Trauma Responsive De-escalation: Evidence-based Strategies That Work in the Classroom

Externalizing behaviors in the classroom and their connection to trauma are at the top of most educators’ concerns. Children who have experienced trauma may express their distress through acting-out behaviors that can derail instruction and compromise classroom safety. When the underlying cause of acting-out behaviors is trauma, what appears to be intentional disruption of the learning environment may be due to the student feeling a lack of emotional, psychological, or physical safety. Punitive discipline will only make the student feel more anxious and unsafe, intensifying their acting-out behaviors. Learning to utilize trauma responsive de-escalation practices enables educators to understand the underlying causes of acting-out behaviors and consistently provide developmentally supportive responses. This book contains 15 easy-to-follow de-escalation lessons coupled with a comprehensive classroom management planning workbook.

Dr. Micere Keels is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago, and the Founding Director of the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices Project (TREP Project). For over two decades, she has worked to integrate mental health promotion interventions into educational systems and structures, from early childhood centers to high schools. The TREP Project works to develop the individual and organizational capacity of educators and schools serving children growing up in neighborhoods that have high levels of toxic stress, such as violent crime, concentrated poverty, concentrated foster care involvement, and housing instability. Through the TREP Project, she has supported the professional development of over 200,000 educators through school district partnerships in Delaware, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island, and through work with many individual schools across the U.S.