ISAIAH B. PICKENS, PH.D.

NICOLE TSCHOPP, LCSW-C

Trauma-Informed 

Classrooms

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE BULLETIN
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges® (NCJFCJ) provides cutting-edge training, wideranging technical assistance, and research to help the nation’s courts, judges, and staff in their important 

work. Since its founding in 1937 by a group of judges dedicated to improving the effectiveness of the 

nation’s juvenile courts, the NCJFCJ has pursued a mission to improve courts and systems practice and raise 

awareness of the core issues that touch the lives of many of our nation’s children and families.

For more information about the NCJFCJ or this document, please contact: 

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

P.O. Box 8970

Reno, Nevada 89507

www.ncjfcj.org

©2017, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. All rights reserved.

Acknowledgments: Funding for this evaluation and report was provided by the U.S. Department of Justice Office 

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention through Award #2014-JZ-FX-K006 to the National Council of 

Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Points of view or opinions expressed are those of the report contributors and 

do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funder or the National Council of Juvenile and 

Family Court Judges.

Special acknowledgment: Logan Yelderman, Ph.D. for editing and proofreading assistance. 

Suggested Citation: Pickens, I.B., & Tschopp, N. (2017). Trauma-Informed Classrooms. National Council of 

Juvenile and Family Court Judges. 
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

ISAIAH B. PICKENS, PH.D.

Assistant Director of Service Systems, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, 

UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital

Trauma-Informed 

Classrooms

NICOLE TSCHOPP, LCSW-C

Promoting Student Resilience Clinical Grant Manager, 

Baltimore City Public Schools

AUTHORS:
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES

Introduction

The impact of students’ life experiences on their behavior has 

garnered increasing attention as schools strive to develop more 

supportive academic environments that help youths manage stress 

and address the needs of at-risk youths to facilitate continued 

academic engagement.1,2 Few events outside the classroom have 

as profound an impact on multiple domains of student development 

as traumatic life experiences. Trauma is any event experienced by 

an individual that is physically or emotionally harmful because 

the individual perceives his life or the life of someone he loves as 

threatened (see Sidebar 1, Trauma). An estimated 25% of youths 

in the general population have experienced a traumatic event and 

nearly 75% of youths involved with the juvenile justice system.1,3 In 

addition to traumatic life events, youths also face adverse childhood 

experiences and daily stressors that might further compromise 

their ability to navigate the academic and behavioral requirements 

of a school setting. Understanding youths’ responses to these 

challenges and having trauma-informed responses are essential 

for educators aiming to maximize students’ academic and socialemotional potential. 

The range of student responses to traumatic life events varies based 

on individual and environmental factors. Traumatic life experiences 

often disorient an individual by distorting perceptions of the world 

and creating a profound sense of unsafety.4 Some youths who 

experience traumatic life events display minimal adverse reactions 

because individual and environmental protective factors are present 

that support an ongoing sense of safety while fostering resilience—

an ability to remain intact after challenging life experiences.5

In addition to resilience, some youths recover from traumatic life 

experiences more quickly due to the presence of these individual and 

environmental factors (see Sidebar 2, Individual and Environmental).

The aim of a trauma-informed classroom is to infuse an understanding 

of the impact of trauma and adverse life experiences on students into 

the classroom culture and promote a physically and psychologically 

safe environment to foster student growth. More specifically, 

1 TRAUMA

Trauma is defined as any 

event that is experienced by 

an individual as physically or 

emotionally harmful because 

the individual perceives his 

life or the life of someone he 

loves as threatened. Traumatic 

events include:

● Community violence

● Domestic violence

● Sex trafficking

● Serious medical illness

● Natural disasters

● Neglect

● Physical abuse

● Displacement and refugee 

trauma

● School violence

● Sexual abuse

● Terrorism

● Loss of a loved one/

traumatic grief

● Psychological maltreatment

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

psychological safety refers to individuals’ inner sense that they are 

safe because of their ability to feel capable of managing stressors 

or connecting with someone else who can help the individual 

manage stressors that make her feel unsafe. From an organizational 

perspective, implementing a trauma-informed approach, “realizes 

the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential 

paths for recovery; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma 

in [individuals] involved in the system; responds by integrating 

knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; 

and seeks to actively resist re-traumatization” (Substance Abuse 

Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2016).6 While 

administrators and school policy-makers are generally responsible 

for establishing trauma-informed practices school-wide, educators 

play an integral role in developing a classroom structure that 

promotes safety, appropriately uses disciplinary action and related 

resources such as school resource officers, and helps students 

manage overwhelming responses to stress—the heart of a traumainformed approach.

2 INDIVIDUAL AND 

ENVIRONMENTAL

Individual and environmental 

factors that foster resilience 

and recovery are internal and 

external resources that help 

youth who have experienced 

trauma manage their reactions 

to traumatic experiences in a 

healthy manner. 

● Problem-solving and stress 

management skills

● Connection with healthy 

support systems (e.g., 

family, faith-community, 

clubs, etc.)

● Finding meaning and hope 

in difficult situations

● Family modeling a healthy 

response to stressful life 

events

● Preserved feeling of control

● Responsiveness from 

a support system when 

experiencing trauma

● Access to mental health 

resources

● School connectedness

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Recognizing the Impact of 

Trauma in the Classroom

For many youths who experience traumatic life events, the ability to 

manage stress becomes compromised.

