by Aug. 1.

The issue to be addressed

How the issue creates differences in opinion or confusion for the school counselor when delivering activities within the school counseling program

The proposed position in two sentences

An outline of the rationale, including how the issue affects student academic, career or social/emotional development

An outline of the appropriate role of the school counselor related to the issue

The Position Statements Committee reviews the request and decides whether a new position statement is warranted. The committee chair notifies the requestor by Sept. 15. The requestor may appeal the decision to the ASCA Governing Board no later than 30 days prior to the next board meeting.

If the Position Statements Committee determines the new statement is warranted, the statement is written and reviewed through the standard procedure. The committee presents the new statement to the Delegate Assembly for final approval.

An effective position statement:

Is brief – ASCA’s position is stated in 2 sentences and the entire statement is one page in length

Is consistent with other documents created by the American School Counselor Association, including the ASCA Ethical Standards, the ASCA National Model and the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors for Student Success

Clearly defines the role of the school counselor related to the position

Includes relevant and appropriate research related to effective practices

To request a new position statement for consideration, email ASCA.

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ASCA Position Statements - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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ASCA position statements describe the organization’s position on specific topics in education and define the role of the school counselor relative to those topics. Download a PDF of all position statements. Or, click on the links to the right to view and/or print individual position statements.

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From student safety and confidentiality to interactions with parents/guardians and administrators, school counselors encounter a range of legal and ethical issues every day. Here we've gathered some frequently asked legal and ethical questions to help guide you in your daily work. If students or staff have been victims of harassment or retaliation, they can formally file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights.

Case Notes/Student Records

What do I do if I receive a subpoena for my testimony or case notes?
Let your principal know, and contact your district legal team to get advice on how to proceed. Work with the district legal team to get the subpoena quashed if possible. If you can't do this, then you are compelled to testify. When giving a testimony, provide only facts and omit any subjective information that may make room for doubt. Check your state statutes to see if your state give students privileged communication, which means they can render the school counselor incapable of testifying about their communications.In most cases, the courts are entitled to your testimony, and even in the states awarding privilege communication to minors, judges can exercise discretion if they need the information for the safety and health of the minor.

How do I know if my personal notes meet the criteria for case notes?
Parents/guardians have a federal right to see anything you write down or record that refers to their child so, as a general rule of thumb, keep your notes in a way you would be comfortable with a parent reading. Anything that refers to a student, even using initials, ID numbers or personal descriptors, if specific enough, is an educational record that belongs primarily to the parent/guardian. You can keep personal notes as a memory aid, but if anyone knows the notes exist they are then covered under the Family Education and Privacy Act (FERPA). According to FERPA, case notes are "sole-possession records" and not educational records if they: serve as a memory aid, aren't accessible or shared in verbal or written form, are a private note created solely by the individual possessing it and include only observations and professional opinions.

I've taken a job in another district. What do I do with my personal case notes? What notes should I keep?
Personal notes, as in those notes only you are aware of, are kept for the purpose of supporting the student through long-term knowledge of a student's experience. If you are comfortable with your school counseling replacement, you may choose to leave the notes with the new school counselor. Case notes can always be purged except when there is knowledge that a subpoena is likely or the notes may be needed to help the courts convict a perpetrator such as in the case of child sexual abuse. Exercise judgment as to when notes need to remain and when they can be purged. If in doubt, consult.

Can school counselors take home educational records if asked to do so by an administrator?
There is no prohibition against teachers and school counselors taking home educational records, assuming the school counselors/teachers are school officials with legitimate educational interests, which they probably are. They should just be sure to protect the information they take home and ensure other people who are not school officials or parents don't see the information.

Confidentiality

When do I share information about students with parents/guardians and with administrators or other school staff?
Sharing information with parents/guardians is important when a student's safety is in question. Notify administrators of any threats to self or others and when you've made a human services report or called the police. Sharing information with the remainder of your team, such other school counselors, psychologists or social workers, is helpful for consultation but also provides additional eyes on students in case you are out of the building when a student needs assistance. Sharing general information when you are concerned about a student - such as a student who has been struggling with a loss or depression -- can be helpful so teachers can notify you of changing behavior in class or with peers. Typically, just asking teachers to notify you if they see any behaviors from the student that are different from the student's normal behavior is enough.

What do I do if my administrator asks for the names of the students I see and the reasons I'm working with them?
Prepare the information in a general way, using descriptors such as "academic," "career" or "social/emotional" or in another way where personal information is removed. If administrators want to know specifics, explain FERPA's "legitimate educational interest" and your ethical obligation to protect the information. If the information is relevant to building safety or school programming, it is important to share that with administration. However, remind administration the information is sensitive and that it must be kept confidential to preserve the student's dignity and rights, as well as your relationship with the students.

My central office supervisor wants me to provide copies of the action plans we create for students who express suicidal ideation. Is that breaking confidentiality?
Because of the health and safety concerns, districts have the right to require school counselors to follow policy regarding providing copies of action plans for suicidal students. The confidentiality breach comes when these plans are indiscriminately kept without regard to when they should be purged, where they should be kept and if they are necessary beyond just the district's need to ward off liability. The action plan is an educational record, but the plan should be kept outside the actual folder for certain eyes only and purged at the appropriate time.

What do I do if a student tells me she thinks she is pregnant?
It is important to know your state laws around this topic (i.e., age of consent, issues around pregnancy decision-making, etc.) as well as your school board policies and community norms. Find out how or if the student has confirmed her pregnancy. Other issues to consider include whether the sex was consensual and the age difference of both parties. Understanding the student's relationship with her parents/guardians will provide insights for how you might advise the student to tell her parents/guardians.
Article: Negotiating Neutrality

What confidentiality considerations should I keep in mind during virtual individual and group counseling?
The same limits of confidentiality apply (serious and foreseeable harm) virtually as well as in-person, and you should discuss them with students before counseling begins. To limit others overhearing you and your students, you should be in a private space and use a headset if possible. Also be sure to use a district-approved, secure platform. Make sure the student understands you can only control confidentiality on your end. If a parent, sibling, family member, friend, repairman or anyone else is on their end, that person potentially can hear what the student is saying. The same goes for a group setting. You don't know who else may be in the room with other members, so encourage students to wear headphones for some privacy.

Do I need to provide notification to parents and families when a student is involved in a small group I lead?
School counselors want to build, not erode, credibility and maintain a strong working relationship with parents/guardians. This mission is forwarded when school counselors inform parents their child is to be a group member, as some parents/guardians may view small-group counseling as moving away from classroom instruction to a social/emotional focus; therefore, you should inform parents/guardians. This notification gives you a chance to explain the connection small groups have to academic success, and it gives parents/guardians a chance to opt out.

VIRTUAL: Is it necessary to get parent/guardian consent for individual counseling in a virtual setting?
Despite the complications of providing virtual school counseling services, it is important to adhere to the same ethical guidelines as you would in person. Some school districts have specific policies and procedures around parent/guardian consent. Best practice is to inform parents/guardians when you are providing individual counseling for a student over more than one or two sessions.

My school and district have an electronic management system and want me to include the names of the students I see and the reasons I am working with them. Does that break confidentiality?
It is in your best interest to maintain these records as well. And, if you keep the reasons vague enough, you are still protecting student confidentiality while also informing parents/guardians, teachers and/or administrators that the student is accessing you for support. Avoid using software programs without the technological capabilities to protect student information based upon currently acceptable security standards and the law.

Dual Relationships

Webinar: Professional Distance, Dual Relationships and Boundaries

I live in a small, rural community and have my LPC and run a private practice after school hours. Does it create a dual relationship if I see current or previous students in my private practice?
School counselors do not refer or accept a referral to counsel a student from their school if they also work in a private counseling practice.

