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Becoming a

Trauma-Informed District

Board of Education Work SessionJune 11, 2018

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Today’s Objectives

1. Learn what has been accomplished since the proclamation

2. Discuss what our next steps should look like

3. Panel Discussion

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Three Signature Social Emotional

Learning Practices

1. Welcoming Ritual2. Engaging Practices3. Optimistic Closure

What is your go-to self care activity or strategy?

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Proclamation: Be it Resolved

The District shall be a Trauma-Informed District and shall work in a strategic, culturally-responsive, strengths-based preventative way to best meet the needs of our diverse students, families, and educators that mitigates the impact of trauma on the social emotional and academic growth of our students.

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Policy

● All schools address their multi-tiered trauma-informed

approach in school strategic plans as reflected in their

Unified Improvement Plan beginning in spring 2019.

● All relevant Board policies reflect a trauma-informed

approach by December 2019.

● Integrate trauma-informed practice into all evaluation

frameworks (LEAP, LEAD, LIFT, Charter, etc).

School Planning, Policy Review, Data

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Trauma-Informed District Action Plan

• Create an action team of community, central,

and school-based stakeholders

• Develop understanding of current state

• Define goals

• Draft action steps

• Socialize plan for feedback

• Adjust

• Present ⬅

• Adopt

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Trauma-Informed District Action Team

Community Partners

• Alyssa Deis, Tennyson Center

• Yesta Ealy, DSST

• Dr. Rachele Espiritu, Change

Matrix, Former DPS Board Member

• Scott Roman, Project Pave

• Scott Utash, AdvocacyDenver

• Nachshon Zohari, City of Denver

Behavioral Health Strategies

DPS Team Members

• Kim Price, Manager, SE&O* - Co-Chair

• Michael Culbertson, Senior Analyst,

Performance Management - Co-Chair

• Marni Choice-Hermosillo, SE&O & trauma

trainer

• Bill de la Cruz, Director, CELT*

• Meredith Fatseas, Manager, SE&O

• Collette Fischer, SE&O & trauma trainer

• Kristy McCullum, SE&O Partner

• Kat Owens, SE&O & trauma trainer

• Joy Ross, Director, Human Resources

• Jade Williamson, Manager, SE&O

* Acronym GlossaryCELT - Culture, Equity & LeadershipSE&O - Student Equity & Opportunity

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Current Approach to Trauma Professional Learning

Three Part Training ◆ Assessment

System Analysis & Alignment

65 school

teams

trained

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Testimonials

“This work has informed my disciplinary moves, from consequence-driven to more whole-child supports. Often, I center myself before or during a challenging situation that arises, yielding many benefits for the stakeholders I work with.”- Marnie Moody Cooke, Odyssey School (Principal)

“I have noticed that teachers at my school are looking at our students with a slightly different lens since we have had the training, and they are more aware of behaviors that may be rooted in trauma. They approach challenging situations with more caution and care and are utilizing some of the strategies we have discussed during the training.”- Lacey Ganser, Columbine Elementary (School Psychologist)

“The trauma-informed education training has helped me become more mindful about students affected by trauma. It especially helped provide me with strategies on how to create a classroom environment that allows students affected by trauma to feel safe and to give them opportunities to explore how to cope with their feelings.”- Katie Connor, Omar D. Blair Charter School (Teacher)

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Today’s Objectives

1. Learn what has been done since the proclamation

2. Discuss what our next steps should look like

3. Panel Discussion

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Trauma & Resiliency

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Trauma & Resiliency

Common StressorsBirth of a sibling

Stressful school eventsCurrent events

Family member conflictWedding

Parents agingLong-term illness

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What Trauma is and isn’t in DPS

What is trauma-informed?

● Relationships that are deep and reciprocal among entire school community

● Positively impacting environments● Restorative● Recognizing nuance of generational trauma● Culturally competent● Supporting and recognizing students’ strengths● Explicitly stopping the criminalization of students and

communities

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What Trauma is and isn’t in DPS

What is not trauma-informed?

● Excluding linguistically-diverse populations● Student experiences of Out of School Suspensions,

Expulsions and Lockdowns can be traumatic● Focused efforts only on schools with high percentages of

students of color, English-learners, etc.● Pathologizing communities through security measures,

policies or procedures● Creating or reinforcing lowered expectations

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Three Signature SEL Practices

1. Welcoming Ritual 2. Engaging Practices3. Optimistic Closure

Knowing what trauma is and isn’t, what bright spots have you seen in our schools and how would you scale those?

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Student Equity and Opportunity (SE&O)

Supports

2017-18 (1.0 FTE)SE&O Manager

2018-19 (5.0 FTE)SE&O Director (40%)Manager (Campbell Grant)Partners (3)

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Today’s Objectives

1. Learn what has been done since the proclamation

2. Discuss what our next steps should look like

3. Panel Discussion

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Panel Discussion

Hunter Smith, McGlone Elem.

