Trauma Responsive

Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE™)

April 1, 2026

Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE™) is a trauma-informed, culturally sensitive set of skills based on several strong evidence-based parenting programs. Provides free professional trainings, education, and technical assistance in evidence-based disaster mental health for youth. CARE uses specific skills for general use by all adults who interact or work with children, including those who have experienced trauma. Respond with CARE skills are designed to a) connect with children in a positive way, b) increase compliance with adult instructions, and c) decrease many problematic behaviors and reactions commonly noted after exposure to disasters or crisis events. It covers an overview of how crisis events, such as disasters, impact children across the age span and skills designed to improve relationships and reduce mild to moderate reactions.

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You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup: Culture of Care for Schools – Document

April 1, 2026

Taking care of yourself is vital. It can be challenging to prioritize time for yourself when there are so many other people and things to take care of in life. But focusing on others, whether it’s family, students or friends, is difficult if you haven’t already taken care of your needs. This short course helps increase your understanding of the definitions of commonly used self-care terms; increase your knowledge about the ABCs of self-care; introduces the concepts of collective care and healing centered environments.

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School Active Shooter Drills Mitigating Risks to Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health (2025)

April 1, 2026

Active shooter drills have become a standard practice in nearly all U.S. schools, yet their potential impact on students and educators has received limited attention. School Active Shooter Drills: Mitigating Risks to Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health explores how these drills are conducted and how to reduce potential harm while supporting school safety. Developed by a committee of experts in education, school safety, public health, pediatrics, child and adolescent development, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, public policy, and criminology, this report provides an in-depth review of current practices and offers guidance. The report provides suggestions for implementing practices that promote prevention and preparedness while supporting well-being, and foster learning environments where students and staff feel safe, capable, and supported.

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School Wellness Resiliency Toolkit

April 1, 2026

The Resiliency Toolkit is a resource designed to promote resiliency in safe and supportive school and caregiving environments. This curated collection offers developmentally appropriate knowledge, tools, and guidance to help students, caregivers, and school personnel navigate both everyday challenges and broader systemic issues. The toolkit brings together best practices, reliable information, and trusted external resources to empower users as they identify needs, explore effective strategies, and access additional support.

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Resources to Support Newcomer Students and Families

April 1, 2026

Find loads of resources to support newcomer youth and families. Migrant mental health encompasses the emotional, psychological, and social challenges faced by individuals who relocate across borders. Migrants often experience pre-migration traumas, uncertainties during transit, and post-migration stressors such as language barriers, financial instability, and discrimination. Adapting to new environments under these circumstances can heighten the risk of anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns. Addressing migrant mental health involves trauma-informed and culturally responsive approaches that recognize the unique experiences and resilience of newcomers.

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A Love Letter and Support Guide for Families Navigating Harmful Immigration Raids and Policies

April 1, 2026

“A Love Letter and Support Guide for Families Navigating Harmful Immigration Raids and Policies.” This guide was created for immigrant parents, and shaped by the insights and experiences of families impacted by immigration enforcement throughout the country. The guide highlights their experiences and offers advice, providing parents with mental health resources for themselves and their children. This love letter to immigrant parents invites parents to reflect on their own mental health, guides them through safety planning, and offers tips on how to talk to and support their children.

This resource is available in both English and Spanish

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Attendance Works

July 28, 2025

As a nonprofit initiative, Attendance Works partners with schools, districts, states, communities and organizations to ensure that chronic absence is recognized as a serious issue that can be addressed through proactive, supportive strategies. Their website offers resources for monitoring, understanding, and addressing chronic absence beginning in the early grades through secondary school. These strategies can be implemented at the school, district, and state level. You can find resources to help develop:

Positive Engagement with families and students
Actionable Data to help you identify students with too many absences
Capacity Building to help build a culture of attendance in your classroom, school or district.
Find toolkits under Capacity Building.

All tools can be downloaded and used without express permission from Attendance Works.

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Children’s Adversity Index – Illinois

July 28, 2025

The Children’s Adversity Index measures community-level adversity in order to estimate exposure to potential sources of childhood trauma. The index offers a clearer view of the challenges facing communities across Illinois. Although calculated at the district level to meet the statutory requirements, the index is not about school districts themselves. Rather, the data provides insights into the communities each school district serves. The index provides a useful tool for a wide range of state- and regional-level policymakers, nonprofits, state agencies, and other stakeholders to help them make better informed decisions about resource allocation, policies, and programming, and prioritize communities most in need. (IL Public Act 103-0413)

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Communities of Practice: Facilitators’ Guide

July 28, 2025

A Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of peers who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic, who come together regularly to fulfill both individual and group goals. A CoP provides an environment conducive to learning and exchange, emphasizing interactions in a climate of mutual trust and respect. Within the RSSI framework, a CoP can also serve as a strategy within a school or district’s action plan, helping to deepen implementation and foster collaborative, practice-based growth. This guide provides the history of CoPs in Illinois’ trauma responsive schools work and helps facilitators plan for and facilitate a Community of Practice. This is guide is a collaboration among Center for Childhood Resilience, Partnership 4 Resilience, and Stress & Trauma Treatment Center.

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Compassion Resilience Toolkit for Schools

July 28, 2025

In efforts to build resilience in our students, this organziation advocates for examining our capacity personally and professionally to model that which we strive to build. This toolkit explores the protective factors that build and maintain compassion resilience. toolkit will explore the protective factors that build and maintain compassion resilience.

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Trauma Responsive

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