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By Carolyn Jones, EdSource, April 10, 2020 To help teachers better serve special education students during the school closures, a coalition of more than 30 disability and education groups has created a digital one-stop shop of teaching resources. EducatingAllLearners.org includes specific guidance on how teachers can deliver lessons online to students in special education, which has been a challenge as schools transition to online learning during the coronavirus pandemic. Special education...

Lara Kain, 04/14/20 I am an optimist, unapologetic, glass always full, sunshine and rainbows to-a-fault optimist. It annoys people. As my mind begins to clear a little for the first time since the true scope of this pandemic became clear to me, I have the headspace to write down the thoughts, musings, wonderings, and inspirations swirling in my head. That is what typically happens with my writing... an idea begins as a small whisper, something noodling the back of my mind, and then builds...

Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune, and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica Illinois April 13, 6 a.m. EDT This story is a collaboration between ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune. Some Illinois schools say they need to keep using dangerous forms of physical restraint and student isolation. Here’s how one school system in Virginia successfully shifted its entire approach to safety — from face-down holds to bubble baths. WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA — When the student burst out of the school and...

This is the week the Governor of California called off the rest of the school year. Many states are following. This is not just the year of COVID. This is the year without graduation. That means 3.7 million high school seniors in the Class of 2020 are not going to wear their caps and gowns in May and June. Let me speak to you seniors if I may. (The rest of you should stay here, too. You need to get what they are losing). You began the year with senior photos. Sports for the last time for...

Here is a podcast on how to reopen schools when allowed -- colleges and preK--12. And, there's a bonus. The listeners get a discount on my new book (which can't emerge soon enough: Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door from Teachers College Press. So listen and pre-order. And, be well and stay safe. https://teachinglearningleadingk12.podbean.com/e/karen-gross-schools-and-colleges-are-not-light-switches-289/ Special thanks to Steve Miletto and TC Press.

By The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, April 2020 Resource Description Offers activity ideas to parents and caregivers whose families are sheltering in place, social distancing, and homeschooling due to school closures amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. [ Please click here to access the resource .]

Julie Kurtz hasn’t stopped creating ways to build and promote resilience in herself and others who have experienced trauma since she left her family home for college at age 18. Although she experienced four types of adversity during her childhood, the CEO of the Center for Optimal Brain Integration has traveled a complex journey to mitigate those adversities by recognizing her own internal resilience, building skills to buffer her toxic and traumatic stress, uncovering her voice through...

Welcome to the COVID-19 and PACEs Science Collections for Educators! We have four topic-specific resource lists related to COVID-19 and PACEs Science. All four will be updated for as long as this pandemic lasts. They are as follows: ACEs in Education & COVID-19 COVID-19 Resources for Healthcare Providers Parenting with ACEs in a Pandemic Practicing Resilience During Social Distancing We hope these lists, and the resources, practices, and information in them, are helpful and easy to use.

By Kara Newhouse Apr 6 Trauma-informed teaching cannot be simplified to cookie-cutter practices. Take this example: a teacher worked with a student to develop a silent signal that he could use when he needed extra breaks during class. Hearing how well it worked, another teacher tried to apply the signal without first building a relationship with the student. It bombed. With the second teacher, the signal became “an angry ear tug instead of a trauma-informed ear tug,” said Alex Shevrin Venet...

The decision by districts across California to shut K-12 schools last month to slow the spread of coronavirus remains a smart and practical move that aligned with other “social distancing” measures to keep virus deaths at a lower level than in other states — and to allow health-care providers more time to prepare for a projected onslaught of patients. But besides managing the public health crisis, leaders in San Diego and statewide also face another huge challenge: the need to make online...

By Kalyn Belsha, Chalkbeat, April 1, 2020 Like many high school juniors, Sarah Alli-Brown has had a lot of thoughts swimming through her head these last two weeks. Are we going to go back to school? What about the SAT? Would it be illegal to have SAT prep at school? Because I really, really, really need help. Normally, Sarah would review SAT problems every day after school with her English teacher. But the practice sessions stopped two weeks ago when her Chicago school, like schools across...

The sky has changed. The sun has become brighter because the air pollution has been cleared in the sky. The air is purified, so that the flowers and leaves of the trees look more healthy and fresh. The noise is less calm and peace. The fear of being acquainted with one another has fueled the fear and color of the world. The social isolation created by doctors has led people to miss their close relationships. Everybody is staying clean and every time they wash their face, there is a strange...