This week I was presenting at the National Center for School Mental Health Conference. From group discussions and individual meetings a topic that consistently came up was the crucial role that school mental health providers play when working with teachers and other administrative staff.
When thinking about the findings from my most recent study we realize how important in-service training is for teachers. The folks that provide this training are most often the school social workers or other in school mental health providers. It is therefore important that mental health providers and trainers in schools are able to assess teachers' and other school staffs' level of knowledge around trauma in schools.
What is interesting about this is that there are not a lot of great measurement tools out there that were specifically developed to measure teacher and staff perspectives, awareness, and response to students' trauma related behavior in the classroom. A tool that I have used to measure teacher awareness of trauma in the classroom is the Teaching Traumatized Students Scale. The same team that developed this scale developed two others that measure staff perspectives of student behavior, as well as staff responses to student behavior. I have attached the scales below, scroll to the end of the article and you will find the scales. Also feel free to reach out to Shantel Crosby, the main author, she is more than willing to share all of her work.
Are there any other tools folks have used to determine what trainings should be provided in schools?
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