My son will be a student at my school next year. What do I need to do to avoid a dual relationship?
If a dual relationship is unavoidable, the school counselor is responsible for taking action to eliminate or reduce the potential for harm to the student through use of safeguards, which might include informed consent, consultation, supervision and documentation. The best way to minimize any negative impact is to assign the family member to a different school counselor. If the school counselor is the only one in the building, then the school counselor must work to ensure there isn't even an appearance of gaining any unfair advantages for the school counselor's son.

My principal has asked me to teach a class and assign grades to the students. Is that permitted? Does that create a dual relationship?
Remind your administrator that teaching a class puts students at risk, as you will need to prioritize any crisis or suicidal ideation over the class you're teaching, which could leave your classroom students unsupervised and potentially unsafe. Additionally, being responsible for assigning grades to students leads to a dual relationship and should be avoided to minimize potential harm to students.

IEPs/504 Coordination

On several student IEPs, the special education director has noted that weekly counseling be provided. This prevents me from fully implementing a comprehensive program. What do I do?
School counselors serve all students in their charge; it is unethical and professionally questionable when others define school counselors' role as acting outside their scope of practice and serving a small percentage of their population to the exclusion of hundreds of other students in their caseload. You can support regular education and special education students in brief group counseling or behavior management programs, but a long-term approach is an inappropriate use of school counselors' time.

Student Harmful Behavior

Article: Suicide Assessments: The Medical Profession Affirms School Counselors' Truth

My district recently purchased a software package that sends alerts to the school and district when students engage in potentially harmful behavior online. As the school counselor, I'm expected to follow up with all the students for whom alerts were received. What do I do and what are the liabilities?
If schools choose to use this type of software, it's important to bypass the school and send alerts directly to the parents, guardians or family members if a student's online activity yields red flags. This direct line of communication should also convey to parents the reason the software generated concern and possible referral resources. If the software developers continue to put educators into the loop instead of going straight to parents/guardians with alerts, the school district and its designees could face unneeded and unwarranted liability.

A student told me another student is expressing suicidal thoughts. What are my obligations?
If something prompts you to question a student about suicide, then you should talk to the parents/guardians as well. In-school suicide assessments are dangerous if relied on for conclusive answers. If a school district performs suicide assessments, these assessments should only be used to alert parents/guardians to the need to monitor their child's safety and to get them professional mental health care to evaluate and, if necessary, treat the suicide risk. The standard of care for school counselors when informally assessing students who are identified as a potential suicide risk is to employ these assessments with extreme caution, with a follow-up assessment completed by a mental health professional who has been trained to assess the risk. School counselors who rely on an in-school suicide assessment for definitive answers are not only negligent but reckless in their evaluation.

A student told me she cuts herself. Do I need to tell her parents?
Self-harm can feel like a tricky situation because research is unclear of the intent or impact. Ultimately, cutting is a form of self-harm, and best practice and the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors advise school counselors to inform parents/guardians so they have the opportunity to intervene. This helps ensure the student's overall safety and can help the student get additional help outside of school.

What do I do if a student tells me she has heard another student brought a firearm to school?
As a school employee, your obligation is to the safety of all students. Inform administration and the school resource officer or police, and allow them to move forward from there.

What is the school counselor's responsibility when a student may be a risk to self and a parent/guardian cannot be located?
In a brick-and-mortar setting, good practice is to keep the student with you until you can make contact with the parent. At times, the student may have to stay with you after school until the parent/guardian can be reached. If the school day has ended and all attempts to contact a parent have been unsuccessful, it may be necessary to contact law enforcement and/or child protective services to take custody of the student and keep the student safe.

If counseling is being provided remotely, it is critical to always know the physical address of your student's location. In the event of risk of harm to self or another, the school counselor should attempt to keep the student online while simultaneously trying to contact a parent or guardian. In the event a parent or guardian is unable to be reached, law enforcement should be sent to the student's location to ensure the student's safety.

What do I do if my school district requires me to indicate a student's level of risk on suicide risk assessment paperwork?
It is impossible for a school counselor to know a student's level of suicide risk with certainty, but some districts still require school counselors to document a student's level of risk as low, medium, or high. Although it is important to comply with mandated district procedures, do not document or indicate to a parent/guardian that a student is low risk for suicide since you have no way of knowing with assurance that this is the case. The best approach is to consider noting "unable to determine" if a child falls under the low risk category on a district suicide risk assessment form. In addition, always notify a parent/guardian that you conducted suicide risk assessment on a student (at any risk level) and support parents/guardians in obtaining mental health services for the child.

Supervision

Article: School Counselor Educators and Site Supervisors as Leaders

Title IX

Webinar: Title IX Changes and Sexual Harassment

What do I do if a student tells me he was inappropriately touched by an adult several years earlier or by another student more recently?
Follow your school district's protocol regardless of the amount of time that has passed. You still have a duty to report. If the student was touched by another student, go through a Title IX protocol. Contact your administration and local police department to investigate; your district may have an identified Title IX officer at the district level who can assist. In the case of young children, you may need to call child protective services. Do not ever question if the student is being honest. It isn't a school counselor's job to investigate, only to report and support the student.

Technology

Webinars: School Counseling in a Virtual Setting (Part 1)
School Counseling in a Virtual Setting (Part 2)

Can I use my personal cell phone to talk with students and families?
It is recommended to use school-issued devices. However, if the school has not provided you with devices, you may need to discuss the possibility of using your own devices. If it is decided that you will use your personal device, it's important to develop boundaries around your working hours and communicate this to students and families. In addition, be sure you maintain these boundaries, such as not answering the phone at times you are not able to assist a student. It would be helpful to use away messages or other communications to direct students to where they may get help outside of your available working hours.

Do I have to use the computer the school issued me, or can I use my much superior laptop?
You must use the school-issued computer unless the district offers you an exception. Again, it is about safety and security. There are privacy settings that protect district computers that your personal computer may not have. Advocate for your equipment needs, but be careful not to go against school district dictates regarding equipment.

Universal Screening

Webinar: Legal/Ethical Implications of the Hatch Amendment
Article: Protecting Pupil Rights

I want to require all students to complete a survey about any mental health problems, suicidal ideation, counseling needs, psychological problems and family mental health issues they may have. Are there any legal and ethical considerations in conducting this survey?
If a school district wants to require students to reveal personal information about themselves or their family, the school must first obtain written parental consent. The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA) requires schools receiving federal funding to obtain written consent from parents/guardians and non-federally funded schools to give notice before requiring minor students to participate in any "survey, analysis or evaluation that reveals information concerning the following areas:

Political affiliations

Mental and psychological problems potentially embarrassing to the student and the student's family

Sex behavior and attitudes

Illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating and demeaning behavior;

Critical appraisals of other individuals with whom respondents have close family relationships

Legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians and ministers

Religious practices, affiliations or beliefs of the student or student's parent

Income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program"

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FAQs - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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From student safety and confidentiality to interactions with parents/guardians and administrators, school counselors encounter a range of legal and ethical issues every day. Here we've gathered some frequently asked legal and ethical questions to help guide you in your daily work.

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1. Act in the best interests of the students at all times. Act in good faith and in the absence of malice.

2. Inform students of possible limitations on the counseling relationship prior to the beginning of the relationship.

3. Increase awareness of personal values, attitudes and beliefs; refer when personal characteristics hinder effectiveness.

4. Actively attempt to understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of the students with whom you work, including your own cultural/ethnic/racial identity and its impact on your values and beliefs about the counseling process.

5. Function within the boundaries of personal competence. Be aware of personal skill levels and limitations.

6. Be able to fully explain why you do what you do. A theoretical rationale should undergird counseling strategies and interventions.

