Trauma Care in Schools - Creating Safe Environments for Students with Adverse Childhood Experiences

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper

Exposure to traumatic events in childhood and adolescence can produce enduring social, emotional, and educational harm. A trauma-informed school environment is built on three core pillars: safety, connection, and emotional and behavioral regulation. The text explains how violations of safety from abuse, neglect, and violence compromise children’s sense of safety, competence, and self-containment. It details what safety looks like for children, including predictable presence, consistent follow-through, clear routines, and managing classroom triggers to support regulation and learning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Safety

What safety looks like for children

Classroom triggers and trauma-informed responses

Connection

Trauma-informed understanding of adult responsibility

Trauma Care in Schools Creating Safe Environments for Students with Adverse Childhood Experiences ILLUSTRAT IONS BY HADLEY HOOPER By Eileen A. Dombo and Christine Anlauf Sabatino E xposure to traumatic events in childhood and adolescence can have lasting negative social, emotional, and educational effects. For schools, or any environment that serves children, to be truly trauma-informed, they must address three crucial areas: safety, connection, and emotional and behavioral regulation. This article, which is excerpted from our book Creating Trauma-Informed Schools: A Guide for School Social Workers and Educators, will explore these three areas as the foundational pillars ofa trauma-informed school environment. Safety At their core, all traumatic events are a violation of a sense of safety in the world and with others. People and places that are supposed to be attuned to the needs of children are often the ones that violate trust through abuse, neglect, and violence. Given that the caregiver-child relationship is the foundation on Eileen A. Dombo is an associate professor in the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America, where Christine Anlauf Sabatino is the director of the Center for the Advancement of Children, Youth, and Families. This article is excerpted with permission from their book Creating Trauma-Informed Schools: A Guide for School Social Workers and Educators (Oxford University Press). Copyright 2019, Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. which the child’s senses of safety, competence, and self-containment are built, when this relationship is strife with traumatic events, those capacities are severely compromised.1 Abusive parents and caregivers, violence in communities, and shootingsin schools* are all too commonplace in American culture. The presence of traumatic stress has long-lasting negative impactson children, and when severe and prolonged, it can be so toxic that it leads to neurological and biological health problems.2 What does safety look like? For children and adolescents, safety is felt through connections with people who have a calm and focused presence. They are attuned to the child’s actions, words, and nonverbal communications and respect the child’s boundaries and rights. Power and control are essential to safety in that the child is allowed to be in charge of himself or herself as much as is developmentally appropriate. When power is used to be punitive and demeaning, children do not feel safe. When seeking safety, children look for someone to be predictable and consistent. Following through on what they say they are going to do and avoiding chaotic and disorganized behaviors are essential to safety. All these require the person to stay calm, regulated, and focused when the child is dysregulated, out of control, or even aggressive. Some examples of safe and unsafe behaviors in a school setting are found in the box on page 20. *The School Social Work Association of America has taken a stand to stop gun violence in schools. To read its position paper on the issue, visit [https://docs.wixstatic](https://docs.wixstatic). com/ugd/426a18_ 72b6376c6a9645d7ad256fe9fe4004f3 . pdf. 18 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SUMMER 2019 Classrooms that feel safe to children are those that have clear expectations, well-defined routines, time for transition, choices whenever possible, and attuned teachers. Specific events in the classroom can serve as reminders of previous traumatic and therefore unsafe experiences. These current events trigger reminders of past events.3 Some examples of triggers in a classroom setting that can prompt a child to react from a place of traumatic stress and feeling unsafe are: • Sensory reminders ofthe trauma—smells, sounds, or images that remind the child of a person, place, or time that is connected to a traumatic event. • Touch—whether to focus the child with a gentle hand on the shoulder or a physical restraint of

FAQs

What are the three foundational pillars of a trauma-informed school environment?

They are safety, connection, and emotional and behavioral regulation. The article presents these as the foundational pillars for schools serving children.

How does the text describe what safety looks like for children and adolescents?

Safety is felt through calm, focused connections with adults who are attuned to children’s words and nonverbal cues, respect boundaries, use developmentally appropriate power, and stay predictable and consistent.

What classroom triggers are highlighted, and how should teachers respond?

Examples include sensory reminders (smells, sounds, images), unwanted or unexpected touch, and fighting, arguing, or yelling. Teachers can look for cues about what prompted sudden reactions, treating behaviors as attempts to express distress and seek safety.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Dipper