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What else can you do in your school?

School administrators can do a lot to create positive environments for youth in care. Here are some ideas and resources to help your school take the next step.

• Become well-informed about trauma and encourage your colleagues and school administrators to do the same. Seek out resources and professional development. Developing and implementing trauma-informed practices requires a thoughtful process based on a solid understanding of trauma in children as well as skill development in evidence-based practices and interventions. Comprehensive information to support such efforts can be found on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) website. The resources were identified and created by a cross-system work group facilitated by DPI that included representatives from education, mental health, higher education, state agencies, and parents.
  
• Consider using the PBIS model as the structure for integrating trauma-informed values and practices in your school in a thoughtful and consistent manner.
  
• Rethink some standard practices that your school might have as to whether they make sense for children in out-of-home care. For example, fines for infractions such as truancy may create an unreasonable burden for a child in care. Consider instead using in-school disciplinary strategies that support the child in learning necessary skills.
• Find ways to keep them in school! Research consistently shows school engagement to be correlated with academic success. Exclusionary discipline – like detention, suspension and expulsion – undermines the student’s connection to the school community. It also makes it very difficult for the student to keep up with the work, a situation already jeopardized if the child has transferred schools. Instead, use positive behavioral supports that teach the children the emotional, behavioral and relational skills they need to develop.
• Make your school “Trauma Sensitive.” A trauma-sensitive school thoughtfully and integrates understanding about trauma into all relevant responsibilities, dimensions and levels of the school’s operation.

Resources and strategies to help you make school trauma sensitive can be found in the document “Strategies and Resources to Create a Trauma-Sensitive School ”. It is intended to be used with appropriate preparation.

• Don’t give up on these children. It will take time for them to begin to trust you, even if you are doing all the right things. Adults have let them down before, so they will test you to learn if you will do so, as well, as a way of trying to exercise control over their lives. You will need to be persistent.

 

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