Lee McNeil, Shorter AME

Sonja O’Leary, M.D., Denver Health

Jennifer Koch, Denver Health

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Professional Learning Next Steps

● 2018-19

○ 65 schools have signed up and will complete Trauma 101

professional learning.

○ Differentiated Trauma 101 training will be provided to

appropriate central staff members.

○ Film screening events of Paper Tiger, in collaboration with

Denver Foundation.

○ Identify best practice school sites that can serve as

demonstration hubs.

● 2019-20

○ All remaining schools will have completed “Trauma 101”

training.

○ “Trauma 101” training will be incorporated into onboarding

training for all educators (school-based and in central office).

Schools, Central Staff, Mental Health Providers, and Community

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Community Engagement Next Steps

● 2018-19

○ Direct design and collaboration will occur with BEST/LAUNCH,

Our Voices/ Our Schools and various community stakeholders

(Padres y Jovenes Unidos, AdvocacyDenver, NAACP, Colorado

One, etc.) on trauma/resiliency build-out.

○ Continue and deepen stakeholder action team.

● 2019-20

○ In collaboration with SE&O, Family & Community

Engagement and Culture Equity and Leadership Team, trauma

training resources will be available to the community.

○ In collaboration with Department of Safety, a hotline will be

developed by 2019-20 to divert, as appropriate, calls to the

Department of Safety.

Schools, Central Staff, Mental Health Providers, and Community

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Leader Engagement Next Steps

● 2018-19

○ Socialize trauma-informed/resiliency work as primarily a Tier

1 district-wide strategy.

○ Trauma 101 professional learning will be provided to all

discipline building leaders, and safety staff annually.

○ Identify leaders in best practice school sites who can be

tapped to lead leader-oriented professional learning.

● 2019-20

○ Trauma informed/resiliency best practices will be

incorporated into new leader professional learning.

○ Trauma informed/resiliency statement will be required in

each school’s UIP by 2019-20.

Schools, Central Staff, Mental Health Providers, and Community

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Board of Education Next StepsModeling a Commitment to Trauma-Informed District

2018-19 Next Steps

● Attend at least one series of trauma training with a school in

your district to help you determine how you will:

○ Hold schools and central teams accountable to being

trauma-informed;

○ Explore how board members and district senior leaders

are trauma-informed and how to hold others

accountable to this (including implicit bias and culturally-

responsive education); and

○ Support the prioritization and integration of being a

trauma-informed district amongst the broader Denver

Plan priorities.

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Three Signature SEL Practices

1. Welcoming Ritual 2. Engaging Practices3. Optimistic Closure

When our students gather at their 10 year reunions, what will they say about how their schools made them feel and supported their needs?

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Appendix

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Additional Resources Provided

More resources located in this Google Folder:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14rNz5_OaErFq-pxkGc5mFLrG1rdC_WU5?usp=sharing

● Trauma Definitions● Articles- Culturally Responsive Education (CRE) and Trauma

Informed Classroom

● Deck from Wisconsin

● Feedback from DPS educators

● CRE connection to trauma (2 readings from DPS CRE team)

● Why Trauma training info flyer

● CU study

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Socializing the PlanBroad school and community input

● Tennyson Mental Health Center

● Denver Department of Human Services, Child Welfare

● Community activist groups

● Family advocacy groups

● Faith-based leaders

● Ethnic-based providers (especially for refugees/immigrants)

● Students

● Families

● School leaders

● Teachers

● Charitable foundations

● African-American Equity Task Force

● Strengthening Neighborhoods

Action Plan Feedback from Community Stakeholders

It is so exciting to see that training will be required and that new teachers will take this training

as well...very cool and such a necessity- Principal at Doull

Child welfare fully supports this plan as it will be in line with multiple layers of infusing trauma

informed practices in Child Welfare.

The tiered training approach is also seen as a strength as it will allow for multiple layers of staff

to be trained. Another key element in this plan is the inclusion of building resiliency as well as

secondary traumatic stress. - Child Welfare Denver

Identification of wellness champions, people volunteer for these roles and are often passionate

about the topic.

Community Focused | Proactive | Collaborative (families and city) | Training for ALL | Holistic |

Well thought out | Charter inclusive |

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Action PlanSuggestions from Community Stakeholder

● Add this to LEAP

● Have UIP Examples

● Offer follow up and ongoing support to schools (what to do, strategies)

● If we screen students, how will there be follow up?

● Possibility of including representatives from Child Welfare in the training

plan, in particular the staff who are assigned to DPS schools to ensure

that there is increased collaboration

● Reaching out to other districts who are doing this work as a tremendous

strength of learning what has worked and what to avoid to be the most

successful

● More intervention strategies

● Make it mandatory

● Must include top down leadership accountability

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List of Trainings Provided

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