What You Can Do Series – School Principals

• Screen All New Students: Following guidance in the book, implement confidential, non-punitive ACEs screening for all students on entering school (and as students progress), ideally as part of the broader health record (with parental consent and support).
• Immediate Referral: Use screening results to trigger non-stigmatizing early support, connecting students and families to counselors, mental health support, and community agencies.

Embed Counselors and Social Workers

• Counselor/Student Ratios: Seek to meet best-practice ratios of one counselor for every 250 students (or lower in higher-trauma schools).
• Integrated Social Work: Partner with social services, embed school social workers who support attendance, home visits, family engagement, and are trained in trauma response.

• “Safe Spaces” and Reflection Rooms: Dedicate rooms or zones where students in crisis can de-escalate with a caring adult, away from peers and punitive discipline.
• Visible Adult Presence: Build a school culture in which administrators, counselors, and support staff are visible, approachable, and trusted points of contact for any student.

Promote Relationship-Building

• Mentorship Programs: Connect vulnerable students to consistent mentors, adults or upperclassmen, who provide support, advocacy, and listening without judgment.
• Support Peer Connection: Facilitate clubs, peer mediation, and activities where struggling students can find belonging.

Prioritize Inclusion and Equity

• Recognize that students of color, LGBTQ+ youth, foster children, and those with disabilities are particularly vulnerable. Develop culturally competent policies and staff training to counteract bias and address higher rates of trauma in these populations.

• As noted in the book, exclusionary discipline (suspension, expulsion) too often punishes trauma-driven behaviors, making things worse. Instead:

  • Implement Restorative Practices: Use restorative circles, mediation, and service in place of punitive measures.
  • Tiered Interventions: Develop systems to identify root causes of acting-out behavior before resorting to disciplinary referrals.

Monitor and Analyze Disciplinary Data

• Regularly review data for racial, gender, and special education disproportion, address suspensions or exclusions that reveal bias or failure to recognize trauma.

Collaborate with Law Enforcement, Mindfully

• Reevaluate the role of school resource officers (SROs). Insist on robust training in adolescent development, trauma, and de-escalation.
• Avoid criminalizing minor behaviors. Instead, promote multidisciplinary response teams (including counselors, social workers, SROs) for crises.

• Where possible, partner with local hospitals, clinics, and nonprofits to provide in-school therapy services, decreasing stigma, absenteeism, and logistical barriers.

Invest in Preventive Well-being Initiatives

• Normalize mental health education, mindfulness, active coping skill development, and self-care as parts of school life.
• Institute regular “wellness checks” for students and offer workshops for families on stress, trauma, and resilience.

Support Staff Well-being

• Recognize compassion fatigue and secondary trauma among teachers and staff. Offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), regular check-ins, and wellness opportunities.

• Host regular workshops, open-door events, and parent cafes to educate families about trauma, school resources, and how they can partner in restoring child well-being.

Proactive Communication

• Contact parents for positive news, not only when there’s a problem, fostering trust and collaboration.
• Provide materials and events in multiple languages, and respect and accommodate cultural norms while upholding child safety and mental health.

Support Crisis and Special Circumstances

• Have clear protocols for collaborating with child protective services (CPS), foster care agencies, and outside therapists. Never leave a traumatized child or a family in crisis to navigate help alone.

• Go beyond staff performance data. Track graduation rates, attendance, behavioral incidents, and well-being for students who receive interventions.
• Share anonymized, aggregate data with the community and policymakers, advocating for more resources and reform when gaps persist.

Facilitate Community Partnerships

• Build bridges to youth organizations (e.g., CASA, Child Advocacy Centers), trauma recovery programs, mentorship networks, and local colleges’ social work and education departments.

Embrace Innovation

• Seek out and pilot proven programs: restorative practices, trauma-informed SEL (social-emotional learning), integrated care teams, and crisis response models.
• Leverage technology for tele-health appointments, digital wellness checks, and learning management systems with built-in referrals for student concerns.

• Regularly inform district leadership of trauma-related trends, unmet needs, and best-practice responses.
• Advocate for district-wide policies that limit exclusionary discipline, require trauma-informed professional development, and support targeted funding to high-need campuses.

Mobilize for Funding

• Join or lead coalitions to secure state and federal funding for counseling, mental health services, smaller class sizes, and staff professional well-being.
• Document and publicize the return on investment for prevention versus crisis intervention, helping policymakers see the financial and social case for change.

• Ensure every staff member knows how and to whom to report concerns of abuse or neglect, and that reporting protocols are clearly posted and regularly reviewed.
• Protect reporters from retaliation; ensure prompt, trauma-informed follow-up and support for the child and family.

Address Sex Abuse and Bullying Head-On

• Enforce robust Title IX and anti-bullying protocols. Provide anonymous avenues for students to report abuse, bullying, or unsafe home situations.
• Bring in outside experts for awareness programs and survivor panels, normalizing difficult but necessary conversations.

• Support student-led safety, mental health, and wellness initiatives.
• Facilitate peer counseling programs, youth advisory boards, and leadership opportunities for at-risk and trauma-impacted students.
• Teach advocacy, self-care, and help-seeking skills alongside academic curricula.

Center the Lived Experience of Survivors

• Create space for student stories (with support and safeguards). Empower formerly at-risk youth as mentors and leaders.

Stories and Insights From the Field

• Transforming School Climate: Several schools profiled in the book transitioned from top-down discipline models to trauma-informed approaches, reducing suspensions, boosting attendance, and improving graduation rates, especially for foster youth and students with high ACEs scores.
• Student Support Teams: Principals built best-practice “care teams”, bringing together teachers, counselors, SROs, social workers, and administrators for weekly review of students flagged for repeated trauma or behavioral difficulties.
• Building Community Trust: Those who led parent education rounds, partnered closely with CASA and local advocacy organizations, and shared real (anonymous) stories of trauma and healing saw greater community buy-in, more effective fund-raising, and increased visibility for student needs.

Conclusion: Principals as System-Changers and Community Healers

Principals and administrators are not just managers of staff or disciplinarians. They are system-changers, community healers empowered to guide schools through trauma, towards safety, hope, and healing. By embracing trauma-informed practices, leading with empathy, embedding robust mental health resources, and advocating at every level for children’s voices and needs, school leaders become the architects of resilience for an entire generation.

The task is neither simple nor solitary: it takes courage, partnerships, continuous learning, and unflagging advocacy. But the lives of children, and the health of the communities they will shape, depend on it.

References

Book-Draft-wordpress-7.25.docx (primary source, case studies, and recommendations as cited)
CDC/Kaiser Permanente ACE Study; National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Harvard Center on the Developing Child; The Deepest Well (Burke Harris)
American School Counselor Association (ASCA) model
Pew Charitable Trusts, Annie E. Casey Foundation, “School Staff Wellness”
National CASA/GAL Impact Report, Child Welfare Information Gateway
U.S. Department of Education, Title IX resources; StopBullying.gov

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This article submitted by former CASA volunteer Mike Tikkanen