Growing evidence establishing the prevalence and educational consequences of childhood trauma has led to a national focus on equipping schools to support the specific needs of students who have experienced trauma. Despite clear evidence of disproportionate trauma exposure among students of color, most models of trauma-informed schools do not…

Childhood exposure to adversity and its consequences is a significant public health challenge. Schools are beginning to understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and some schools are considering screening for ACEs. However, dissemination of the ACEs screener and subsequent interventions may lead to challenges and iatrogenic…

Mental health factors can impact student academic performance and success. Student mental health concerns such as depression and anxiety and are a growing concern within P-12 school systems. The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice have increased concerns about student mental health and exacerbated existing traumas particularly for…

Creating a plan for crisis prevention, intervention, and postvention procedures allows schools to prepare for the traumatic consequences when a crisis inevitably occurs. The comprehensive crisis plan checklist--second edition (CCPC-2; McCleary & Aspiranti, 2020) is a 102-item tool created for evaluating individual school and district crisis…

Given that over two-thirds of children in the United States are exposed to at least one traumatic event by age 16, it is imperative that schools support these students with trauma-informed practices and resources. The current study investigated factors that affected teacher use of trauma-informed resources within two school districts in California…

Studies suggest that among children, adverse childhood experiences increase the risk of developing behavioral challenges in and out of the school environment. Rooted in distributed leadership, trauma-leadership teams (TLTs) are a novel systems-based intervention in which a team of educators deepens knowledge and works to implement…

Youth of color are disproportionately impacted by stressful and traumatic life events, including race-based experiences, which are linked to negative consequences. School is a salient context where youth encounter, witness, and process racial stress and trauma (RST). However, RST is often overlooked within general school-based trauma models. Thus,…

Children and adolescents with autism have a higher likelihood of being exposed to bullying, abuse, and sexual assault which, through repeated exposure, has been demonstrated to impede academic, social, and physical functioning among this population. However, the complexity of unpacking the characteristics of autism and trauma can pose a challenge…

Student mental health needs continue to rise across the United States and many students and families rely on schools to provide services to meet these needs. Yet, an overwhelming number of available frameworks and approaches to school mental health (SMH) and overlapping terminology surrounding SMH supports like trauma-informed (TI) approaches,…

In this study, explore secondary traumatic stress (STS) in preservice teachers (PSTs) and if trauma-informed practices (TIPs) have the potential to mitigate STS. We hypothesize that PST who have had consistent and extensive exposure to TIP will experience lower levels of STS in their student teaching or residency than students who have not had…

Manifestations of teacher burnout have been negatively associated with students' academic achievement, school satisfaction, and perceived teacher support. The 2020-2021 school year presented unique challenges for teachers, who had to find new ways to support their students, their families, and themselves. This study examined teachers' experiences…

COVID-19 has presented a period of unprecedented challenge for schools in the United States. Thousands of school buildings across the country were closed in the spring of 2020 through the end of the school year to slow the spread of the global pandemic. Plans to reopen schools in many states remain uncertain as the virus continues to spread across…

The purpose of the present study was first to investigate whether both teacher-reported classroom aggression (ATT) and teachers' interaction with school shooting media (ISSM) are predictors of teachers' secondary trauma related to school shootings (STSS) and to second, consider how participation in lockdown drills may moderate these relationships.…

While early childhood educators' mental health is important, it may also affect the well-being and education of their students. Yet, little research has described the stress and stressors of early childhood educators (ECEs), particularly as the pandemic wanes. This pilot study aimed to (1) describe ECEs' psychological and physiological stress and…

Much of the literature linking adversity to trauma fails to account for racialized experiences, including racial-ethnic discrimination, which is a highly prevalent form of adversity for youth of color in the U.S. Adversity and trauma often result in students experiencing elevated rule-breaking behaviors, exacerbating existing racial-ethnic…