1

 Similarly, after a traumatic 

life event, youths may find situations that were previously manageable 

now prompt feelings of being emotionally or physically unsafe. The 

school environment presents youths with several stressors that can 

trigger traumatic stress reactions—extreme responses to perceived 

threats that interfere with youths’ functioning. Youths’ stress 

responses can range in intensity, duration, and frequency. Traumatic 

stress can lead to youths’ development of Post Traumatic Stress 

Disorder (PTSD). The Diagnostic Statistical Manual Fifth Edition 

(DSM-5) identifies four categories of traumatic stress reactions that 

can disrupt the functioning of an individual diagnosed with PTSD 

following a traumatic life experience: avoidance of trauma reminders, 

negative alterations in cognitions and mood, re-experiencing the 

traumatic event by having intrusive thoughts and feelings, and 

alterations in arousal and reactivity (e.g., hyperarousal, numb 

feelings, etc.). Additionally, some individuals experience ongoing 

dissociation—an intense feeling of being disconnected from others 

and oneself. While the diagnosis of PTSD requires experiencing 

several of these traumatic stress reactions and having substantial 

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disruption in functioning, individuals can experience degrees of 

traumatic stress reactions that fail to meet criteria but nonetheless 

create distress for the individual. The traumatic stress reactions 

outlined by the DSM-5 PTSD criteria provide a framework for 

understanding how trauma might impact students in key domains 

of functioning and, subsequently, the impact of trauma on the 

classroom. 

Brain, Trauma, 

and the Stress Response

Our brains are wired to protect us from threat, and no experience 

better represents threat than a traumatic event. Prior to experiencing 

a traumatic event, our bodies naturally respond to stress by activating 

a series of physiological events that are intended to keep us safe. First, 

the part of the brain responsible for processing emotion and threat, 

the limbic system, helps determine how stressful or threatening the 

situation is in order to mobilize an adequate additional response 

from the brain and body to maintain safety. Often this continued 

stress response involves activation of the sympathetic nervous 

system enabling people to fight against the perceived threat, flee 

from the threat, or freeze in response to the threat. The frontal lobes 

and particularly the pre-frontal cortex, a part of the brain responsible 

for impulse control and decision-making, work to temper this stress 

response by ensuring an individual is accurately reading a situation 

and making the best decision in response to a perceived threat. 

When a threat or stressor overwhelms the individual, then the limbic 

system may keep the stress response activated at a high level—

interfering with the frontal lobes’ ability to operate and ultimately 

contributing to a perpetual mental state of being in “survival mode.”

Essentially, a student who experiences a traumatic event is at 

risk for constantly being triggered into a survival mode mindset, 

particularly when navigating stressful situations in school. These 

triggers represent reminders of trauma that a student may or 

may not be aware exist but still feels a need to protect him- or 

herself from being physically, socially, and/or emotionally hurt. A 

heightened awareness for threats can disrupt several domains of 

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functioning, including relationships, information processing and 

decision-making, and behavior in the classroom and at home. 

Relationships and Trauma

The types of relationships students form in school are a reflection 

of their relationships at home and in their communities. From 

birth, youths begin to connect with their caregivers in a manner 

that fosters secure attachments, a sense of connectedness and 

safety, or insecure attachments, feelings of disconnectedness 

and uncertainty about safety. When students develop secure 

attachments early in life, they are better equipped to develop 

equitable relationships with peers and adults that reflect fairness, 

trust, and safety. Secure attachments are bolstered when other 

caring adults, such as educators, are able to develop relationships 

with students that further support student beliefs that adults are 

individuals who generally support them.

The presence of traumatic life experiences early in life can erode 

youths’ sense of trust in others and make it difficult to form healthy 

relationships. This is particularly the case for youths who have 

experienced interpersonal trauma such as physical or sexual abuse. 

Interpersonal forms of trauma have been linked to increased levels 

of delinquency, aggression, and other maladaptive behaviors that 

can interfere with building trusting relationships and place youths at 

risk for entering the juvenile justice system.7 A prominent traumatic 

stress reaction involves distortions about oneself and others. These 

distortions may reflect a learned pattern of hypervigilance that 

accurately and inaccurately detects threats from others, produces 

a negative outlook on the future due to an overwhelming feeling that 

painful experiences from the past will be repeated, or encourages 

a deflated sense of self that reflects a belief that the trauma 

has permanently damaged the individual. When these reactions 

persist, students who experienced trauma may resist building close 

relationships with others, and those students who desire improved 

relationships may find themselves interacting in a manner that 

frequently makes others feel uncomfortable or threatened.

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

In the classroom, these traumatic stress reactions can disrupt 

the academic experience by creating interpersonal conflicts that 

require a trauma-informed perspective to resolve. The interpersonal 

demands of the classroom are multifaceted and filtered through 

the cultural experiences and expectations of the teacher and 

students. As such, ordinary interpersonal interactions such as 

asking a student about his weekend, requiring a student to work 

with peers, or simply removing the student from class without 

probing for the reason behind a particular behavior might prompt 

escalated disruptive behavior. Reasons for escalation can include 

the students experiencing domestic violence during the weekend, 

peers in their group bullying youths, or an out-of-school suspension, 

which places youths back into a dangerous environment where 

community violence is prevalent and there is likely to be contact 

with law enforcement. When conflict becomes normative, it is easier 

to attribute challenges to immutable character traits of youths 

instead of environmental factors driving behavior and viewing 

students as malleable with the ability to succeed interpersonally in 

the classroom. A trauma-informed perspective facilitates this shift 

in perception and provides tools for increasing students’ abilities to 

manage interpersonal challenges related to traumatic experiences.