7. Encourage family involvement, where possible, when working with minors in sensitive areas that might be controversial.

8. Follow written job descriptions. Be sure what you are doing is defined as an appropriate function in your work setting.

9. Read and adhere to the ethical standards of your profession. Keep copies of the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors on hand, review them periodically and act accordingly.

10. Consult with other professionals (colleagues, supervisors, counselor educators, professional association ethics committee, etc.) Have a readily accessible support network of professionals.

11. Join appropriate professional associations. Read association publications and participate in professional development opportunities.

12. Stay up-to-date with laws and current court rulings, particularly those pertaining to counseling with minors.

13. Consult with your school district’s attorney, when necessary. In questionable cases, seek legal advice prior to initiating action.

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Legal & Ethical Tips - American School Counselor Association (ASCA)

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2022 ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors

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2022 ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors

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School counselors face ethical and legal challenges every day. Whether you are new to the field or have been practicing for years, legal and ethical challenges can still throw you for a loop. From confidentiality issues to records maintenance, from duty of care to sexual harassment issues, a school counselor's legal and ethical questions can spring up from every corner.

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LET'S TALK RESTORATIVE PRACTICES: PART I - IT'S CIRCLE TIME!

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

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What ACEs do you have?

There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. (There are many others...see below.) Five are personal - physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Five are related to other family members: a parent who's an alcoholic, a mother who's a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and experiencing divorce of parents. Each type of trauma counts as one. So a person who's been physically abused, with one alcoholic parent, and a mother who was beaten up has an ACE score of three.
There are, of course, many other types of childhood trauma - racism, bullying, watching a sibling being abused, losing a caregiver (grandmother, mother, grandfather, etc.), homelessness, surviving and recovering from a severe accident, witnessing a father being abused by a mother, witnessing a grandmother abusing a father, involvement with the foster care system, involvement with the juvenile justice system, etc. The ACE Study included only those 10 childhood traumas because those were mentioned as most common by a group of about 300 Kaiser members; those traumas were also well studied individually in the research literature. The most important thing to remember is that the ACE score is meant as a guideline: If you experienced other types of toxic stress over months or years, then those would likely increase your risk of health consequences, depending on the positive childhood experiences you had (see below).

Prior to your 18th birthday:

1. Was your mother or stepmother:
Often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or Sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?
No___If Yes, enter 1 _ _

2. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill, or did a household member attempt suicide? No___If Yes, enter 1 _ _

Now add up your "Yes" answers: _ This is your ACE Score

__________________________

Now that you know your ACEs, what does it mean?

First....a tiny bit of background to help you figure this out.....(if you want the back story about the fascinating origins of the ACE Study, read The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study - the largest, most important public health study you never heard of - began in an obesity clinic.)

The CDC's Adverse Childhood Experiences Study ( ACE Study) uncovered a stunning link between childhood trauma and the chronic diseases people develop as adults, as well as social and emotional problems. This includes heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes and many autoimmune diseases, as well as depression, violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.

The first research results were published in 1998, followed by more than 70 other publications through 2015. They showed that:

childhood trauma was very common, even in employed white middle-class, college-educated people with great health insurance;

there was a direct link between childhood trauma and adult onset of chronic disease, as well as depression, suicide, being violent and a victim of violence;

more types of trauma increased the risk of health, social and emotional problems.

people usually experience more than one type of trauma - rarely is it only sex abuse or only verbal abuse.

A whopping two thirds of the 17,000 people in the ACE Study had an ACE score of at least one - 87 percent of those had more than one. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia have done their own ACE surveys; their results are similar to the CDC's ACE Study.

The study's researchers came up with an ACE score to explain a person's risk for chronic disease. Think of it as a cholesterol score for childhood toxic stress. You get one point for each type of trauma. The higher your ACE score, the higher your risk of health and social problems. (Of course, other types of trauma exist that could contribute to an ACE score, so it is conceivable that people could have ACE scores higher than 10; however, the ACE Study measured only 10 types.)

As your ACE score increases, so does the risk of disease, social and emotional problems. With an ACE score of 4 or more, things start getting serious. The likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increases 390 percent; hepatitis, 240 percent; depression 460 percent; attempted suicide, 1,220 percent.

(By the way, lest you think that the ACE Study was yet another involving inner-city poor people of color, take note: The study's participants were 17,000 mostly white, middle and upper-middle class college-educated San Diegans with good jobs and great health care - they all belonged to the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization. Prior to the ACE Study, most research about effects of abuse, neglect, etc., involved poor people of color who live in the inner city. And so the notion was that it was inner-city people of color who experienced abuse, neglect, etc., not white middle-class or white upper-class people....that somehow white people of means were immune from the kinds of problems affecting people who were poor. That's not only ridiculous, but it was just another way to perpetrate racism and classism. The ACE Study quashed that notion. So, it's not that I'm saying that the ACE Study is credible because it was done on white people, I'm saying that the ACE Study opened the door to an understanding that ACEs are at the root of nearly all problems of physical, mental, economic and social health in humans, no matter where in the world those humans live. The ACE Study and the other research that makes up ACEs science provided an opening to a better understanding of the constructs that make up our notion of why people suffer ill health - physical, mental, economic, social - and that includes systemic racism. )

Here are some specific graphic examples of how increasing ACE scores increase the risk of some diseases, social and emotional problems. All of these graphs come from "The relationship of adverse childhood experiences to adult health, well being, social function and health care", a book chapter by Drs. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, co-founders of the ACE Study, in "The Hidden Epidemic: The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease."

What causes this?

At the same time that the ACE Study was being done, parallel research on kids' brains found that toxic stress damages the structure and function of a child's developing brain. This was determined by a group of neuroscientists and pediatricians, including neuroscientist Martin Teicher and pediatrician Jack Shonkoff , both at Harvard University, neuroscientist Bruce McEwen at Rockefeller University, and child psychiatrist Bruce Perry at the Child Trauma Academy .

When children are overloaded with stress hormones, they're in flight, fright or freeze mode. They can't learn in school. They often have difficulty trusting adults or developing healthy relationships with peers (i.e., they become loners). To relieve their anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, and/or inability to focus, they turn to easily available biochemical solutions - nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, methamphetamine - or activities in which they can escape their problems - high-risk sports, proliferation of sex partners, and work/over-achievement. (e.g. Nicotine reduces anger, increases focus and relieves depression. Alcohol relieves stress.)

Using drugs or overeating or engaging in risky behavior leads to consequences as a direct result of this behavior.

For example, smoking can lead to COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) or lung cancer. Overeating can lead to obesity and diabetes. In addition, there is increasing research that shows that severe and chronic stress leads to bodily systems producing an inflammatory response that leads to disease.

In addition, toxic stress can be passed down from generation to generation. The field of epigenetics shows that we are born with a set of genes that can be turned on and off, depending on what's happening in our environment. If a child grows up with an overload of toxic stress, their stress-response genes are likely to be activated so that they are easily triggered by stressful situations that don't affect those who don't grow up with toxic stress. They can pass that response onto their children.

Fortunately, brains and lives are somewhat plastic. Resilience research shows that the appropriate integration of resilience factors - such as asking for help, developing trusting relationships, forming a positive attitude, listening to feelings - can help people improve their lives.

For more information about ACEs science and how it's being used, go to: PACEs Science 101.

Here's a link to the long questionnaire (200+ questions).

For more information about PACEs science, go to PACEs Science 101.

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What are PCEs - positive childhood experiences?

