Grieving Student : A Guide for Schools

Educators and other school professionals can be a critical lifeline for grieving children. With the second edition of this bestselling book, school staff will have the practical guidance they need to provide sensitive support to students of all ages and their families.

Author David Schonfeld—a renowned expert on childhood bereavement and school crisis—partners with family therapist Marcia Quackenbush to guide school teams through a child’s experience of grief and illuminate the most powerful ways to make a positive difference. Drawing on both empirical research and extensive professional experience, the authors have enhanced this edition with up-to-date information on grief in the context of school crisis and trauma, suicide loss, social media, and other timely topics. School staff will get real-world tips, strategies, vignettes, and activities to help them skillfully support students as they cope with grief and work their way back to full participation in academic and social life.

DISCOVER HOW TO:

• respond constructively to children’s common feelings and behaviors after a death
• address the classroom issues that grief may cause
• learn what to say and what not to say when a child is grieving
• offer effective guidance to families who are coping with grief
• provide support to the student body after a death that affects the whole school community
• address children’s responses to different causes of death, including suicide, illness, and violence
• use simple commemorative activities at school to help students cope with their feelings
• manage personal feelings that may arise as you work with grieving students

WHAT’S NEW: Expanded online study guide with discussion questions, action steps, and more * Expanded focus on all school personnel, from administrators to support staff * New chapters on suicide loss and providing support in settings outside of K–12 schools * New and expanded information on social media, ambiguous losses, school crisis and trauma, supporting children with disabilities, school policies, line of duty deaths, memorialization, and more * Reflection prompts throughout the book * Insights related to the COVID-19 pandemic * New foreword by Superintendent Robert Runcie of Broward County Public Schools regarding the impact of the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

David J. Schonfeld, M.D., FAAP, is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He is Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and a former member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters; he served on the National Biodefense Science Board from 2018 to 2021 and as a Commissioner for both the National Commission on Children and Disasters and the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission in Connecticut. Dr. Schonfeld has authored over 150 scholarly articles, book chapters, and books. He has provided consultation and training on school crisis and pediatric bereavement for over 35 years in the aftermath of numerous school crisis events and disasters within the United States and abroad. He has also conducted school-based research (funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, William T. Grant Foundation, and other foundations) involving children’s understanding of and adjustment to serious illness and death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention.

Marcia Quackenbush, M.S., MFT, is a licensed family therapist. She has more than 20 years of clinical mental health experience, much of which has been focused on children, adolescents, and families of people living with life-changing conditions or people coping with serious, potentially life-threatening illness in themselves or family members. Ms. Quackenbush has written extensively in the health education and bereavement fields, publishing numerous articles, curricula, and books.