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In Tacora Snell鈥檚 5th grade classroom, it鈥檚 not unusual for students to tell her that they need a break.

Snell, a math and science teacher at Ketcham Elementary School in the District of Columbia, starts talking with her students early in the year about vocalizing their emotions. And if a student does have an outburst of frustration, she鈥檒l pull them aside to ask: 鈥淵ou鈥檙e angry鈥攜ou have every right to that emotion鈥攂ut how could we have dealt with that differently?鈥�

With these practices, Snell hopes to build her students鈥� social-emotional skills. Her school is one of the growing number across the country that are explicitly teaching students how to build strong relationships, make smart decisions, and take on challenges.

Some research has linked focusing on these social-emotional competencies to higher academic performance and better outcomes outside of school. But while most teachers say it鈥檚 important for them to teach these skills, many still don鈥檛 feel equipped to help students manage their emotions鈥攅specially when it comes to the children who are facing the greatest hurdles, according to a new nationally representative survey from the Education Week Research Center.

It鈥檚 not just teachers. Colleges of education have been slow to embrace the teaching of social-emotional learning as part of their core curricula for prospective teachers. Principals also report in surveys that they favor the teaching of SEL, but time constraints and lack of teacher training are a major barrier.

In Education Week鈥檚 survey, teachers said they had difficulty 鈥渇inding ways to help students who appear to be struggling with problems outside of school"鈥�43 percent of teachers said they found this hard.

Teachers also said it was difficult 鈥渇inding ways to help students who appear to be experiencing emotional or psychological distress.鈥� Twenty-three percent of teachers said that was their most challenging task.

When students have faced trauma or adverse childhood experiences, they can remain 鈥渓ocked鈥� in a fight, flight, or freeze response, said Michael Lamb, the executive director for Washington, D.C., at Turnaround for Children, an organization that uses neuroscience to inform childhood learning and development. Turnaround has partnered with the D.C. schools, including Ketcham, where Snell works.

鈥淚f you experience an adverse or traumatic event, your body and your brain react to that in that moment. But it also stays with you for the rest of your life,鈥� he said. Almost half of all children in the United States have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, such as abuse or neglect, or witnessing violence in their community, .

鈥淲e must purposefully design the learning environment to buffer students from that stress,鈥� Lamb said.

Lack of Training

For Snell, training helped change some of her less-effective practices and shift her mindset around what SEL should look like. Before her school started working with Turnaround, Snell said, she was 鈥渁nti-calm-down corner,鈥� assuming her 5th graders were mature enough not to need a separate space to reset and reflect. Turnaround suggested she reconsider鈥攅veryone, including adults, sometimes need to separate themselves from a stressful situation, she remembers discussing with the Turnaround staff. Now, students ask to go to her room鈥檚 calm-down corner when they鈥檙e feeling overwhelmed, she said.

But many teachers say they haven鈥檛 received adequate training around these issues. Less than 40 percent of teachers surveyed by the Education Week Research Center said they received training in conflict de-escalation, and a similar number said they had been trained in child trauma. Only 29 percent said they had received mental health training.

And some teachers said that the training around social-emotional skills they did receive didn鈥檛 cover the more complicated, painful, or dangerous situations they might encounter鈥攐r give them practical strategies to use in the classroom.

Ashley Toscas, a kindergarten teacher in Scottsdale, Ariz., said she didn鈥檛 realize how unprepared she was to deal with students鈥� trauma when she started at her current school. She felt her teacher-preparation program had given her plenty of opportunities to practice developing strong relationships with students. And in her district, she had participated in a half-day mandated reporter training for abuse and neglect and a day or two of workshops on social-emotional learning.

But Toscas said these experiences didn鈥檛 give her tools to support her students, who are growing up in pervasive poverty in environments where they are exposed to gang violence and drug use. 鈥淭here are so many students with so many mental-health needs, I [felt like I] needed a separate degree,鈥� said Toscas.

Other teachers said that the SEL trainings they had been part of focused more on classroom routines, rather than how to address students鈥� emotions or extreme behavior.

Elizabeth Cate, also a kindergarten teacher, took a two-day SEL training offered by her district, Metro Nashville public schools. Nashville has a district social-emotional learning department and partners with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, Emotional Learning.

The training鈥檚 content, which covered things like how to set a classroom mood and start a morning meeting routine, didn鈥檛 help her with the severe challenges in her class this year, she said.

Some of her kindergartners had extreme emotional outbursts and deliberately hurt themselves in class. One student often turned furniture over. Cate felt 鈥渃ompletely unprepared鈥� to help her students in the moment, she said. And she wasn鈥檛 sure how to address the family issues, ranging from the birth of new siblings to incarcerated parents, that she guessed to be the underlying causes of her students鈥� distress.

She had a 鈥渧ery cursory training鈥� this past year on trauma-informed classrooms鈥攁 total of three hours, spread out after school across three days, about a month apart each. The workshops covered students鈥� brain development and how trauma affects learning, she said.

Cate understood the research as it was presented, but felt the training didn鈥檛 take the next step to show her how it was practically applicable to her teaching. 鈥淚 felt like there was a lot more that needed to be fleshed out in that, that wasn鈥檛,鈥� she said.

Creating Their Own Systems

When faced with a problem they can鈥檛 handle alone, teachers say they try to turn to other school-based professionals, like psychologists or counselors. But almost half of all teachers in Education Week鈥檚 survey reported that they couldn鈥檛 call on these staff members when they needed them: Forty-six percent of respondents said they 鈥渟omewhat鈥� or 鈥渃ompletely鈥� disagreed that their school had adequate support services from counselors, school psychologists, or other professionals to assist students experiencing emotional or psychological distress.

Laurie Waddle, a middle school health and physical education teacher in Kirksville, Mo., said her school counselors are 鈥渨onderful"鈥攂ut there are only two for about 600 students. 69传媒 who struggle with behavior work with these counselors if they are designated to receive special education services. But Waddle, who has taught at the school for 13 years, said other students don鈥檛 often see the counselors for behavioral issues. (The student-to-counselor ratio at Waddle鈥檚 school isn鈥檛 unusual. On average nationwide, there are 482 students for each school counselor.)

Instead, teachers are developing their own systems, honed from years in the classroom, for noticing warning signs and coaching students through outbursts. In Education Week鈥檚 survey, 70 percent of teachers said they addressed their students鈥� mental-health challenges by talking with them.

Often, young children鈥檚 body language changes when they鈥檙e experiencing intense negative emotions, said Toscas, the Arizona teacher. 鈥淭hey won鈥檛 talk to you; they won鈥檛 smile at you,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like I鈥檓 talking to a stranger.鈥� When Toscas sees a student display these nonverbal cues, she tries to spend one-on-one time with them. She might not even talk with the child directly about what鈥檚 bothering him. 鈥淏ut they have a comforting place,鈥� she said.

Takeima Ricks, a kindergarten teacher in Person County, N.C., also pulls students aside for one-on-one conversations when they start to have an emotional outburst. She tries, too, to shield them from the inquisitive looks of other students. 鈥淚f other children are looking at them, that agitates them more,鈥� Ricks said.

Some teachers have drawn from other training or experience around students鈥� mental-health needs.

Before she started at her current school, Waddle taught at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for adolescents for 16 years. There, she found that developing a rapport with her students was the key to working with kids who had experienced trauma. She learned to abandon a deficit mindset鈥攊nstead of thinking, what鈥檚 wrong with this student, she started asking, what happened to this student to make him act the way he鈥檚 acting?

鈥淵ou appreciate that the kid even came to school that day,鈥� said Waddle.