Although there is still much to learn about ACEs and how to prevent and mitigate their effects, we also all know that childhood experiences are not limited to those that involve adversity. All childhood experiences matter. In the last few years, researchers have started to examine the impacts of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) on children and adults.

In 2019, a team of researchers - Dr. Christina Bethell, Jennifer Jones, Dr. Narangerel Gombojav, Dr. Jeff Linkenbach and Dr. Robert Sege - found a dose-response association between positive childhood experiences and adult mental and relationship health among adults who had experienced ACEs, irrespective of how many ACEs they had. This means that it's really important to have positive childhood experiences, no matter how much adversity you have in your life. And if you have a lot of adversity and a lot of positive childhood experiences, you are less likely to suffer the consequences of ACEs. However if you have no positive childhood experiences and few ACEs, the consequences of the ACEs are more likely to appear. Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences Levels | JAMA Pediatrics.

To find out what positive childhood experiences you have, answer the following questions. How much or how often during your childhood did you:

1. feel able to talk to your family about feelings;

2. feel your family stood by you during difficult times;

3. enjoy participating in community traditions;

4. feel a sense of belonging in high school;

5. feel supported by friends;

6. have at least two non-parent adults who took genuine interest in you; and

7. feel safe and protected by an adult in your home.

Also in 2019, Bethell, Gombojav, and Dr. Robert Whitaker reported that at each level of ACEs, "the presence of flourishing increased in a graded fashion with increasing levels of family resilience and connection." Family Resilience And Connection Promote Flourishing Among US Children, Even Amid Adversity | Health Affairs

In 2014, Bethell, Dr. Paul Newacheck, Dr. Eva Hawes, and Dr. Neal Halfon found that children with higher ACE scores were less likely to demonstrate resilience, live in a protective home environment, have a mother who was healthy, and live in safe and supportive neighborhoods. However, almost half of the children who had experienced ACEs also demonstrated resilience, and "resilience mitigated the impact of adverse childhood experiences on grade repetition and school engagement." Adverse Childhood Experiences: Assessing The Impact On Health And School Engagement And The Mitigating Role Of Resilience | Health Affairs

In a study published in 2021, Whitaker, Dr. Tracy Dearth-Wesley, and Dr. Allison Herman wrote that "greater childhood family connection was associated with greater flourishing in US adults across levels of childhood adversity." Childhood family connection and adult flourishing: associations across levels of childhood adversity - Academic Pediatrics (academicpedsjnl.net)

Dr. Yui Yamaoka and Dr. David Bard reported in 2019 that "the number of adverse childhood experiences was associated with both social-emotional deficits and developmental delay risks in early childhood; however, positive parenting practices demonstrated robust protective effects independent of the number of adverse childhood experiences." Positive Parenting Matters in the Face of Early Adversity - PubMed (nih.gov)

Among juvenile offenders, Dr. Michael Baglivio and Dr. Kevin Wolff discovered in 2020 that "high ACE scores were associated with increased reoffending, and high PCE scores were associated with decreased recidivism, as measured by both rearrest and reconviction. Further, among juveniles with four or more ACEs who have six or more PCEs, reconviction was 23% lower and rearrest 22% lower when compared to those youth with four or more ACEs and less than six PCEs, controlling for a host of demographic and criminal history measures." Positive Childhood Experiences (PCE): Cumulative Resiliency in the Face of Adverse Childhood Experiences - Michael T. Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff, 2021 (sagepub.com)

Dr. Michael Baxter, Dr. Eden Hemming, Dr. Heather McIntosh, and Dr. Chan Hellman published research in 2017 that demonstrated that higher ACEs scores were associated with lower hope in a study of caregivers who brought children in for a child abuse medical investigation at a child advocacy center. Exploring the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Hope: Journal of Child Sexual Abuse: Vol 26, No 8 (tandfonline.com)

In 2019, Dr. AliceAnn Crandall, Dr. Jacob Miller, Dr. Aaron Cheung, Dr. Lynneth Novilla, Dr. Rozalyn Glade, Dr. M. Lelinneth Novilla, Dr. Brianna Magnusson, Dr. Barbara Leavitt, Dr. Michael Barnes, and Dr. Carl Hanson observed in a study of adults that "higher counter-ACEs scores [i.e., positive childhood experiences] were associated with improved adult health and that counter-ACEs neutralized the negative impact of ACEs on adult health." ACEs and counter-ACEs: How positive and negative childhood experiences influence adult health - ScienceDirect

A study by Whitaker, Dearth-Wesley, and Herman in 2020 showed that across levels of childhood adversity, greater childhood family connection was associated with greater flourishing among young adults with type 1 diabetes.Childhood Family Connection With Flourishing in Young Adulthood Among Those With Type 1 Diabetes | Pediatrics | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

Finally, in 2016, Bethell, Gombojav, Dr. Michele Solloway, and Dr. Lawrence Wissow examined ACEs, resilience, family protective factors, and emotional, mental or behavioral conditions (EMB) in children and youth in the U.S. The authors found that children with ACEs had higher EMB than children without ACEs, but the presence of resilience was significantly associated with lower amounts of EMB for both children with and without ACEs. In addition, the prevalence of EMB was lower when family protective factors were present, even if the child had ACEs, although the presence of two or more ACEs decreased the effect. Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience and Mindfulness-Based Approaches: Common Denominator Issues for Children with Emotional, Mental, or Behavioral Problems (nih.gov)

In terms of research, these are still early days, says Dr. Robert Whitaker, director of Research and Research Education at the Columbia-Bassett Program and professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University: "This area of PACEs research is emerging, but the boundaries of that research have not really been defined, particular as complement to the well-established body of research on resilience."

From " Brains: Journey to Resilience ", Alberta Family Wellness Initiative.

"PCEs may have lifelong consequences for mental and relational health despite co-occurring adversities such as ACEs," noted Dr. Christina Bethell in Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences Levels. Bethell is professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and founding director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. "In this way, they support application of the World Health Organization's definition of health emphasizing that health is more than the absence of disease or adversity. The World Health Organization's positive construct of health is aligned with the proactive promotion of positive experiences in childhood because they are foundational to optimal childhood development and adult flourishing."

However, in terms of integrating what we know about PACEs, we have enough information to continue integrating the science into our work. If we want to change individuals, organizations, communities, and systems we need to talk about both positive and adverse childhood experiences - PACEs - and how they intertwine throughout our lives....

At the individual level, learning about ACEs helps us understand why we behave the way we do, and that our coping behavior is normal...a normal response to abnormal circumstances. Learning about PCEs provides direction to heal. The key concept about PACEs is that learning about both, together, can help improve our health and well-being. It gives us hope.

At the organizational level, staff and leaders can use knowledge of PACEs to create healing-centered work environments and programs in all sectors.

At the community level, educating the public about PACEs can provide hope and foster the development of innovative ideas about how to support families, organizations and communities. Understanding the interplay between positive and adverse experiences offers opportunity for engagement with all sectors. Communities can use this new lens to create mindful, healing-centered, research-informed approaches to prevent adversity and encourage connection and healing.

At the system level, policymakers and leaders can use research about PACEs to find common ground across fields and to support policies that promote the understanding of PACEs and how adversity and positive experiences work together.

At least two organizations are taking this approach and doing research to guide their actions:

The Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences (HOPE) team at Tufts Medical Center have identified four building blocks that lessen the negative effects of ACEs: relationships, environments, engagement, and social emotional development. HOPE - Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences

The Hope Research Center at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, focuses its research on the "science and power of hope as a psychological strength, especially among those experiencing trauma and adversity." The Center defines hope as "the belief that the future will be better and you have the power to make it so." Hope Research Center (ou.edu)

If you're interested in becoming more involved in the PACEs science community, join our companion social network, PACEs Connection. Just go to PACEsConnection.com and click "Join". PACEsConnection.com is the leading advocate for information about the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) and the rapidly expanding, global PACEs science movement.

