Dr. Patrick Bell and I recently presented at the first ever joint conference of the Council for Administrators of Special education (CASE) and the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) held September 25-27, 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The presentation addressed the need for trauma informed services, particularly among children receiving special education services. Schools can utilize school-employed mental health professionals, like school psychologists, to support trauma informed services within a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) framework, although this requires a commitment to improving ratios rather than only hiring community clinicians to provide intensive services to students in need. Currently, the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) recommends a ratio of one school psychologist to every 500-700 students across the school(s) served, yet that ratio across the country is estimated to be nearly double that (around 1400:1).
Dr. Patrick Bell, a school psychologist at KIPP Believe Primary School in New Orleans, LA, described how his school provides a full range of tiered services to students with a history of stress, adversity, and trauma. KIPP Believe is doing this work as part of the New Orleans Trauma-Informed Schools Learning Collaborative. The Learning Collaborative faculty represent a diverse group of professionals drawn from the fields of social work, psychology, and public health, representing mental health practitioners, community-based organizations, academic and research institutions, and local government. The faculty work with 5 schools, including KIPP Believe, to provide support as schools transform school climate to become trauma-sensitive and to build schools’ organizational capacity to implement, sustain, and improve the delivery of trauma-focused services.
Dr. Bell provides a full range of tiered services with a ratio of 1:600 and through leveraging three sustainable school-community partnerships that provide wrap-around support including parent management training, parent-focused or family-focused therapy for parents with trauma histories, and other mental health supports to students and families for students who did not respond to school-based interventions. He described the use of universal behavioral supports for all children including systematic data collection and coaching teachers to utilize evidence-based indicators of healthy classroom management (See Sprick & Reinke, 2010). For students in need of further behavioral supports (based on a predetermined metric), a coordinated system of Check-In/Check-Out and early stage behavioral interventions (six in particular, and each aligned to common functions of behavioral concerns) are in place and include interventions such as parent-child-teacher goal setting and "academic fitting."
KIPP Believe Primary also uses a universal, research-based social-emotional curriculum taught in every classroom (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies [PATHS]) in conjunction with a universal mental health screening process to ensure children with psychosocial needs are identified early. Students with trauma, anger, internalizing issues (e.g., depression, anxiety, somatization, social withdrawal), conduct problems, or externalizing issues (e.g., attention or hyperactivity, violations of societal rules) have access to in-school evidence-based therapy with the psychologist or social worker, including Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. These services are provided in partnership with doctoral students enrolled in Tulane University’s certificate program in Trauma-Focused School Psychology and a community-based organization. The doctoral subspecialization prepares school psychologists to create and deliver trauma-informed services in public schools with the goals of preventing trauma and treating youth exposed to trauma.
Presenters also discussed the recent re-authorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and the multiple provisions that support trauma-informed services in schools, including formula and grant funding for various services and staff development. Participants were given recommendations on how to leverage that funding to a) provide relevant professional development regarding trauma informed services; b) improve staffing ratios; c) creating school-community partnerships; and d) implement comprehensive data management and evaluation systems.
For more information, or a copy of any PowerPoint slides, contact me (erossen@naspweb.org) or Dr. Patrick Bell (pbell@kippneworleans.org). Dr. Stacy Overstreet can be contacted for information on the New Orleans Trauma-Informed Schools Learning Collaborative or the Trauma-Focused School Psychology certificate program (soverst@tulane.edu).
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