Page 111 - Impact: Collected Essays on the Threat of Economic Inequality

A Successful Example of a Trauma-Sensitive School
The school district of Brockton, Massachusetts, is a success story for integrating trauma-sensitive care into their schools . The director of pupil personnel services within the district, Sal Terrasi, learned about the link between childhood trauma and later adult diseases, as well as the impact of trauma on the brain . Armed with this type of data, Mr . Terrasi pushed to create a trauma- informed school district .65
Initially, the entire school worked with the local law enforcement, the Department of Child and Family Services, the Department of Mental Health, the Department of Youth Services, and a group of local counseling agencies . Mr . Terrasi was an enthusiastic leader . He held meetings with TLPI, parents, and educators, and carefully considered their feedback . The school combined several models, including collaborative problem-solving and positive behavioral support interventions .66 Twenty-three schools instituted plans that utilized these processes, and, as a result, suspensions and expulsions have significantly dropped . One elementary school saw a 40 percent drop in suspensions among its 826 students in kindergarten through fifth grade .67
Brockton has created ways for local police and counselors to work together, identifying children in whose homes and families the police have been involved . The police notify school personnel of circumstances in which they believe that students may be experiencing trauma at home . Reports indicate the success of this integration and sharing of information .
By applying a trauma-sensitive lens to their school district, Brockton was able to increase insight and responsive behavior for students, teachers, and administrators and to unite the community . Upon employing this lens, they combined behavioral intervention and collaborative problem- solving models for their school .
Next Steps for Applying Trauma-Sensitive Care in New York City
Adopting trauma-sensitive care in New York City schools will take a considerable amount of advocacy, passion, and collaboration . In order for TLPI’s process to truly take hold, there must be a true culture change within the system, and trauma-sensitivity must be woven into its fabric .
Initially, the adoption of trauma-informed care is dependent upon the formation of a coalition within New York City of people passionate about instituting such a change . Before any school district has been able to successfully adjust to a trauma-sensitive lens, there was an interdisciplinary coalition pushing for the change on all levels: with the legislature, policy-makers, non-profit organizations, educators, principals, academics, and mental health professionals .
Because of the sheer size of New York’s educational system, such programs simply cannot be immediately worked into entire New York City school districts . Rather, it must be introduced slowly and within an initial pilot program . Such a pilot program should utilize effective data about individual schools to determine which of the 172 schools are open to, and could benefit from, such support . That support may not be limited to trauma-informed care, but might include
65 Stevens, supra note 45.
66 Jane Ellen Stevens, Trauma-Sensitive Schools Are Better Schools, Part 2, The huffingTon posT, June 27, 2012, http://
www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-ellen-stevens/trauma-sensitive-schools_b_1625924.html.
67 Stevens, supra note 45.
Lessons from New York City
109