To say educators should expect rough emotional weather this fall is an understatement.
Regardless of whether they return online or in-person, students will start school this fall amid a perfect storm of ongoing trauma: a nationwide pandemic, economic instability, and racial unrest over police killings, as well as months of anxiety and isolation caused by school and community shutdowns.
Before the pandemic, federal data suggested nearly half of all U.S. children had been exposed to at least one traumatic event, and more than 20 percent had been exposed to several. Studies from across health and education fields have found that students who experience sustained traumatic stress, known as 鈥�,鈥� are more likely to have academic and behavioral problems in school and cognitive and emotional difficulties outside of it.
District and school leaders are confronting difficult, high-stakes decisions as they plan for how to reopen schools amid a global pandemic. Through eight installments, Education Week journalists explore the big challenges education leaders must address, including running a socially distanced school, rethinking how to get students to and from school, and making up for learning losses. We present a broad spectrum of options endorsed by public health officials, explain strategies that some districts will adopt, and provide estimated costs.
Part 1: The Socially Distanced School Day
Part 2: Scheduling the School Year
Part 3: Tackling the Transportation Problem
Part 4: How to Make Remote Learning Work
Part 5: Teaching and Learning
Part 6: Overcoming Learning Loss
Part 7: Teaching Social-Emotional Skills
Up next: Equity Access
Full Report: How We Go Back to School
By , more than 3 in 4 school social workers in a national survey reported that a majority of students at their schools needed serious mental health supports in the wake of the pandemic and school closures.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been told if we do basic [social-emotional learning] for these kids, everything鈥檚 going to be fine. While that may be enough for upper-middle and upper-class schools, it鈥檚 not going to be true for these schools with major capacity issues,鈥� said study co-author Ron Avi Astor, a professor and chair of social welfare at the University of California Los Angeles鈥檚 graduate school of education. 鈥淓verything we do there may not be effective if you don鈥檛 organize and build capacity, not in a crisis mode ..., but for the long-term, like you would in a war.鈥�
Traditional aspects of 鈥攕uch as using a whole-child approach, rethinking student discipline and other policies, and promoting a sense of belonging for students鈥攈ad already started to gain traction among schools before the pandemic. But the new and disparate contexts for learning this fall will make it both more challenging and more critical for teachers to identify and support the students struggling with toxic stress.
Here are a few ways schools can address student trauma as schools reopen.
1. Expect distress, but don鈥檛 pathologize students
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a danger that schools will pathologize kids. I think teachers are going to see a lot more extreme behaviors, but that鈥檚 not necessarily kids experiencing [post-traumatic stress syndrome],鈥� said Mary Walsh, a professor of counseling and developmental psychology at Boston College. 鈥淲e know all kids are being affected by the pandemic, this fluid, traumatic event, but only about a third of kids who experience trauma develop serious issues that can become PTSD. If we put the right protective factors in place, kids have enormous resilience.鈥�
Walsh advised teachers to work this fall with each other and school counselors and social workers to review the academic, social-emotional, behavioral, and health status of each student in their incoming class.
Online classes may even offer new opportunities to get a read on students. Some schools are asking counselors to sit in on academic subject classes, such as math, to check students鈥� engagement and emotional temperature while the teacher focuses on instruction.
Colleen Perry, coordinator of City Connects, a student support program, at Pottenger Elementary in Springfield, Mass., said she and other school counselors held weekly video conferences for K-5 students in the spring in which they could sing and play games with classmates. They plan to continue this fall.
鈥淚t was really nice because we interacted with students that we normally wouldn鈥檛 have interacted with because we never knew that they really needed as much interaction,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n school, they were the quiet ones, ones that really weren鈥檛 seen as high-needs kids just because they didn鈥檛 act out in their behavior.鈥�
2. Coordinate holistic supports to remove sources of toxic stress
The toxic stress that hinders learning and long-term outcomes often comes not from a one-off trauma, but from deep, ongoing instability, particularly relating to a child鈥檚 home and family. In Astor鈥檚 survey from earlier this summer, more than 60 percent of the school social workers also reported that more than half of students at their school had 鈥減rofound, immediate, urgent needs鈥� related to health problems, food instability, and individualized student tutoring.
