Recognizing the effects of trauma besetting many of their students, many states, districts, and schools are revamping approaches to making schools physically and psychologically safer. Many of the steps to establish safer, more supportive schools are aligned with those needed to create trauma-responsive schools. State boards of education are well-positioned to caution school systems against focusing exclusively on "hardening" schools through physical safety and security measures and promoting a balanced approach, which embeds comprehensive, trauma-responsive mental health policies and practices in school safety planning. Trauma-responsive schools increase students' coping skills and graduation rates, and they improve attendance, classroom behavior, and emotional and physical safety. Additional school outcomes of interest include decreased incidents of physical aggression, office discipline referrals, and out-of-school suspensions. A comprehensive school mental health system requires collaboration between schools and the community, in partnership with students and families, to provide a multi-tiered system of supports and services (MTSS). The MTSS promotes positive school climate, social emotional learning, and mental health. It also assesses and addresses the social and environmental factors that affect mental health, including public policies and social norms that shape student mental health outcomes. An effective MTSS is built on strong family-school-community partnerships and relies on professional development and supports for staff to ensure their competence in supporting student mental health and fostering their own well-being. MTSS also allows for practices to support target populations, such as trauma-exposed youth. Recent federal and state policies offer state and district education leaders opportunities to advance trauma-responsive programming. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) also offers significant opportunity to increase access to comprehensive school mental health services and flexibility to develop policies and programming that address trauma.