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What ACEs do you have? There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. (There are many others...see below.) Five are personal - physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect. Five are related to other family members: a parent who's an alcoholic, a mother who's...

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How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

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The science of PACEs refers to the research about the stunning effects of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) and how they work together to affect our lives, as well as our organizations, systems and communities. It comprises:

1. The CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study and subsequent surveys that show that most people in the U.S. have at least one ACE, and that people with four ACEs- including living with an alcoholic parent, racism, bullying, witnessing violence outside the home, physical abuse, and losing a parent to divorce - have a huge risk of adult onset of chronic health problems such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, suicide, and alcoholism.

2. Brain science (neurobiology of toxic stress) - how toxic stress caused by ACEs damages the function and structure of kids' developing brains.

3. Health consequences - how toxic stress caused by ACEs affects short- and long-term health, and can impact every part of the body, leading to autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis, as well as heart disease, breast cancer, lung cancer, etc.

4. Historical and generational trauma (epigenetic consequences of toxic stress) - how toxic stress caused by ACEs can alter how our DNA functions, and how that can be passed on from generation to generation.

5. Positive Childhood Experiences and resilience research and practice - Building on the knowledge that the brain is plastic and the body wants to heal, this part of PACEs science includes evidence-based practice, as well as practice-based evidence by people, organizations and communities that are integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices. This ranges from looking at how the brain of a teen with a high ACE score can be healed with cognitive behavior therapy, to how schools can integrate trauma-informed and resilience-building practices that result in an increase in students' scores, test grades and graduation rates.

1. What are ACEs?

ACEs are adverse childhood experiences that harm children's developing brains and lead to changing how they respond to stress and damaging their immune systems so profoundly that the effects show up decades later. ACEs cause much of our burden of chronic disease, most mental illness, and are at the root of most violence.

"ACEs" comes from the CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, a groundbreaking public health study that discovered that childhood trauma leads to the adult onset of chronic diseases, depression and other mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence, as well as financial and social problems. The ACE Study has published about 70 research papers since 1998. Hundreds of additional research papers based on the ACE Study have also been published.

The 10 ACEs the researchers measured:

-- Physical, sexual and verbal abuse.

-- Physical and emotional neglect.

-- A family member who is:

depressed or diagnosed with other mental illness;

addicted to alcohol or another substance;

in prison.

-- Witnessing a mother being abused.

-- Losing a parent to separation, divorce or other reason.

Subsequent to the ACE Study, other ACE surveys have expanded the types of ACEs to include racism, gender discrimination, witnessing a sibling being abused, witnessing violence outside the home, witnessing a father being abused by a mother, being bullied by a peer or adult, involvement with the foster care system, living in a war zone, living in an unsafe neighborhood, losing a family member to deportation, etc.

ACEs fall into three large categories:

Adverse childhood experiences

Adverse community experiences

Adverse climate experiences

Resources:
CDC ACE Study site Wikipedia -- Adverse Childhood Experiences Study
The 10 ACE Questions (and 14 resilience survey questions)

The Pair of ACEs: The Soil in Which We're Rooted, the Branches on Which We Grow

Why are ACEs significant?

1. The ACE Study revealed six main discoveries:

ACEs are common...nearly two-thirds (64%) of adults have at least one.

They cause adult onset of chronic disease, such as cancer and heart disease, as well as mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence

ACEs don't occur alone....if you have one, there's an 87% chance that you have two or more.

The more ACEs you have, the greater the risk for chronic disease, mental illness, violence and being a victim of violence. People have an ACE score of 0 to 10. Each type of trauma counts as one, no matter how many times it occurs. You can think of an ACE score as a cholesterol score for childhood trauma. For example, people with an ACE score of 4 are twice as likely to be smokers and seven times more likely to be alcoholic. Having an ACE score of 4 increases the risk of emphysema or chronic bronchitis by nearly 400 percent, and attempted suicide by 1200 percent. People with high ACE scores are more likely to be violent, to have more marriages, more broken bones, more drug prescriptions, more depression, and more autoimmune diseases. People with an ACE score of 6 or higher are at risk of their lifespan being shortened by 20 years.

ACEs are responsible for a big chunk of workplace absenteeism, and for costs in health care, emergency response, mental health and criminal justice. So, the fifth finding from the ACE Study is that childhood adversity contributes to most of our major chronic health, mental health, economic health and social health issues.

On a population level, it doesn't matter which four ACEs a person has; the harmful consequences are the same. The brain cannot distinguish one type of toxic stress from another; it's all toxic stress, with the same impact.

What's particularly startling is that the 17,000 ACE Study participants were mostly white, middle- and upper-middle class, college-educated, and all had jobs and great health care (they were all members of Kaiser Permanente).

Resources:

ACE Study primer -- KPJR Films, which came out with Paper Tigers in 2015 and Resilience in 2016, put together this five-minute overview of the ACE Study.

ACE Study video -- Three-minute trailer for a four-hour CD of interviews with ACEs researchers produced by the Academy on Violence and Abuse.

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime (16-minute TED Talk by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris)
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study - the largest public health study you never heard of - started in an obesity clinic
Has anyone else done an ACE Study?

Thirty-six states and Washington, D.C. (infographic) have done one or more ACE surveys. Here are links to some of their reports (some states haven't produced reports).

There are numerous other ACE surveys, including cities, such as Philadelphia; organizations, including the Crittenton Foundation; schools, including Spokane elementary schools; by pediatricians, including Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and Dr. Victor Carrion ( 2011 and 2013); several countries, including England, Saudi Arabia, and a World Health Organization ACE survey of university students in Romania,; and 64,000 juvenile offenders in the Florida juvenile justice system. You can find a list of ACE surveys, including expanded ACE surveys with more questions, in the Resources Section of ACEsConnection.com.

2. What's the neurobiology of toxic stress?

Brain science shows that, in the absence of protective factors, toxic stress damages children's developing brains. Stress is the body's normal response to challenging events or environments. Positive stress -- the first day of school, a big exam, a sports challenge -- is part of growing up, and parents or caregivers help children prepare for and learn how to handle positive stress, which is moderate and doesn't last long. It increases heart rate and the amount of stress hormones in the body, but they return to normal levels quickly.

But when events or the environment are threatening or harmful - we stumble across a bear in the woods - our brains instantly zap into fight, flight or freeze mode and bypass our thinking brains, which can be way too analytical to save us (Is the bear really mean? Is it more interested in berries or killing me? Should I wait until I see it charge?). With help from caring adults, children also recover from this tolerable stress.

Too much stress - toxic stress - occurs when that raging bear comes home from the bar every night, says pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris. Then a child's brain and body will produce an overload of stress hormones - such as cortisol and adrenaline - that harm the function and structure of the brain. This can be particularly devastating in children, whose brains are developing at a galloping pace from before they are born to age three. Toxic stress is the kind of stress that can come in response to living for months or years with a screaming alcoholic father, a severely depressed and neglectful mother or a parent who takes out life's frustrations by whipping a belt across a child's body.

Resources:
Harvard University Center on the Developing Child
Video: Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development (2 min)

An Unhealthy Dose of Stress (Center for Youth Wellness white paper)
The Science Behind PTSD Symptoms: How Trauma Changes the Brain Brain Story Certification, Alberta Family Wellness Initiative

3. What are the health effects of toxic stress?

Chronic toxic stress-living in a red alert mode for months or years - can also damage our bodies. In a red alert state, the body pumps out adrenaline and cortisol continuously. Over time, the constant presence of adrenaline and cortisol keep blood pressure high, which weakens the heart and circulatory system. They also keep glucose levels high to provide enough energy for the heart and muscles to act quickly; this can lead to type 2 diabetes. Too much adrenaline and cortisol can also increase cholesterol.

