This page features a number of external and FFF resources on childhood trauma, responding to trauma and trauma-sensitive schools. Click the "For educators" box below to limit search results to those resources that may be particularly helpful to school personnel. In addition to services and supports at schools, Virginia regional Community Services Boards offer behavioral health services for children and families. Emergency services and crisis response are among the supports offered by CSBs. Local CSBs can be found at https://dbhds.virginia.gov/community-services-boards-csbs .
It is often difficult for parents, caregivers, teachers and others to know how best to respond to children’s behavioral and emotional needs. Download our fact sheet for proven strategies for responding to children and youth impacted by trauma.
Responding to Trauma Fact Sheet
Accessible HTML version
A number of resources have been developed to support community and state-level implementation of the Virginia HEALS Model for the provision of services and referrals to children, youth, and families. The toolkit includes a family engagement guide, resource mapping, a screening tool for use with individuals who may have been victimized or have trauma impact, and a trauma informed agency assessment, among others.
From the Fairfax Trauma-Informed Care Network
This session gives a primer on the lasting effects of trauma, and provides practical strategies for developing positive coping skills in children and youth with a history of trauma. Participants will enhance their ability to understand and handle challenging behavior in young people and learn how to develop a trauma-informed environment, focusing on strategies that minimize triggers and emphasize effective, asset-focused behavior management.
At the Attachment & Trauma Network, it is their mission to: Promote healing of traumatized children and their families through support, education and advocacy. The Attachment & Trauma Network (ATN) is the nation’s oldest parent-led organization supporting families of traumatized children.
The ATN website features resources and links to training and other information about trauma-related therapeutic parenting, trauma-sensitive schools and other trauma and attachment content.
ATN main website
Part of ATN, this website features school-specific resources
This webpage from the American Academy of Pediatrics includes a 6-part Trauma Toolbox for Primary Care, and Helping Foster and Adoptive Parents Cope with Trauma.
Links to Toolkit
The 1-2-3 Care Toolkit is intended to support caregivers on their journey towards trauma sensitivity. It is organized by topic, each offering a brief overview, specific tools that can be used with children, and where to find more information. Also included are handouts that can be used as teaching aids.
1-2-3 Care – A Trauma-Sensitive Toolkit for Caregivers of Children from Spokane, WA Regional Health District
1-2-3 Care Toolkit
Factsheets for Families from The Children’s Bureau, HHS: Parenting a Child Who Has Experienced Trauma
Link to Fact Sheet
CAPPD is an acronym developed by the Multiplying Connections Initiative that stands for CALM, ATTUNED, PRESENT, PREDICTABLE and DON’T Let the Child’s emotions escalate your own.
CAPPD: Practical Interventions to Help Children Affected by Trauma guide is put together by the Health Federation of Philadelphia
These fact sheets from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network 1) helps parents and caregivers recognize the signs and symptoms of complex trauma and offers recommendations on how to help children heal; and 2) provides an overview of complex trauma in children and adolescents, including: the cost of complex trauma, diagnostic issues, the impact of complex trauma on development, adaptation to complex trauma in families and across cultures, coping and protective factors, and approaches to the comprehensive assessment and treatment of complex trauma.
Complex trauma: facts for caregivers
Complex Trauma in Children and Adolescents
Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators from NCTSN
Trauma Informed Classrooms article by Brian Cavanaugh, University of Maine at Farmington
Trauma informed classroom article
Improving School Climate for Children in Foster Care webinar from the Legal Center on Foster Care and Education
Tips For Teachers from the Wisconsin Coalition for Children, Youth and Families share great suggestions for how teachers can adapt some typical class assignments.
Mary Grossnickle from The Coalition for Children, Youth and Families explain how teachers can adapt some typical class assignments to include any children they have who may be in out-of-home care or who have been adopted.
Trauma-informed practices in schools by Susan E. Craig: Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Learning Communities Transforming Children’s Lives, K-5
Unlocking the Door to Learning: Trauma-Informed Classrooms and Transformational Schools from Education Law Center, PA. In this session, ELC Senior Staff Attorney Maura McInerney, Esq. and Amy McKlindon, M.S.W. discuss the impact of trauma on learning and what schools and educators can do to create a trauma-informed learning environment.
Unlockng the Door resource
Getting Curious (Not Furious) with Students classroom management article on Edutopia.
From Child Welfare Information Gateway: Parenting a Child Who Has Experienced Abuse or Neglect
Fact Sheet
Trauma-informed practices in schools by Susan E. Craig: Reaching and Teaching Children Who Hurt
Parenting After Trauma- Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents from the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Parenting After Trauma- Guide for Foster and Adoptive Parents
The Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative’s (TLPI) mission is to ensure that children traumatized by exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences succeed in school. To accomplish this mission, TLPI engages in a host of advocacy strategies including: providing support to schools to become trauma sensitive environments; research and report writing; legislative and administrative advocacy for laws, regulations and policies that support schools to develop trauma-sensitive environments; coalition building; outreach and education; and limited individual case representation in special education where a child’s traumatic experiences are interfacing with his or her disabilities.
The Helping Traumatized Children Learn website from Massachusetts Advocates for Children.