Cognitive Ability and Trauma

Academic demands require students to engage several cognitive 

functions including problem-solving, focused and selective attention, 

and the ability to shift between multiple tasks. These executive 

functioning skills are developed cumulatively through practice over 

time and developmentally appropriate support. Cognitive abilities 

are strengthened when healthy brain development is supported 

by opportunities for youths to use the skills they are learning in a 

safe environment that permits trial and error. When students are 

encouraged to view failure and mistakes as temporary challenges 

that can be overcome with the skills they are developing and/or 

support from others, they acquire cognitive abilities that foster 

resilience in the face of challenges.8

When a traumatic life event occurs, it potentially leaves youths 

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with a perpetual sense of unsafety that prompts using cognitive 

skills to secure safety. This survival mode mindset can interfere 

with youths’ ability to concentrate, sleep due to ongoing intrusive 

thoughts related to the trauma, and make smart and informed 

decisions because youths’ stress response may frequently activate 

and interfere with executive functioning skills. In the classroom, this 

may impact a student’s ability to remain focused on the lesson. This 

unfocused state can lead to being distracted by others in class, 

frequent disorganization and poor planning skills, or daydreaming 

that mirrors extreme disinterest in the class. A trauma-informed 

perspective prompts educators to investigate whether there are 

trauma reminders in the classroom that are eliciting traumatic stress 

reactions in youths such as hypervigilance or dissociation (see 

Sidebar 3, Classroom Triggers). Furthermore, a trauma-informed 

proactive approach facilitates the creation of a safe classroom 

environment while addressing classroom factors that detract from 

students’ focus and learning.

Behavior and Trauma

Effective behavior management is a cornerstone for rich academic 

environments in which students and educators are comfortable 

immersing themselves in the pursuit of learning objectives without 

fear of criticism from others. Student behavior management is 

often a combination of adults creating developmentally appropriate 

structured environments and youths building effective self3 CLASSROOM 

TRIGGERS

Classroom triggers/trauma 

reminders are situations, 

people, activities, and any 

other action that remind 

the student of the trauma. 

Sometimes these triggers/

reminders can prompt a 

traumatic stress reaction. 

When students and teachers 

are aware of these triggers/

reminders they are better able 

to manage them. Examples 

include:

● Yelling, arguments, or 

fighting

● People who look similar to 

an individual involved with 

trauma

● Time of year such as an 

anniversary of a loss, 

holiday, birthday etc.

● Smells reminding of 

someone or something 

related to a trauma

● Music and sounds that 

were connected with a 

traumatic experience

● Physical touch

● Isolation

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

regulation skills. Caregivers provide the initial context for youths 

to learn limit-setting, develop empathy for others, negotiate 

interactions, and manage emotions while building self-awareness 

about how their behavior impacts others. These lessons are often 

taught with punitive measures that aim to penalize misbehavior and 

reinforcement that aims to encourage positive behavior. As schools 

have shifted toward a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports 

(PBIS) framework, it has become increasingly clear that students 

best manage behavior when positive behavior is acknowledged and 

supported and misbehavior is redirected with disciplinary actions. 

PBIS frameworks help students learn better ways to express 

themselves while receiving the appropriate consequences for their 

misbehavior (in contrast to exclusionary discipline practices that 

can reinforce unwanted behaviors).9

A traumatic experience can disrupt both the structure of an 

environment and an individual’s self-control. When caregivers feel 

incapable of protecting youths from traumatic life experiences, 

especially as a result of their own previous trauma and adversity 

(e.g., community violence, abuse from a more dominant family 

member, etc.), youths are at risk for living in unstructured and 

unsafe environments. These environments increase the likelihood of 

exposure to trauma and development of survival coping skills, which 

are the byproduct of a survival mindset and often involve unhealthy 

behaviors to manage the distressing experience of traumatic stress 

reactions (see Sidebar 4, Survival Coping Strategies). Dysregulated 

behavior is more likely to occur when the abuse is perpetrated by a 

caregiver and youths receive minimal support to attain physical and 

psychological safety. As youths employ survival coping strategies 

that provide an immediate sense of security or escape from distress, 

they are led to believe that these unhealthy behaviors are the best 

strategy to maintain safety. These unhealthy behaviors, in turn, place 

them at greater risk for contact with the juvenile justice system.

Dysregulated behavior in the classroom can consume the other 

students’ attention when adequate measures for addressing 

misbehavior are absent. Dysregulated behavior reflecting traumatic 

stress reactions and survival coping often stem from perceived 

4 SURVIVAL COPING 

STRATEGIES

Survival coping strategies, a 

byproduct of traumatic stress 

reactions, are unhealthy 

responses to stressful life 

situations after experiencing 

a trauma. These reactions 

interfere with school, work, 

and relationships. Examples 

include:

● Substance use

● Aggressive behavior

● Shame and excessive guilt

● Self-harm behavior

● Zoning out/dissociation

● Nightmares and flashbacks

● Numbing or little emotional 

feeling/expression

● Over-sexualized behavior

● Regressive behavior or 

acting younger than actual 

age

● Joining a gang or carrying a 

weapon

● Avoiding stressful situations

● Misreading social situations 

to believe others are 

threatening

● Feeling excessively 

depressed or anxious

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threats to physical and/or psychological safety such as teasing 

from peers, perceived unfairness from the teacher, or behavior 

from others that the student believes is disrespectful. While 

conflict is normative, it can escalate when educators focus strictly 

on stopping the behavior instead of addressing the driving force 

prompting the behavior. Trauma-informed approaches to managing 

behavior in the classroom provide the necessary limit-setting and 

consequences to deter dysregulated behavior while integrating the 

supports to help dysregulated students practice healthy behaviors 

to express themselves and achieve a sense of safety. While many 

of the strategies educators use in the classroom to manage student 

behaviors are predicated upon the support of administration 

to provide trauma-informed training and resources, educators 

exploring the use of disciplinary action that seeks to help students 

learn alternative strategies to manage situations can provide a 

potent starting point for creating a trauma-informed classroom. 

