Meeting Our Children's Needs with a Trauma-Informed Approach
"We know how important it is that we not only have trained mental health professionals in our schools, but that our educators who work so closely with our students every day have specialized training in trauma-informed practices."
Dear Team DPS,
Supt. Tom Boasberg
Tragic events experienced in two of our very own school communities over the past week reinforced how important it is for our school communities to recognize trauma and support children who are experiencing trauma.
To better address the social-emotional and mental health needs of our students, we have doubled the number of our mental health professionals in our schools in the last seven years, in part through the Whole Child funds of the voter-approved 2016 mill levy.
We know how important it is that we not only have trained mental health professionals in our schools, but that our educators who work so closely with our students every day have specialized training in trauma-informed practices.
That is why we were so excited yesterday to announce an extraordinarily generous $1 million donation from Janice and Jim Campbell to help DPS' efforts to become a trauma-informed district. The grant, awarded by The Campbell Foundation to The DPS Foundation, will be used to implement a comprehensive strategy designed to improve academic and social-emotional outcomes for DPS students.
Watch this DPS Features video to learn more about DPS' efforts to become a trauma-informed district.
We are using it to hire experts in trauma-informed practices who train educators throughout the district. Last year, we trained teachers in over 60 schools, and we have already worked with teachers in half a dozen schools in the first two weeks of this year.
We made the announcement at Hallett Academy, where educators reduced out-of-school suspensions for ECE (Early Childhood Education) through third-grade students by 100% -- from 34 to zero. Principal Dominique Jefferson attributed this reduction to the district's support for the Whole Child, to restorative practices and the hard work of educators who approach their work with deep commitment to their students' success.
"We love children back into learning. We give children grace to try again," she said. "It is our responsibility as educators to restore students to learning as quickly as possible. Our children deserve this."
We are proud to announce that, over the last decade, DPS has reduced its suspension and expulsion rates across all grades by more than two-thirds. As a result of our new discipline policysharply limiting ECE-3 suspensions, no students in grades ECE-3 were expelled from DPS last school year, and out-of-school suspensions in these grades decreased by 60.5%.
We are incredibly grateful to the Campbells for their generosity and excited about our work to give our educators path-breaking training in trauma-informed practices.
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