Too much cortisol can lead to osteoporosis, arthritis, gastrointestinal disease, depression, anorexia nervosa, Cushing's syndrome, hyperthyroidism and the shrinkage of lymph nodes, leading to the inability to ward off infections.

If the red alert system is always on, eventually the adrenal glands give out, and the body can't produce enough cortisol to keep up with the demand. This may cause the immune system to attack parts of the body, which can lead to lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and fibromyalgia.

Cortisol is also extremely important in maintaining the body's appropriate inflammation response. In a normal response to a bee sting or infection, the body rushes antibodies, white blood cells and other cell fighters to the site and the tissues swell while the battle rages. But too much swelling damages tissue. Cortisol controls this fine balance. So without the mediating effects of cortisol, the inflammatory response runs amok and can cause a host of diseases.

If you're chronically stressed and then experience an additional traumatic event, your body will have trouble returning to a normal state. Over time, you will become more sensitive to trauma or stress, developing a hair-trigger response to events that other people shrug off.

Biomedical researchers say that childhood trauma is biologically embedded in our bodies: Children with adverse childhood experiences and adults who have experienced childhood trauma may respond more quickly and strongly to events or conversations that would not affect those with no ACEs, and have higher levels of indicators for inflammation than those who have not suffered childhood trauma. This wear and tear on the body is the main reason why the lifespan of people with an ACE score of six or higher is likely to be shortened by 20 years.

Resources:

What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience and Healing, by Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal, by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, by Nadine Burke Harris, 2018.
Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease by Robin Karr-Morse with Meredith S. Wiley
Biologial Embedding of Early Social Adversity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
PubMed childhood adversity research publications

4. What's epigenetics and how does that relate to historical or generational trauma?

Most people believe that the DNA we're born with does not change and that it determines all that we are during our lifetime. That's true, but the research from epigenetics - the study of how social and other environments turn our genes on and off - shows that toxic stress can actually change how our genes function, which can lead to long-term changes in all parts of our bodies and brains. What's more, these changes can be transferred from generation to generation.

Epigenetics means "above the genome" and refers to changes in gene expression that are not the result of changes in the DNA sequence (or mutations).

Resources:

WhatIsEpigenetics.com -- This New York-based blog and news aggregator covers the field of epigenetics and is funded by EpiGentek. It includes backgrounders, including epigenetics fundamentals.

Epigenetics -- From the Genetics Science Learning Center at the University of Utah, this section includes explainers and an overview of how the social environment affects your epigenome.

Epigenetics 101: A beginner's guide to explaining everything (TheGuardian.com, 2014)

5. Positive Childhood Experiences and resilience research: If you have a high ACE score, are you doomed? No!

The good news is that the brain is plastic, and the body wants to heal.

The brain is continually changing in response to the environment. If the toxic stress stops and is replaced by practices that build resilience, the brain can slowly undo many of the stress-induced changes.

There is well documented research on how individuals' brains and bodies become healthier through mindfulness practices, exercise, good nutrition, adequate sleep, and healthy social interactions.

Here's a good article that weaves the unified science of human development together: Scars That Don't Fade, from Massachusetts General Hospital's Proto Magazine.

In the last few years, researchers have started to examine the impacts of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) on children and adults. We at PACEs Connection are particularly interested in the interplay between positive and adverse childhood experiences. Here's some of the relevant research:

A team of researchers - Dr. Christina Bethell, Jennifer Jones, Dr. Narangerel Gombojav, Dr. Jeff Linkenbach and Dr. Robert Sege - published research in 2019 that found a dose-response association between positive childhood experiences - such as feeling like family stood by one during difficult times and feeling safe and protected by an adult in the home - and adult mental and relationship health among adults who had experienced ACEs, irrespective of how many ACEs they had. Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample: Associations Across Adverse Childhood Experiences Levels | JAMA Pediatrics.

That same year, Bethell, Gombojav, and Dr. Robert Whitaker reported that at each level of ACEs, "the presence of flourishing increased in a graded fashion with increasing levels of family resilience and connection." Family Resilience And Connection Promote Flourishing Among US Children, Even Amid Adversity | Health Affairs

In 2014, Bethell, Dr. Paul Newacheck, Dr. Eva Hawes, and Dr. Neal Halfon found that children with higher ACE scores were less likely to demonstrate resilience, live in a protective home environment, have a mother who was healthy, and live in safe and supportive neighborhoods. However, almost half of the children who had experienced ACEs also demonstrated resilience, and "resilience mitigated the impact of adverse childhood experiences on grade repetition and school engagement." Adverse Childhood Experiences: Assessing The Impact On Health And School Engagement And The Mitigating Role Of Resilience | Health Affairs

In a study published in 2021, Whitaker, Dr. Tracy Dearth-Wesley, and Dr. Allison Herman wrote that "greater childhood family connection was associated with greater flourishing in US adults across levels of childhood adversity." Childhood family connection and adult flourishing: associations across levels of childhood adversity - Academic Pediatrics (academicpedsjnl.net)

Dr. Yui Yamaoka and Dr. David Bard reported in 2019 that "the number of adverse childhood experiences was associated with both social-emotional deficits and developmental delay risks in early childhood; however, positive parenting practices demonstrated robust protective effects independent of the number of adverse childhood experiences." Positive Parenting Matters in the Face of Early Adversity - PubMed (nih.gov)

Among juvenile offenders, Dr. Michael Baglivio and Dr. Kevin Wolff discovered in 2020 that "high ACE scores were associated with increased reoffending, and high PCE scores were associated with decreased recidivism, as measured by both rearrest and reconviction. Further, among juveniles with four or more ACEs who have six or more PCEs, reconviction was 23% lower and rearrest 22% lower when compared to those youth with four or more ACEs and less than six PCEs, controlling for a host of demographic and criminal history measures." Positive Childhood Experiences (PCE): Cumulative Resiliency in the Face of Adverse Childhood Experiences - Michael T. Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff, 2021 (sagepub.com)

Dr. Michael Baxter, Dr. Eden Hemming, Dr. Heather McIntosh, and Dr. Chan Hellman published research in 2017 that demonstrated that higher ACEs scores were associated with lower hope in a study of caregivers who brought children in for a child abuse medical investigation at a child advocacy center. Exploring the Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Hope: Journal of Child Sexual Abuse: Vol 26, No 8 (tandfonline.com)

In 2019, Dr. AliceAnn Crandall, Dr. Jacob Miller, Dr. Aaron Cheung, Dr. Lynneth Novilla, Dr. Rozalyn Glade, Dr. M. Lelinneth Novilla, Dr. Brianna Magnusson, Dr. Barbara Leavitt, Dr. Michael Barnes, and Dr. Carl Hanson observed in a study of adults that "higher counter-ACEs scores [i.e., positive childhood experiences] were associated with improved adult health and that counter-ACEs neutralized the negative impact of ACEs on adult health."ACEs and counter-ACEs: How positive and negative childhood experiences influence adult health - ScienceDirect

A study by Whitaker, Dearth-Wesley, and Herman in 2020 showed that across levels of childhood adversity, greater childhood family connection was associated with greater flourishing among young adults with type 1 diabetes. Childhood Family Connection With Flourishing in Young Adulthood Among Those With Type 1 Diabetes | Pediatrics | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network

Finally, in 2016, Bethell, Gombojav, Dr. Michele Solloway, and Dr. Lawrence Wissow examined ACEs, resilience, family protective factors, and emotional, mental or behavioral conditions (EMB) in children and youth in the U.S. The authors found that children with ACEs had higher EMB than children without ACEs, but the presence of resilience was significantly associated with lower amounts of EMB for both children with and without ACEs. In addition, the prevalence of EMB was lower when family protective factors were present, even if the child had ACEs, although the presence of two or more ACEs decreased the effect. Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience and Mindfulness-Based Approaches: Common Denominator Issues for Children with Emotional, Mental, or Behavioral Problems (nih.gov)

Who's using PACEs science?

