By Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times, June 4, 2021
At a time when many school officials thought the best way to deal with problematic students was to suspend or expel them, Susan F. Cole realized what may seem obvious now: Sometimes, trouble at school meant trauma at home.
Beginning in the 1990s, she became a leading voice in the movement to create “trauma-sensitive schools” in her own state, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, ones where the staff understands that abuse, neglect, hunger and other disruptions can affect a student’s in-school experience and behavior.
It was a new approach, said Michael Gregory, a clinical professor at Harvard Law School and the managing attorney of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, which Ms. Cole founded in 2004.
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