Collectively, these strategies limit the likelihood that students will 

require intervention from the juvenile justice system and the use of 

law enforcement.

Educators and Trauma

Creating an academic environment that meets the many demands 

placed upon educators is a stressful task. It is estimated that 

17% of public school teachers report leaving the profession before 

their fifth year, often as a result of low salary and insufficient 

school resources as primary contributors to their departure.10 It 

is important to build a classroom that fosters a sense of safety 

for students, but teachers who lack a similar level of support are 

at risk for experiencing adverse impacts of working in a stressful 

environment as well. A primary risk factor for working with youths 

who have experienced trauma is developing secondary traumatic 

stress (STS). STS occurs when an individual has ongoing exposure 

to others’ traumatic stress reactions and develops traumatic stress 

reactions in response (see Sidebar 5, Secondary Traumatic Stress). 

Teachers may also experience vicarious trauma, or compassion 

fatigue, when overextending themselves to understand and 

empathize with students. 

5 SECONDARY 

TRAUMATIC STRESS

Secondary traumatic stress 

refers to stress responses an 

individual has when frequently 

interacting with others who 

are displaying dysregulated 

behavior due to traumatic 

stress reactions. Common 

signs include:

● Difficulties concentrating

● Fatigue

● Depressed and anxious 

moods

● Negative thoughts

● Unwillingness to take on 

new tasks

● Isolation from or avoidance 

of others

● Lack of enjoyment from 

activities that were once 

enjoyable

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

Both STS and vicarious trauma deplete educators’ resources and 

create challenges to self-care (see Sidebar 6, Self-care Strategies). 

This is further complicated when educators and other school 

personnel have unresolved trauma histories that may be triggered 

when interacting with students. Educators’ ability to remain 

emotionally stable and display professionalism is grounded in their 

ability to engage in ongoing self-care practices while managing the 

demands of the classroom. A trauma-informed approach integrates 

practices that support student and teacher awareness of emotional 

triggers. These triggers contribute to escalated interactions, but 

a trauma-informed approach creates proactive measures for 

addressing these experiences before, during, and after they have 

occurred—with the ultimate goal of creating a physically and 

psychologically safe classroom for everyone. 

Creating and Maintaining 

Safety in the Classroom

A trauma-informed approach in the classroom is rooted in a safe 

environment. While safety encompasses ensuring the physical 

wellbeing of students, it also extends to ensuring that psychological 

safety is bolstered through creating a predictable classroom 

environment where every member feels respected, validated, 

and heard. Experiences in the classroom from the outset of the 

school year shape whether or not both teachers and students feel 

psychologically safe. A classroom structure promoting psychological 

safety reflects clear expectations for behavior, a defined process 

for addressing behavioral concerns that students understand, and 

mechanisms for helping students communicate about experiences 

that undermine feelings of safety.

The messages communicated by teachers, verbally and 

nonverbally, about expectations that each member contributes to 

a psychologically safe environment provide the foundation for a 

trauma-informed classroom structure. At the outset of the school 

year teachers can clearly outline the expectations for a bully-free 

class, students expressing frustration and anger verbally in a 

respectful manner, and displaying supportive behaviors for other 

6 SELF-CARE 

STRATEGIES

Self-care strategies to prevent 

STS symptoms include:

● Prioritizing taking care 

of your physical body 

with adequate sleep and 

sustaining nutrition

● Taking breaks both with 

vacation and mini-breaks 

throughout the day such as 

a quiet non-work related 

moment during a planning 

period.

● Connecting with supportive 

individuals in your life to 

engage in non-work related 

activities

● Rewarding yourself 

periodically throughout the 

day with a favorite TV show, 

snack, or something else 

desirable.

● Avoiding excessive alcohol 

intake

● Engaging in mindfulness 

and self-awareness 

activities

● Exercising multiple times 

during the week 

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11

students. These are key additions to general class rules. Specifically, 

acknowledging progress for displaying supportive behavior, such as 

a student refraining from teasing another student when obviously 

tempted, helps create a classroom culture focused on promoting 

psychological safety. Psychological safety is further reinforced 

when teachers model respectful interactions with students through 

verbal and nonverbal behavior that is predictable and has the goal 

of addressing behavior concerns in a firm but caring manner. 

To bolster a safe classroom environment, teachers should 

communicate effectively during unexpected situations that 

potentially trigger youths to display traumatic-stress reactions. 

Transitions during the school day represent one of the most unsettling 

situations that potentially result in unexpected reactions from 

students and teachers. Preparing students for changes in lesson 

tasks, seating arrangements, the end of a class period, and a host 

of other transitions can improve predictability in the classroom, 

especially when providing verbal announcements that transitions 

will occur soon and outlining behavioral expectations. Developing 

and posting agendas for the class period further bolsters a sense 

of predictability that can counter the adverse impact of transitions. 

When behavior disruptions occur during the class period that 

threaten students’ sense of safety, having an emotionally neutral 

response that communicates the boundaries for behavior and 
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

allowing the students to understand that your disapproval is with 

what the students have done and not with who the student is as 

a person, reinforces a classroom culture of safety. Each of these 

components for creating a safe classroom is discussed in greater 

detail below.