Many people, organizations, agencies, systems and communities are beginning to implement trauma-informed, resilience-building practices based on PACEs science.

Pediatricians (here's an update on the Children's Clinic) and public health clinics are screening patients for ACEs. By the end of 2017, between 1,000 and 2,000 pediatricians had integrated ACEs screening into their practices. Here's an article about Kaiser Permanente pediatricians in Northern California who have started screening kids for ACEs. Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, MacArthur genius award winner, recommends physicians adding ACE screening to measurement of other vital signs, such as blood pressure. A rural health clinic in Pueblo, CO, changed its medical practice after it integrated ACEs screening. A family physician in Tennessee educates his opioid patients about their ACEs, and it helps motivate them to heal themselves. The physician also understands that ACEs leads to damage that is chronic and, thus, he treats addictions as he does diabetes, as a chronic disease.

Many schools - including schools in San Francisco, CA, Spokane, WA, San Diego, CA, and Walla Walla, WA - have integrated healing-centered/trauma-informed practices into classrooms, playgrounds and school policies. These schools have seen 90 percent drops in suspensions after one year; after three years, the schools no longer expel students and some no longer even have the need for in-school suspensions. The grades, test scores and graduation rates increased, and the students most benefitted were those with the highest ACE scores. By the end of 2017, several hundred schools across the U.S. were integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices based on ACEs science.

Head Start (early childhood education program) in Kansas City has integrated trauma-informed practices in a program called Head Start Trauma Smart. (NYTimes article about the program.)

Home-based early childhood intervention, such as Child First. (NYTimes article about the program.)

Police departments and courts have integrated trauma-informed approaches. Safe Babies Courts have integrated PACEs science in resilience-building practices that provide wrap-around services for families; a year after participating in Safe Babies Courts, 99 percent of the children suffer no further abuse. Some prisons are beginning to educate inmates about PACEs science.

Homeless shelters and the faith-based community are integrating practices based on PACEs research. At the heart of their approach is educating those who are homeless and people in rescue missions about PACEs science; it often changes their whole understanding of their behavior, because they realize that they weren't born bad, that they had no control over what happened to them as children, that they coped appropriately, given what was available to them, and that they can change. Batterers intervention programs that have integrated PACEs science have reduced recidivism rates from what was accepted - 20 to 60 percent - to zero to four percent.

Cities and states are integrating practices based on PACEs science. By the end of 2017, several hundred communities around the U.S. had launched PACEs initiatives. This report on self-healing communities describes how integrating ACEs science drastically reduced youth suicide, teen pregnancy, juvenile arrests, and high-school drop-out rates - all at the same time - in communities in Washington State that integrated practices based on PACEs science.

Research on families shows that interventions - such as Nurse-Family Partnership, Healthy Steps, and Child First - can improve the lives of parents and children. Evidence-based parenting practices ( Incredible Years, Triple P Parenting, etc.), increase the health of parents and children.

Resources:

Growing Resilient Communities provides guidelines and tools for communities to launch and grow local PACEs initiatives, and measure the progress of their work.

What does trauma-informed mean?

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a trauma-informed approach refers to how an organization or community thinks about and responds to children and adults who have experienced or may be at risk for experiencing trauma. In this approach, the whole community understands the prevalence and impact of ACEs, the role trauma plays in people's lives, and the complex and varied paths for healing and recovery.

A trauma-informed approach asks: "What happened to you?" instead of "What's wrong with you?" It is designed to avoid re-traumatizing already traumatized people, with a focus on "safety first" (including emotional safety), and a commitment to do no harm. But a trauma-informed approach is most successful when an organization or community builds policies and practices based on a foundation of ACEs science.

Resources:
SAMHSA overview of what trauma-informed is and isn't National Center for Trauma-Informed Care
SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach -- Introduces a concept of trauma and offers a framework for how an organization, system, or service sector can become trauma-informed. Includes a definition of trauma (the three "E's"), a definition of a trauma-informed approach (the four "R's"), 6 key principles, and 10 implementation domains.

Any legislation or federal policies?

Updates on U.S. state and federal legislation can be found in the State ACEs Resolutions and Laws section of State PACEs Action on PACEsConnection.com. Some examples:
California legislature resolution to reduce ACEs Massachusetts bill on trauma-informed schools Vermont attempt to pass ACEs bill Overview of state, federal legislation
US Department of Health and Human Services guidelines to state health directors (and the letter to state health directors)

All resources:
CDC ACE Study site
A Critical Assessment of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study at 20 Years (attached)
Wikipedia -- Adverse Childhood Experiences Study
The 10 ACE Questions (and 14 resilience survey questions)

Harvard University Center on the Developing Child (neurobiology of toxic stress)

Alberta Family Wellness Initiative (Canada)

ACEsTooHigh.com - News site covering PACEs research and practices

PACEsConnection.com - Social network (with 18,000+ members across sectors) and more than 100 community sites that support ACEs initiatives in cities, counties, states, regions and nations.

WhatIsEpigenetics.com - News site covering epigenetics

Epigenetics -- Explainers and backgrounders about epigenetics
National Center for Trauma-Informed Care
Community Resilience Cookbook - Nine case studies of cities and states that are integrating PACEs research)

SAMHSA's Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach -- Introduces a concept of trauma and offers a framework for how an organization, system, or service sector can become trauma-informed. Includes a definition of trauma (the three "E's"), a definition of a trauma-informed approach (the four "R's"), 6 key principles, and 10 implementation domains.

ACE Study video (three minute trailer)

Video: Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development (2 min)

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime (16-minute TED Talk by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris)

Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal, by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity, by Nadine Burke Harris, 2018.
Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease by Robin Karr-Morse with Meredith S. Wiley
The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life, by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

For other books, go to the ACEs Connection Books community.

Documentaries:

Paper Tigers -- What does it mean to be a trauma-informed school? And how do you educate teens whose childhood experiences have left them with a brain and body ill-suited to learn? This film follows six students through a year in America's first trauma-informed high school.

Resilience -- Resilience chronicles how trailblazers in pediatrics, education, and social welfare are using cutting-edge science and field-tested therapies to protect children from the insidious effects of toxic stress.

CAREgivers -- How is the professional care provider affected emotionally and physically, and who helps them?

For a list of all documentaries addressing PACEs science, and how to access them, go here.

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PACEs Science 101 (FAQs) - Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences

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What are ACEs? ACEs are adverse childhood experiences that harm children's developing brains so profoundly that the effects show up decades later; they cause much of chronic disease, most mental illness, and are at the root of most violence. ...

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This resource provides several real-world examples of what restorative practices can look like in a school.

“In schools that use restorative and accountable discipline and student support, students necessarily take an active role,” Jill Davidson wrote for Teaching Tolerance magazine back in 2014. “Discipline is not something that is externally imposed. Instead, students engage in inquiry and must have a voice in determining next steps and consequences in a context of support, strong relationships and effective communication.”

Restorative practices, in essence, replace systems that impose punishment and top-down systems of control on students in favor of a more communal, collaborative system of communication, expectation-setting and accountability.

“We have these blanket rules that are fairly arbitrary, that do not allow for exceptions or complexities,” explains Victor Small, Jr. “I think that restorative justice gives you that. It gives you the ability to understand the complexity.”

