Strategy Three: Reflect/Action Plan

Schools expend a good deal of energy implementing one size fits all programs and responding to the mandates and demands of outside groups in an effort to support student success. Trauma-Sensitive Schools (TSS) help support student success by engaging in a recursive reflection/action planning process that is based on their identified school-based needs, determined by reviewing and reflecting on school-specific information and data. This process is driven by school -based urgencies (those issues that are important to their community) and develops workable action plans to address them. Such action plans are within the individual school’s capacity to execute and are guided by trauma-sensitive norms and values (whole child, student connection to the school community, students feeling safe/valued, working together as a staff community to anticipate issues, and being innovative).

This process is being used by trauma-sensitive schools to support their reopening efforts by first gathering information from staff, students, and families via on-line surveys to understand the urgencies felt by the core stakeholders in the school community. Reflecting on these data, schools are developing re -entry plans that include action steps to address the identified urgencies from their community members. Combined with local, state, and national recommendations, trauma-sensitive schools can develop a comprehensive reopening plan that incorporates local concerns and needs.

A trauma-sensitive action plan:

• Empowers school/district leadership teams to attend to the social-emotional health of the school community;

• Designs initiatives that are tailored to specific school-based needs;

• Implements plans that are focused and feasible.