Assessing Need

Providing a trauma-informed environment in the classroom begins 

with identifying the level of need among students and creating a 

system for using this information to develop a more psychologically 

safe environment. This process is best implemented through the 

introduction of a formal screening process for students at risk 

for trauma exposure. Screening for trauma can occur universally 

or through a targeted process that identifies students displaying 

dysregulated or disruptive behaviors. Trauma-informed screening 

tools vary but generally identify one or more of the three E’s: Events, 

Experiences, and Effects.11 Events refer to exposure to traumatic 

events. Screening tools focusing on events often ask respondents 

to share whether or not they have witnessed or been impacted by 

specific traumatic events such as sexual abuse or a natural disaster. 

Experiences refer to the traumatic stress reactions that youths 

may display in response to exposure to traumatic events. Effects

represent the degree to which traumatic stress reactions have 

impacted youths’ functioning in key areas such as school, work, and 

relationships. A comprehensive list of screening tools is provided 

by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.12 Screening tools 

should align with school needs and lead to a more formal trauma 

assessment and services when indicated.

While the availability of formal screening and assessment tools is 

a necessary component of a trauma-informed school, teachers 

can support the process for identifying need in a trauma-informed 

manner when these formal processes are not implemented schoolwide. A primary distinction between trauma-informed approaches 

versus traditional approaches for behavioral dysregulation is first 

inquiring, “what happened to him/her that led to this behavior,” 

versus stating, “s/he is such a bad kid and needs punishment.” 

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Within the classroom, this shift in perspective can be facilitated 

by providing opportunities for students to explain reasons for 

their behavior, identifying triggers that preceded their behavior, 

or requesting help without criticism prior to showing disruptive 

behavior. Classrooms that have social-emotional resources such 

as feelings posters and clearly written expectations and protocols 

to follow when a student feels s/he is becoming out of control 

emotionally can embed self-identification of trauma triggers/

reminders into the classroom, which facilitate early identification of 

need. A primary barrier to youths self-identifying need is the feeling 

that it is not emotionally safe to share the life events or triggers 

that are driving anger, sadness, and a host of other feelings that 

can lead to disruptive behavior. To address this barrier, classroom 

environments should be safe and foster meaningful connections.

Building Opportunities for 

Meaningful Connection

Reactions to trauma can disrupt healthy connections by distorting 

perceptions of self and others. These distortions can lead to 

classroom arguments, resistance to engage in class activities, or 

simply increased tension between teachers and students. These 

distortions are best countered by creating opportunities to connect 

with students in a manner that acknowledges the difficulties that 

drive mistrust of others while also guiding students to express 

themselves in a healthy manner.

The foundation for facilitating meaningful trauma-informed 

connections is striving for authentic interactions that convey 

respect for students’ perspectives. Students who have experienced 

trauma can feel disempowered and strive to regain power in 

behaviorally disruptive ways when perceiving threat or unfairness 

from others—particularly authority figures. Modeling respectful 

communication provides a powerful tool for students to reference 

when unsure about how to respond to situations. This form of 

communication can include reprimanding or providing guidance 

without embarrassing or humiliating students, acknowledging when 

students feel slighted or treated unfairly, and asking for clarification 

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

or repeating back what was heard when students are expressing 

frustration in an oppositional or unclear manner. When possible, 

providing opportunities for students to choose between two options 

after feeling threatened or possibly experiencing a trauma reminder 

can help youths re-engage the part of their brains responsible for 

decision making and reduce the control of the emotional part that 

is focused solely on survival. These interactions help students feel 

less on-guard because they feel the teacher understands them and 

will treat them fairly.

Maintaining meaningful connections involves creating routines that 

promote healthy coping strategies and improved self-regulation skills 

and integrating them into class expectations, rules, and lessons. 

Beginning class with a brief breathing or mindfulness exercise, 

creating a safe zone in the classroom for dysregulated students to 

take a few moments to collect themselves, or integrating stories 

into lessons about individuals who reflect the students’ culture and 

manage stress in a healthy manner can provide constant support for 

building healthy connections in the classroom.13 Reinforcing these 

behaviors by acknowledging students who attempt to make healthy 

connections with others or regulating their behavior is critical and 

sustains an environment rich with meaningful connections. Often 

when students who have experienced multiple traumas are simply 14
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present in the classroom, it is a testament to their resilience. Using a 

strengths-based approach to connect with students by recognizing 

that the students are working to manage their life situations as best 

they know how, creates a safe space for the students to embrace 

new strategies to approach challenges inside and outside the 

classroom.

Each of these interactions reflects a fundamental principle for a 

trauma-informed approach in the classroom, which is to focus on 

helping students feel safe in relationships. Given that increased 

levels of victimization have been linked to greater delinquent 

behavior, it becomes clear that youths who are displaying traumatic 

stress reactions, as a result of interpersonal traumas, are using 

their distrust of others and hyper-responsiveness to perceived 

threat for protection.14 By building meaningful connections in 

the classroom, teachers can help students read situations more 

accurately and manage stressful situations more skillfully—creating 

a safer classroom for all. 

Integrating Trauma-Informed 

Discipline

Ensuring physical and psychological safety in the classroom for all 

students while striving to cultivate a rich academic environment 

presents one of the chief challenges when students are displaying 

traumatic stress reactions. Effective trauma-informed discipline 

practices accomplish the goal of maintaining safety for all students 

when they are applied consistently, explained clearly, and used to 

help students learn healthy alternatives to traumatic stress reactions. 

Effective discipline begins with expectation setting and consistent 

reinforcement of expected behaviors. This foundational principle 

aligns with a positive behavioral intervention and supports (PBIS) 

framework for managing behavior. Its effectiveness at countering 

behavior related to traumatic stress reactions lies in establishing 

that the primary goal of classroom behavior management is for 

students to succeed at self-regulating their behavior. Trauma 

can make a student feel powerless and cause hypersensitivity to 

threat, such as a teacher correcting him or a belief that the teacher 

15
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

feels the student is a bad person who deserves only punishment. 

