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Bringing Into Focus: Universal Screening for Trauma NCSSLE' s Bringing Into Focus shares carefully selected, high quality resources on timely topics to help educators create safe, supportive learning environments.

Healthy children are better learners. But students' achievement can be impeded if they experience significant illness, chronic disability, or the effects of a traumatic experience or loss that can strain their reserves and limit their capacity to learn. Schools are well positioned to serve as a front-line venue for early identification of risk factors, experiences, and conditions that might indicate a need for concentrated support, treatment, and remediation. The national COVID-19 emergency has disrupted student and family routines and supports in ways that have impacted learning, and is continuing to shape strategies for operating pre-K-12 schools. Qualified personnel need access to credible, easy-to-use and low/no-cost screening tools to help identify students who are adversely affected by the disruption to inform supportive and therapeutic programming predicated on trauma-sensitive approaches.

FEATURED RESOURCE

School Mental Health Quality Guide: School Mental Health Screening

Click Here to Access This Guide        Click Here to Access a Bringing into Focus Presentation That Provides an Overview of the Content

The National Center for School Mental Health offers this succinct quality guide that defines purposes of screening, action steps to undertake universal screening of a student population, and what to consider when selecting what screening tools to use.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Ready, Set, Go, Review: Screening for Behavioral Health Risk in Schools Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration This toolkit guides users through the process of developing comprehensive screening procedures. It also provides readily available resources to help implement effective behavioral health screening in schools. A Brief COVID-19 Screen for Child-Adolescent PTSD Source: University of California Los Angeles This short screener offers professionals a tool which includes an initial set of questions about types of exposure to the pandemic, followed by an 11-item set of validated questions about the frequency of PTSD symptoms in the past month. The score sheet provides an algorithm which offers suggested actions based on results. COVID-19 Resources: A Trauma-Informed, Whole Child Response Source: University of Connecticut Collaboratory on School and Child Health This webpage provides links to two recent reports about schools' trauma-informed responses to COVID-19. The first article outlines how schools should plan for a trauma-informed response to COVID-19. The second article summarizes easy-to-use and low-cost strategies that can be integrated within existing school initiatives and adapted to fit different contexts.

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National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments | https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov The contents of the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments' Bringing Into Focus were assembled under a contract from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools to the American Institutes for Research (AIR), Contract Number ED-ESE-16-A-0002. The contents of this product do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education, nor do they imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education. ‌ ‌ ‌