The Tennessee Department of Education has chosen 14 Hamilton County public schools to take part in its second cohort of trauma-informed schools.
Trauma-informed schools support students by meeting them where they are after experiencing something traumatic. School staff including teachers, administrators and counselors work as a team to meet students’ needs without making assumptions about them, said the state department of education. Teacher self-care and family involvement also are part of the approach.
The training enables more school staff beyond school counselors and social workers to support students who have experienced trauma, said Patricia Russell, director of social-emotional learning and K-12 school counseling at Hamilton County Schools.
“Now with a trauma-informed school, you have your entire school community that can support a student in such a way that not only makes them feel safe at school, but then also when you start to tap into lessons that teachers teach and the support that counselors can offer, it’s also helping to give students coping skills and language to discuss, to be able to articulate how they feel, or what’s causing the stress or the traumatic event that they’ve been through,” Russell said.
Trauma ranges in scope and is not the same for every student. Examples of traumatic situations for students include bullying, witnessing violence, neglect, food insecurity or something else that could adversely affect their mental state.