Changing that perception involves intentional acknowledgment 

when students are behaving as expected, such as expressing pride 

in a student for staying quiet or asking for a bathroom break when 

he is starting to become upset. Although these behaviors are 

generally perceived as expected of a child and do not deserve a 

reward, students who have experienced trauma often have distorted 

perspectives about appropriate behavior. Positive reinforcement 

for the most basic healthy behaviors can ensure that classroom 

expectations for behavior are clearly understood and give students 

a much needed incentive to continue displaying self-control. 

The continuum of trauma-informed discipline extends to the 

practices used to prepare students for discipline and manage crisis 

situations. Preparation for discipline involves ensuring that students 

understand the positive and negative consequences for their 

behavior. This preparation can be accomplished by giving students 

concrete warnings about behavior, posting class rules, using a 

neutral tone to inform students about the specific consequences 

for their behavior, and providing specific directions for the expected 

behavior. These preparatory actions can reduce the impact of trauma 

reminders and triggers on escalating behaviors by appealing to 

students’ need to feel safe and creating structure to guide behavior. 

When students enter crisis mode and display aggressive or highly 

dysregulated behavior, the priority for the educator is maintaining 

physical safety for the student and others in the classroom. Traumainformed approaches employ predictable protocols that minimize 

escalation of behavior by facilitating separation of dysregulated 

students from triggering situations and focusing primarily on 

behavioral stabilization. Specifically, trauma-informed crisismanagement helps avoid matching students’ aggression, resists 

taking actions personally, and clearly and neutrally communicates 

the action steps that will be taken to ensure safety (i.e., “I am going 

to take you outside the room now because you do not seem ready 

to talk about the issue”).

When determining behavioral consequences, it is important to 

identify the reason the behavior occurred and use this reason as a 

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guide. The ultimate goal for discipline is to ensure youths choose 

a better set of actions to reach their desired goal in the future or 

self-regulate to delay achieving that goal. While this can partially 

be achieved using punitive measures that make it clear that the 

behavior is unacceptable, punitive measures alone fall short of 

teaching a new way to manage a situation. Behavior dysregulation 

related to trauma is often reactive to situations that are triggering 

or misread as opposed to dysregulation that is calculated and 

callous with the intent of harming others. The former benefits 

from opportunities to develop skills to control impulses, repair 

damage caused by reactive response, and develop empathy 

and healthy coping strategies. Restorative justice practices are 

particularly helpful at providing opportunities to help youths who 

have experienced trauma better understand the impact of their 

actions on others and strive to learn new skills to manage similar 

situations in the future. Trauma sometimes distorts youths’ ability to 

understand the impact of their behavior on others or fully understand 

that their punishment is related to the behavior that was displayed. 

Coupled with restorative justice practices, effective discipline 

clearly connects the consequences with the specific behavior that 

warranted correcting. These strategies also help establish a safe 

environment for all involved parties by using both punishment and 

positive behavioral interventions to promote healthier behavior in 

the future (see Sidebar 7, Trauma-informed Discipline).15

From Theory to Practice: 

Trauma-Informed Practices in 

Baltimore City Public Schools

Baltimore City Public Schools have recognized the importance of 

providing school-based mental health and behavioral services for all 

students to promote school success. Baltimore is the 26th largest 

city in the U.S. and one of the poorest jurisdictions in Maryland, 

with 22% of people living below the poverty level vs. 9% in the state 

of Maryland (www.census.gov). Baltimore City has consistently had 

one of the highest murder rates in the nation (Rector, 2016). In 

April 2015, Baltimore City experienced civil unrest following the 

17

7 TRAUMA-INFORMED 

DISCIPLINE

Trauma-informed discipline 

involves acknowledging the role 

trauma may have in behavior 

and identifying practices 

that will provide appropriate 

consequences while promoting 

healthier behavior in the future. 

Examples include:

● Disciplinary practices 

involve more than simply 

isolating students from 

peers.

● Disciplinary infractions are 

handled in a timely manner 

that is consistent with the 

standards outlined by the 

school.

● Restorative solutions 

(e.g., restorative circles) 

are employed to foster a 

positive and communicative 

school environment.

● Signs outlining school rules 

or expectations are posted 

throughout the school to 

remind students to be safe, 

respectful, and responsible.

● There is a designated room 

or space where students 

are sent to after disruptive 

outbursts to clear their 

heads and reflect on their 

recent behavior (reflection 

room).
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray Jr. after having sustained injuries 

while being transported in a police vehicle. The civil unrest resulted 

in riots that rocked already fragile communities. Baltimore City 

Schools recognized the need to respond to students and school 

communities who were not only traumatized by civil unrest but 

those who experience other types of chronic trauma and stress. 

Integrating Trauma-Informed 

Care and developing TraumaResponsive Classrooms and 

Schools

Baltimore City Schools recognize that without appropriate supports 

and services, students who have experienced chronic stress and 

trauma are often unavailable to learn because their brains and 

bodies have been hijacked by that trauma. City Schools applied 

and were selected to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s 

Promoting Student Resilience Grant to support the development of 

trauma-responsive schools. Through this grant, City Schools have 

developed a three-tiered intervention model to provide prevention 

and intervention supports at the school-based level. Services and 

supports will be implemented initially in the 13 focus schools that 

were most impacted by the civil unrest and then expanded to the 

rest of the district. 