A recent classroom teacher and administrator, Small organizes popular online chats on restorative justice, including one called the Restorative Justice League. Restorative practices do not work without social emotional awareness and an understanding of how identities are carried into the space, Small says. That reflection work, he stresses, comes first.

Shifts Toward Restoration: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy and Relationship Building

When asked about how to move from systems built on compliance to something more restorative, educators and scholars alike kept coming back to this: There is pre-work to do. Restorative practices, at their best, are part of a school culture that prioritizes culturally sustaining pedagogy and authentic relationship building—connections that allow for trust, openness and inclusive spaces. Without that foundation, it’s hard to move straight into restorative work.

Django Paris and H. Samy Alim describe culturally sustaining pedagogy as a practice that “exists wherever education sustains the lifeways of communities who have been and continue to be damaged and erased through schooling … [and] explicitly calls for schooling to be a site for sustaining—rather than eradicating—the cultural ways of being of communities of color.”

It’s a necessary foundation for restorative practices because schools cannot repair harm if they are actively enacting it. Students feel diminished in spaces that erase their ancestral and lived experiences, then demand that they participate and engage fully. Without culturally sustaining pedagogy in place, students can feel devalued in the very spaces they are then asked to help sustain.

For example, Small says it’s important for educators to think outside what they may think they know about the restorative circle—a practice often decontextualized from its roots in Indigenous cultures and often oversimplified as a room configuration rather than a reimagined communal space.

Recognizing the value in different models of community, culturally sustaining pedagogy lays the groundwork for educators to move away from a culture of harmful, imposed compliance. And understanding how students’ varied cultural contexts and their diverse lived experiences affect the ways they communicate, behave and learn is crucial. It’s the first step to giving students agency to create a space that values accountability, even as it appreciates those differences.

“Where students get agency is where you allow for there to be community building that’s built from the ground up,” Small says. “What rules do students want to abide by that they create for themselves, that they are willing to hold themselves accountable to?” Small says it’s important to have base expectations, but classroom norms and contracts can be built collaboratively.

This work aligns with what Dr. David Stovall—a professor of Black studies, criminology and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago—might call authentic inclusion. “The scariest thing adults feel they can ask young people is what they need,” he says. “[But] if we know these spaces have historically not worked, then what are we willing to do different? And one of those things is saying, ‘We’re going to start with students’ interests and needs… things that [they] feel like [they] have not gotten from this space.”

Stovall says that part of building authentic inclusion and relationships resides in those culturally sustaining practices: rethinking why a connection is not being made in the classroom or school. As Small puts it, “Relationships need to have been built in order for there to be something to restore.”

Dr. Nataki Gregory is the CEO of CT3, an educator-training group that specializes in relationship building. She says it’s important to acknowledge that the overwhelming amount of responsibility thrown at educators often leads to a devaluation of building such relationships. She encourages educators to rethink that.

“Building relationships with students makes all the other priorities, honestly, a little easier to reach,” Gregory says. “You’re in this together, as opposed to feeling like you’re doing something to or for students.”

But ultimately, educators will struggle to prioritize these shifts in a system that devalues or actively disrupts relationships.

“If you don’t create the conditions for your teachers to thrive,” González posits, “how can you expect them to create the conditions for their students to thrive?”

Shifts Toward Restoration: School- and Community-wide Approaches

Advocates for anti-racist school discipline reform explain that school-wide buy-in is necessary for substantive change.

Gregory says that, often, she’ll hear from schools who ask if they can get training for just a handful of their educators. “They can,” she says, “but that’s not going to do you any good. What you need is for the entire school to have a common language. That whole school needs to be singing from the same sheet of music.”

Without a school-wide investment in shifting the culture, a student who feels safe and valued in one classroom may be thrown into a harmful environment in their next class, in the gym or on the bus.

In order for alternative models to work, experts say, school leaders need to have encoded structures and policies that all stakeholders in the school can consistently follow. Educators have to understand what alternatives to suspension and punitive discipline look like and where they can find support systems, including mental health professionals.

“For guidance purposes and for consistency purposes, it’s important to have something in place,” Williams says, including “structures that promote restoration, structures that promote kids staying in class” written into the handbooks.

When schools commit to real change and create policies that prioritize keeping children in classrooms, they recognize that policies of compliance harm families, too. Suspensions put disproportionate burdens on working-class families. Engagement with law enforcement and social workers can be more fraught for Black, Latinx, Indigenous and immigrant families. And a system in which the primary method of family engagement is punitive actively discourages the kinds of family partnerships that could foster a positive learning environment for their children.

“It’s going to be a lot better for the school if the communities are involved,” says Small, “but we have to consider why the communities aren’t involved. If we think about decades and decades of public schools screwing over Black and Latinx kids, maybe those families don’t feel like the schools have their best interest in their kids.”

Repairing this historic disconnect requires increased family engagement, home visits, community outreach and services—like flexible family-teacher conference times and language interpretation—designed to remove obstacles to a working relationship between schools and families. But it also requires something more elemental.

“Before you even expect those parents to show up and be a part of the school,” Small asks, “how do you communicate to them that their kids matter?”

It starts, Ryan Williams says, with disrupting the deficit-based approach that sees students’ families and communities as inconsequential or antithetical to the child’s education.

“You have to value the families of the kids that you serve,” Williams says. “You have to value the core beliefs and you have to value where these kids are coming from, because if you don’t value that and see those experiences as valuable to kids, then you won’t be able to effectively engage.”

Ultimately, advocates say, building coalitions—including those based in an understanding of how schools have harmed communities of color—will be vital to securing transformational change.

“To me, that’s the bold vision as we dismantle policies that continue to perpetuate racism,” González says. “That we do have a place and a space for something else in existence that is about rebuilding communities.”

Restorative Practices in Action

At East Millbrook Middle School, that rebuilding began with a small first step: reimagining how school leaders responded to fights.

Instead of suspending students who fought, Williams and other school leaders offered restorative circles. They brought students together with their families and a counselor. Over time, they saw that students who were offered this restorative approach were much less likely to repeat the behavior. That success catalyzed the implementation of restorative practices across the school.

Williams says a couple of things were key to shifting from a compliance-based model to a restorative one. First, they had to change the culture. Educators had come to expect suspensions when students enacted certain behaviors, and that had to be unlearned. Second, they had to justify their methods with data to refute any criticism. Compliance-based models of learning and development have become so ubiquitous and intergenerational that people often struggle to imagine that other models may actually be more effective.

The results speak for themselves. East Millbrook has seen drastic drops in suspension rates each year. School climate has improved. Student engagement has increased. The work that has gone into changing the school culture has led to a situation in which Williams is not seeing a lot of behavior issues during virtual learning.

Even better, he says, he has seen a paradigm shift in how educators respond to conflict; more and more, they go to a counselor first instead of an administrator. And while Williams is still having to talk to individual educators about policies of control, such as camera-on requirements, he hasn’t suspended a student yet this year.

He says he hasn’t even considered it.

Learn More

Restorative practices offer an alternative to disciplinary policies based in compliance. Learn more about the harm of these policies—and how they reinforce white supremacy—in the Spring 2021 feature story “It Was Always About Control.”

Read the feature

About the Author

is a senior writer for Teaching Tolerance.

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Toolkit: The Foundations of Restorative Justice

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School discipline and classroom management do not have to be based in compliance. Learn more about restorative practices in this companion piece to the feature article “It Was Always About Control.”

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From Crayons to College and Career Readiness

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Kansas Comprehensive School Counseling Program 081821 v.1.1

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Kansas Curricular Standards final revision 11_10_15