鈥淭o do a trauma-informed-care school where everybody鈥檚 focused on great interactions, but 80 percent of your kids are hungry, doesn鈥檛 make sense,鈥� Astor said.
69传媒 can help to buffer students from these stressors by coordinating with other agencies and community groups to provide a multi-tiered system of academic, social, and basic living supports. Districts from Bucksport, Maine, to Los Angeles, Calif., are connecting students to online mental health and sometimes school clinic services.
In Salem, Mass., where a majority of students are students of color or those from low-income families, school and city agencies have been working to create more substantive supports for vulnerable students. The shutdowns this spring 鈥渆xacerbated all the barriers that existed before for a lot of our kids who have experienced systematic oppression and injustice,鈥� said Ellen Wingard, the director of student and family support at鈥疭alem鈥痯ublic schools, leaving teachers and staff concerned about students and families who were struggling.
The pandemic provided the incentive to get a long-planned interagency initiative off the ground. The school district, mayor鈥檚 office, local health, housing and social service agencies, and community organizations launched a website and initiative called Salem Together to provide wraparound supports to children and their families.
鈥淲e were able to pretty quickly put into place a protocol for all teachers to reach out to their kids and ask a few simple questions鈥擜re you OK? Do you need food? What鈥檚 going on with your family?鈥攁nd the system could report back to support staff and all our partners and coordinate a ton of volunteers ready to help,鈥� Wingard said.
Beyond streamlining help to students, Wingard said the initiative has also provided an outlet for teachers and the community who wanted to support each other. 鈥淚t gave us a way to know what was going on so we didn鈥檛 feel completely helpless,鈥� she said.
The district is bracing for rising unemployment and housing instability this fall in addition to the pandemic, and the district鈥檚 leadership team, principals, assistant principals, and special education coordinators have been receiving additional training on trauma-sensitive instruction in the runup to school restarting in mid-September.
3. Consider unintended consequences of school policies
Protests this spring and summer for racial justice following police killings of black people have reignited concerns about disproportionate discipline practices in schools, as well. A new Education Trust study on found students and families of color strongly valued social-emotional development in schools but considered school policies and services to be focused on 鈥渇ixing鈥� them rather than supporting them.
Some students of color have already been subject to harsh discipline for not fully participating in remote learning during the school shutdown this spring. A 15-year-old Michigan student was when a judge found that violated her probation. Education Trust researcher Nancy Duchesneau, an author of the Education Trust study, said that while students are less likely to experience overt exclusionary discipline like suspensions in an online classroom, teachers may more easily exclude students they consider disruptive or overlook those who are not actively reaching out online.
As school leaders develop policies and norms for new remote and socially distanced classrooms, it is important to build in ways to help students and families feel safe and respected. For example, Duchesneau recommended limiting the use of dress codes for home learning, and suggested allowing students to attend without broadcasting video, or teaching students how to set up a virtual screen behind them that can protect their privacy if they feel uncomfortable allowing others to see them or their home environments.
4. Promote a sense of belonging
Finding ways to identify and leverage students鈥� strengths rather than deficits can bolster their resilience to stress.
鈥�69传媒鈥攁nd especially students of color and students from low-income households鈥攈ave been stepping up in many ways during this time: taking on caretaking duties, becoming more active in protests against police brutality and racial injustice,鈥� said Duchesneau of Education Trust. 鈥淎dults in schools really need to understand that these skills may not present in a very particular way. If you have a student who has a lot of caretaking duties at home and comes into school every day, but may miss a homework assignment here or there, instead of seeing that student as deficient in their self-management skills, educators should be recognizing that strength.鈥�
To ease anxiety, particularly among students who are unable to see their peers outside of school, teachers can build in time during remote classes for students to talk to each other or to share concerns about their lives in and out of school.
Koslouski worked with Massachusetts elementary teachers last year to create professional development curriculum and training in trauma-informed instruction and with administrators to review school discipline and other policies. Teachers now are using both online class meetings and parent-only online meetings to provide strategies on how parents could recognize signs of trauma and manage their own and their children鈥檚 stress.
鈥淚 think we need to be really clear that what happens now with regard to our relationships and social connections can change the brain and build in resilience for kids,鈥� said Wingard of Salem public schools. 鈥淲e鈥檙e in a place where we need to empower and acknowledge the incredible strengths of our kids, even the kids who have experienced trauma.鈥�
