Preparing For Crises In The Schools

A step-by-step guidebook for advance preparation and early response to school crises This Second Edition of Preparing for Crises in the Schools arrives at a critical moment. With several recent dramatic examples of school violence and other tragedies afflicting communities nationwide, the need for school districts to take proactive measures–rather than merely react to a crisis–is critical. This completely updated edition offers practical plans for laying the important groundwork to ensure that crisis response will be both immediate and thorough in the wake of tragedy. Authored by three school crisis response planning experts, it offers advice on early detection of trouble, developing plans and procedures to intervene with youths quickly and successfully, and conducting a school in-service workshop on crisis response planning and intervention. Essential for counselors, school psychologists, teachers, and administrators alike, this book helps ensure that schools are not caught by surprise when a crisis occurs.

The second edition of ""What Will We Do? Preparing A School Community to Cope With Crises"" is a guidebook for educators and parents who wish to understand the importance of both pre- and post-intervention programs in our schools to assist all parties in coping with crises that arise. The book examines the scope and effects (including the potential benefits and possible risks) of programs that target such issues as loss, illness, death, grief, war, and violence. It presents specific steps that can be taken to help prepare a school community to cope with possible future crises. Today's news has shown us with dramatic effect that a crisis can occur at any time, often without warning. Educators and parents must work together if they wish to help young people, and each other, when such a crisis occurs. What Will We Do? is a major step in that direction.

Is your school ready to respond to a crisis? Are school staff ready to address physical safety issues, emotional needs, and mental health consequences that arise from crisis situations? What steps can you take now to prepare your school for a crisis? Use the steps and guidance offered in this book to answer these and other questions critical to surviving any crisis that touches a school. Tens of thousands of school and community professionals have used this model and you can adapt it to your unique situation. Whether you need to address a crisis in the school building, across the district, or throughout a region, the field-tested model and practical guidelines lead you to answers that form a framework critical to controlling crisis situations. With an emphasis on integrating safety and security plans with mental health services, the authors show you how to use the talents, training, and knowledge of school personnel to coordinate a comprehensive response to any crisis. This model empowers staff to initiate and sustain a response to crises that answers the physical safety, mental health, and emotional needs of students, community, and staff. Sample plans, forms, checklists, and resources jump start crisis training, preparation, and response. How to Prepare for and Respond to a Crisis, 2nd Edition, is based on the work of the School Crisis Response Initiative of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, which is part of the Yale Child Study Center.

Featuring new chapters on bullying, sexual assault, natural disasters, eating disorders, and cultural considerations, the second edition of this highly popular Handbook provides a one-stop reference for mental health professionals who face a bewildering variety of school-based crises. Key features include a focus on both prevention and intervention and ongoing discussions of the research that underlies best practice. Like the first edition, chapters follow a parallel structure that includes: *the incidence, prevalence, and impact of the crisis; *theories regarding precipitating factors; *discussion of who is at risk for encountering the crisis; *primary prevention activities; *methods of working with high-risk clients; *developmentally-appropriate methods and intervention activities for individuals; and *developmentally-appropriate methods and activities for groups. The result is an unusually coherent volume that is suitable for graduate work in school psychology, school counseling, school social work, and school nursing, or as a reference work for in-service practitioners.

Here are hundreds of step-by-step guidelines, strategies, and working plans for helping students in grades K-12 overcome any kind of crisis or tragedy, including personal losses, tragic accidents, a terminally ill classmate, suicide, violence, and natural disasters. Plus, this complete and comprehensive resource includes reproducible activity sheets for counselors and teachers to use at different stages of a child's recovery -- activities that will help put children in touch with their feelings, identify problems, and easy their healing.

Designed to prepare school administrators and all educators for the inevitable crises that occur within schools and/or that effect those in schools, this training reflects the 3 most common phases of a crisis: pre-crisis planning, acute crisis response and post-crisis activities. Special attention is given to the most common pitfalls (those that pose the most threat to school personnel from a liability standpoint) associated with crisis response activities.Participants of this training are introduced to the CISM framework and specific intervention techniques that can easily be applied within the school setting. These intervention techniques are research-informed and widely recognized for their effectiveness. Participants will be given opportunities to explore the elements of effective crisis management through multiple group activities.