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7 TRAUMA-INFORMED 

DISCIPLINE

Examples include:

● Teachers and other faculty 

model appropriate behavior 

and positive relationships 

for students.

● Students know the 

consequences and rewards 

for behavior.

● Behaviors that are 

associated with 

consequences and rewards 

are operationally defined.

● Disciplinary actions are 

applied consistently to 

all students for the same 

behavior.

● Positive behavior and 

student accomplishments 

recognized by teachers are 

communicated to parents 

promptly and consistently.

● All staff provide targeted 

instruction regarding 

expectations for behavior.

● Disproportionality is 

addressed by engaging 

relevant stakeholders and 

experts in the community.

● Students are able to call 

restorative circles when 

they feel they have a 

problem, even prior to 

an outright disciplinary 

infraction.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES

TIER 1: UNIVERSAL/PREVENTION SERVICES FOR ALL STUDENTS

Training for principals and their executive leadership on creating 

trauma-responsive schools is scheduled for each month for the 

entire 2016-2017 school year. Through a SAMHSA partnership, 

reoccurring after-school classes have been developed for schoolbased staff. These classes incorporate SAMSHA’s Model of TraumaInformed Approach: Key Assumptions and Principles. After-school 

classes are also being developed for school principals and assistant 

principals to develop a systemic application of a flexible framework 

to create trauma-sensitive schools. Additionally, City Schools will 

be integrating school-based training-coaching-modeling in the 13 

focus schools on the use of Restorative Practices, Mindfulness and 

the utilization of Kognito, which is an online and interactive suicide 

prevention program. 

TIER 2: EARLY INTERVENTION FOR SOME STUDENTS

In addition to the existing mental health supports assigned to the 

school, the grant will provide each of the 13 focus schools with a 

full-time expanded mental health clinician whose primary focus is 

to identify students affected by trauma and provide school-based, 

trauma-focused mental health services. These clinicians will provide 

screening questionnaires to identify students impacted by trauma. 

TIER 3: INTENSIVE INTERVENTION FOR FEW STUDENTS

The expanded mental health and school-based clinicians at these 

13 Focus schools will receive training in the evidenced-based 

psychosocial treatment for children and adolescents experiencing 

significant emotional or behavioral problems related to exposure 

to traumatic live events. TF-CBT, when conducted to high fidelity, 

has been found to reduce posttraumatic stress symptoms as well 

as depression, anxiety, and behavior problems. School-based 

clinicians will also collaborate with specific community-based 

mental health providers who specialize in treating trauma when 

necessary (i.e. lack of parent consent or refusal for treatment or 

nature of the trauma).

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7 TRAUMA-INFORMED 

DISCIPLINE

Examples include:

● The use of affective 

statements, or emotiondescriptive language, 

is encouraged for both 

teachers and students to 

foster positive relationships, 

either verbally or in writing.

● Discipline practices are 

sensitive to behaviors 

that may be deemed 

appropriate at home 

despite being discouraged 

at school.
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

The Breakthrough Series 

Collaborative

Three Baltimore City Public School programs participated in a yearlong Breakthrough Series that was collaboratively developed by the 

University of Maryland, Baltimore Schools of Medicine and Social 

Work, The Family Center at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and The 

Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund. The focus of this collaborative 

was to support Baltimore in becoming a more trauma-informed, 

resilient city. The participating ED PRIDE programs, a specialized 

city-wide program for students receiving special education for 

emotional disabilities, completed self-assessments to determine 

their baseline levels of school-based trauma-responsive practices. 

The teams then reviewed their self-assessment reports, identified 

target areas in need of improvement, and developed team goals. 

The teams developed and implemented Plan-Do-Study-Adjust 

strategies to achieve their team goals and increase the quantity 

and quality of trauma-responsive practices. 

The teams developed and implemented four Plan-Do-Study-Adjust 

strategies in the ED PRIDE program. The ED PRIDE program is 

designed to help students manage their emotional disabilities by 

providing comprehensive services in a structured environment 

to increase pro-social behavior and coping strategies to regulate 

emotional and behavioral responses while engaging in the 

curriculum. The ED PRIDE program includes the use of Response 

to Intervention (RTI), the use of uniform points and level system, 

access to a support room, crisis intervention, and physical restraint 

as a last option and when the student is an imminent danger to self 

or others. The four PDSAs are described below.

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES

Gauging the Emotional Climate 

in the Classroom

Three ED PRIDE programs implemented a morning check-in strategy 

that was titled, “Gauging the Emotional Temperature in the Classroom,” 

which was derived from Mariale Hardiman’s, Brain Targeted Teaching 

Model for 21st Century Schools: Brain Target One: Establishing the 

Emotional Climate for Learning. This strategy was selected as a 

trauma-responsive intervention to support students who are growing 

up in a toxic stress environment and who routinely start off the day in 

distress from experiences such as altercations at home, community 

violence, exposure to drugs and alcohol abuse, pervasive poverty, 

inadequate housing, or restricted access to food. This was selected 

as a trauma-responsive intervention because the goal was to support 

students in identifying their emotional state when entering school 

rather than allowing them to continue without the support they need 

to be emotionally and cognitively present at school. Each ED PRIDE 

program created a developmentally appropriate worksheet that 

asked the students to identify how they were feeling and why, and if 

additional support was needed for them to modulate their emotions 

and behaviors. The students and staff reported that this strategy was 

helpful in creating a ritual in which the students routinely practice 

identifying and expressing feeling states, cause and effect in relation 

21
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

to those feeling states (I feel angry because I got into a fight with 

my brother), building a positive relationship with the PRIDE staff 

members, and accessing adult support when needed. There were 

less staff referrals for students in need of support in the classes 

where developmentally appropriate worksheets were implemented.

