Trauma-Informed Approaches in Education

Trauma-informed approaches in education are educational techniques that recognize the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences and other traumas among students and seek to reduce their wider impact on learning. By adopting trauma-informed principles, schools and other educational organizations aim to build a supportive environment that helps students learn while also supporting their emotional wellbeing; the approach goes by several names, including trauma-informed schools, trauma-sensitive schools and trauma-responsive schools. As described by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, it engages school staff and the wider school community in identifying and responding to the possible effects of traumatic stress within the school system, typically by building trauma-related knowledge and skills into a school's own culture, practices and policies. Adopting it involves organizational change, staff training and changes to everyday practice reflecting four key expectations: realizing the impact of trauma, recognizing its signs, responding to it, and resisting re-traumatizing students. Its stated goals are to improve outcomes for students, teachers and the school as a whole, including academic performance, psychological and social-emotional wellbeing, school climate and the quality of teacher-student relationships.