What is a Trauma-Informed School, Anyway?
bridgette ryan-ortiz | communications manager
“As we have begun to move from the battlefield and look more at our communities and home, programming and training has been developed to address trauma and become more trauma-aware, which is referred to as trauma-informed care.”
Trauma has been getting a lot of interest — and for good reason. It’s the leading public health issue that has no borders and intersects with the many disparities and inequalities our communities face. In New Orleans in particular, trauma is a part of our lives and what has shaped this city — for better and for worse. What is clear from our research at the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies is that some of the most impacted by trauma are our youth. At a young age, trauma has the ability to shape you for the rest of your life: mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Trauma-informed schools are a relatively new concept, developed in the last twenty-five years. This is due in part to the focus on trauma and its impact on the individual and society, as well as our newfound understanding of the effects of trauma on healthy adolescent development. In the mid-1990s, thanks to the research on Adverse Childhood Experiences, the understanding of trauma began to shift from the soldier to the family and child. As we have begun to move from the battlefield and look more at our communities and home, programming and training has been developed to address trauma and become more trauma-aware, which is referred to as trauma-informed care.
To understand trauma-informed schools we need to understand what trauma-informed care (TIC) is. With so many definitions flying around and new research emerging to inform best practices, it is understandable to be lost in all the definitions when you simply want to be a part of the solution. Let’s break it down. According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, trauma-informed care is defined as,
“care and services characterized by an understanding that problematic behaviors may need to be addressed as a result of the [Adverse Childhood Experiences] ACEs or other traumatic experiences someone has experienced, as opposed to addressing them as simply willful and/or punishable actions.”
For some clarification, trauma-informed care addresses the entire organization and requires that the staff, teachers and administration alike, shift their priorities and change their policies to prioritize the well-being of their students and staff. That’s a lot easier said than done. All of the staff (from the principal to the school nurse to the bus drivers) have to be on board and commit to changing the way they interact with students, their colleagues, and themselves (self-care is absolutely a part of this). For example, one piece of TIC is to use restorative and rehabilitative practices instead of punitive punishment; instead, students would have the choice to attend counseling sessions and/or participate in healing circles. This change means moving away from disciplining a student in a way that labels them as “bad” and isolating them, to helping them to take responsibility and critically think about the situation and impact. It also means moving forward with an action that truly addresses the issue at hand.
When we speak about trauma-informed care in schools, it is crucial to mention the benefits to all students, no matter their ACE score. All students can benefit from building their self-esteem and sense of self, learning to understand and regulate their emotions, and creating supportive and positive relationships. Similarly, school staff and caregivers also benefit immensely from trauma-informed care, as they learn how to better communicate with their students and children and prioritize their mental health and wellbeing, and they create support systems that they can turn to for help and resources.
“This change means moving away from disciplining a student in a way that labels them as “bad” and isolating them, to helping them to take responsibility and critically think about the situation and impact. It also means moving forward with an action that truly addresses the issue at hand.”
“Without standardization and regulation, the quality and quantity of care can vary widely throughout the school district, with those needing resources the most often not receiving them. ”
What does TIC in Education look like in New Orleans and Louisiana?
We are still very much in the early years of creating trauma-informed schools and mandating what they should look like; only three states - Wisconsin, Washington, and Massachusetts - have state-wide policies around trauma-informed care in schools. Similarly, only fourteen states have district-level (e.g. California, Missouri, Pennsylvania) and school-level (e.g. Louisiana, New Jersey) policies on trauma-informed schools. Having a policy, whether city or state-wide, is crucial to implement trauma-informed care more widely and with the best, evidence-based practices. A policy is also crucial for long-term funding.
Not only does Louisiana not have a state-wide policy, even more crucially, we also do not have a clear definition for the role and responsibilities of mental health professionals working in schools. This is really important, as mental health professionals are critical in not only leading the implementation of trauma-informed care in schools but also providing one-on-one mental health care to students, that only they are qualified and licensed to do. Again, without standardization and regulation, the quality and quantity of care can vary widely throughout the school district, with those needing resources the most often not receiving them.
Although Louisiana does not have statewide policies on trauma-informed schools and mental health professionals in schools, New Orleans is making strides in implementing trauma-informed care in a handful of schools. Five New Orleans schools were a part of the New Orleans’ Trauma-Informed City Wide Learning Collaborative that launched in 2015 and formally wrapped in 2020, led by the New Orleans Health Department along with Tulane University's psychology department, organizations like IWES and other social services agencies. The approach included training teachers to; recognize signs of trauma, find ways to make children feel safe, teach coping skills, and eliminate harsh discipline policies. Six more schools also participated in Safe Schools NOLA, a four-year study (2016-2020) of trauma-informed approaches by Tulane researchers. Both Safe Schools NOLA and the Learning Collaborative have wrapped their first years of piloting (with their two-year approach) trauma-informed care and/or evaluation and now focus on helping schools maintain their TIC, and they provide TIC training for schools and their partners. Both Safe Schools and the Learning Collaborative wrapped last year, and the response from New Orleans Public Schools has been positive and they have publicly stated that they want to move forward with implementing trauma-informed schools in more Orleans Parish schools. This is promising news for New Orleans’ students, schools, staff, parents, and the community! However, the pandemic has both shown the difficulty of being able to maintain TIC when there is a lack of stability and, even more so, the necessity to implement TIC to support students during difficult times.
As we move forward in New Orleans and across the nation with trauma-informed care, what many trauma-informed advocates hope to see is: a) the implementation of more rigorous evaluation on current school-based programs, b) changes in policy and funding to have licensed mental health professionals that are also trauma-informed (the call-to-action of our In That Number campaign), and, c) a more prevalent, standardized implementation of TIC. With those in place and more confirmation of positive, long-term impacts of trauma-informed schools, we hope that New Orleans and Louisiana can set a precedent for what trauma-informed care in education can look like and improve outcomes for all students.