All St. Joseph School District schools are required to be trauma-informed but some schools are taking steps even further to help children dealing with difficult experiences.
According to the district, beginning this year, Senate Bill 638 establishes the Trauma Informed Schools Initiative as a statewide Missouri initiative, and schools will be expected to use a trauma-informed approach and communicate with parents about what that means. Jean West is a social worker and and TLC certified trauma consultant and trainer for the district. She said a basic trauma training has been held in every school, however some schools have requested more training.
“There are certain schools who say, ‘we need more education for our staff. we want more. We have lots of kids that are struggling and we know they’ve gone through these things and we want more information,” West said. “So not every school has asked for more training but there are a lot of schools that have had more training.”
The district said the majority of counselors and all school social workers have received extensive training in trauma, and training is being provided to all school staff. Over the last few years, many schools have been able to go into more depth with their training, including trainings for grade-level teams and individual teachers. West conducted trainings Wednesday, at Hyde Elementary. She said children can have trauma from a variety of situations.
“It could be anything from abuse, violence, family tragedy, a death in the family, homelessness, a very bad car accident,” West said. “But it’s important to understand that it’s a natural response to an unnatural occurrence within someone’s life. It’s more about that individuals thoughts, feelings, and beliefs around what happened rather then the incident itself.”
West said last year, the Downtown Rotary Club provided a grant to train one teacher in the Neurosequential Model in Education, and provide somatosensory supplies for his classroom. Jacob Kretzer, a Humboldt fourth grade teacher, received the training and is now helping to train more staff at his school.
One of the supplies purchased with the Rotary grant was a pulse oxometer for each student in Mr. Kretzer’s class. Students are taught how stress impacts their brain, and use the oxometer to monitor their pulses and help them better regulate their emotions. West said statistics showed a decrease in behavioral incidents last year due to the training.
“There was a 74% reduction in office referrals in his (Kretzer’s) classroom,” West said.
This year, the Rotary grant will also provide supplies for four more teacher classrooms, and the district has plans to provide training for these teachers in the Neurosequential Model in Education using professional development funds.
According to a news release, many schools now have therapeutic tools in buildings and classrooms to help students take a step back and regulate their emotions:
At Oak Grove, there is a new wellness wall called the Grizzly Pause, where students can take a brain break and do some physical activities. The activities will get them up and moving to improve their mood, while being beneficial for health.
At Edison, students select an emotion on a board to show how they are feeling each morning. This helps teachers know whether they need to intervene or approach a student differently on certain days.
Lindbergh has started a committee of four students that will help make decisions for a comfort corner, choosing what to buy for the corner, setting rules for the corner and determining what is popular and helpful in the corner. This will give students ownership over the corner and help them participate in the process.
All of these interventions are ways to help students learn to handle overwhelming emotions in a healthy way.
For more information about the Trauma Informed Schools Initiative, visit the DESE website at: https://dese.mo.gov/traumainformed.