For more information on the Breakthrough Series Collaborative, 

please visit: http://thrivebmore.org/baltimore-breakthrough-seriescollaborative/. 

Project Mickey

Project Mickey is part of Jasmine’s House, Inc. whose goal is to end 

animal neglect, cruelty, and abuse. The animals in Project Mickey 

are trained therapy animals recruited from shelters, and many have 

experienced significant trauma. Project Mickey staff brought the 

animals to the ED PRIDE program and provided specific goal-focused 

sessions with the students. Project Mickey was selected as a traumaresponsive strategy because the program provides fun, animalcentered activities, lessons on animal needs, and communication 

and training for students to strengthen their emotional vocabulary 

and increase their ability to recognize and express feelings. The 

program also provided opportunities for students to experience 

and demonstrate empathy around the animals’ traumatic history 

and their own traumatic events and to help build student resilience 

through the animals’ progress and healing. 

The scope and sequence of the sessions are as follows:

● Safety

● Identifying Feelings from Non-Verbal Communication

● Pet Needs

● Abuse and Neglect

● Shelters and Rescues

● Pit Bulls

● Helping

● Optional:

○ Community Cats

○ Working Dogs

○ Training using Positive Reinforcement 22
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES

In order to participate in Project Mickey, students had to meet 

clearly identified behavioral expectations that resulted from earning 

a specified amount of points (based on a points system). There 

were 16 participants in one of the Elementary School ED PRIDE 

programs. Four of those students met the behavioral expectations 

at baseline and maintained the expected point level to participate, 

and 11 students demonstrated an increase in their average earned 

points and were able to participate. Additionally, the impact of 

Project Mickey on student attendance was assessed, and 10 of 

the 16 students who participated demonstrated an increase in 

attendance during this intervention.

For additional information on Project Mickey, please visit http://

jasmineshouse.org/project-mickey/.

Have You Filled a Bucket?

This intervention was implemented in another Elementary/Middle 

ED PRIDE program at and was based on the book, Have You Filled 

a Bucket? by Carol McCloud. The bucket in the book represents a 

student’s mental and emotional self. A full bucket indicates that a 

student feels happier, more confident, secure, calm, patient, and 

friendly. Students learn that when they think, do, and say positive 

things, they not only fill their bucket, but they fill the buckets of 

people around them. Students learned real-world examples of being 

bucket fillers and bucket dippers. 

This intervention was selected as a trauma-informed prevention 

strategy, supporting the development of behavioral and emotional 

regulation and empathy building. The book was read to the students 

and they were taught real world examples of being bucket fillers and 

dippers. Students’ abilities to provide authentic peer compliments 

and praise using sentence starters were assessed before 

implementing this strategy. The goal was to increase positive peer 

interactions by increasing students’ ability to provide authentic and 

meaningful praise and compliments (e.g.,” I like the way you helped 

me clean up the papers I dropped. It made me happy.”) to their 

peers which were linked to feeling states. After this intervention, 10 

out of the 12 student participants increased their ability to provide 

23
TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

authentic peer praise and compliments that resulted in an increase 

in positive connections in the classroom. 

For additional information on Have You Filled a Bucket, please visit 

http://www.bucketfillers101.com/.

Mindfulness 

The clinicians and teachers at a Middle School ED PRIDE program 

implemented a Mindful Moment in one of their classrooms. The 

purpose of this intervention was to teach students to quiet the brain 

and body in order to increase their ability to self-calm and regulate 

emotions and behaviors. Many of the students were growing up 

in toxic stress environments without the chance for their brains 

to experience quiet and calm. The Mindful Moment focused on 

teaching these students how to quiet the brain and body in brief, 

incremental sessions. Students also learned that they have the 

capacity to switch off the stimulus and that their ability to do so 

resides within them and they can take it with them anywhere they 

go. Another goal of this intervention was to support emotional and 

behavioral regulation. Vicktor Frankl stated, “Between stimulus and 

response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose 

our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.“ 

Students growing up in toxic stress frequently react out of survival 

mode and these reactions include fight, flight, or flee. Over time, 

using mindfulness helps students create new nueral pathways by 

helping them to learn how to develop the ability to choose their 

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES

responses rather than instinctively react. To assess the Mindful 

Moment intervention, staff utilized a self-response tool completed 

by the students at the end of each session. The survey included the 

following questions:

How do I feel now? (identify a feeling word). How much? (from 0-5)

The following questions asked the students to rate from 1 (No) to 

5 (Yes):

Did I demonstrate my best effort today by holding myself to a high 

standard? 

Do I feel more mindful? 

Do I feel calmer?

What strategy will I use in class?

How will that strategy help me?

Is there anything else I want to remember from today‘s session?

Mindful Schools Curriculum is currently in the pilot phase in six of 

the ED PRIDE programs and will be collecting baseline and post 

data to measure effectiveness. 

For more information on the Mindful Schools Curriculum, please 

visit http://www.mindfulschools.org/.

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TRAUMA-INFORMED CLASSROOMS

Conclusion

Trauma-informed classrooms are an essential ingredient for 

building schools with safe academic environments for students to 

maximize learning. Providing educators with the tools to understand 

the impact of trauma on students’ behavior and academic 

performance lays the foundation for transforming the classroom 

into a safe space for academic engagement. Integrating resources 

that facilitate clearly defined expectations about behavior and 

safety encourages healthy connections with others and provides 

discipline that promotes self-regulation skills, and sustains traumainformed approaches in the classroom. 

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NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JUVENILE AND FAMILY COURT JUDGES

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