Courtesy Buncombe County Schools

1. Building Resilient Children by Creating
Compassionate Schools
Presented by:
David Thompson, Director of Student Services, Buncombe County Schools
(David.Thompson@bcsemail.org, )

2. Profile of Buncombe County Schools
• 6 Attendance Areas – 25,000 students; 43 schools
• 1 HS, 1-2 Middle Schools, 3-5 Elementary Schools
• 3 Areas have Intermediate Schools, housing 5th and 6th graders
• Ethnicity: 73% White, 15% Hispanic, 7% Black, 5% Other
• 500-600 Homeless Students
• 55.5% Free and Reduced Lunch
• Over 71 Languages Spoken

3. CLASS
Grant
Second Step
Curriculum
DESSA
Academic,
Attendance
and
Discipline
data
PBIS/MTSS
Compassionate
Schools
CRM Training
Comprehensive
School Counseling
Program
Additional
Counselor FTE

4. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

6. Brain Stem

7. Flip the Lid (Hand Model of the Brain)
Make a Fist with your thumb tucked inside your fingers. This is a model of
your brain.
Thumb = Midbrain (Stem & Limbic) = Emotional Brain. This is where
emotions and memories are processed. This is where the fight, flight &
freeze is triggered.
Fingers = Cerebral Cortex = Rational Brain. Houses our ability to think and
reason.
Fingernails = Prefrontal Cortex = Problem-Solving
When something triggers us, we are prone to “Flip our Lid” which means
the Prefrontal Cortex (Fingernails) have a very poor connection with the
Midbrain (Thumb), and we’re not able to access the logical, problem-
solving part of our brain. Our emotions are overriding our ability to think
clearly.
-Dr. Dan Siegal

8. BRAIN RULE # 8
Stressed brains don’t’ learn in the same way
that non stressed brains do.

9. Fight, Flight, or
Freeze?
• Uncharacteristic crying
• Poor grades
• Threats
• Confusion
• Neediness
• Truancy
• Breaking rules
• Drinking alcohol, doing drugs.
• Shutting down
• Unable to articulate thoughts/feelings
• Clinging
• Far-fetched explanations or excuses
• Distracted
• Abrupt change in friendships
• Physical aggression
• Isolating

10. • Unpredictability
(sudden changes)
• Transitions
• Loss of control
• Vulnerability
• Rejection
• Loneliness
• Over stimulation
• Intimacy
• Quiet
• Calm
• Confrontation
Common Triggers for Children
who have Experienced Trauma

11. ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
CONSEQUENCES OF BIOLOGICAL OUTCOMES
COGNITIVE
•Slowed language development
•Attention problems (ADD/ADHD)
•Speech delay
•Poor verbal memory/recall
•Loss of brain matter/IQ

12. 15

13. The Classroom is for Teaching
But what happens when 43% of students can’t
learn with
traditional methods?

14. ACEs and School Performance
Students with 3 or more ACEs…
Are 2 ½ times more likely to fail a grade
Score lower on standardized tests
Have language difficulties
Are suspended or expelled more
Are designated to special education more frequently
Have poorer health and miss more days of school
17
http://www.k12.wa.us/CompassionateSchools/Resources

16. Paradigm Shift
• Understanding that trauma is not a cognitive
experience, but a sensory one, dictates strategies that
immediately restore, to victims, a sense of safety and
renewed sense of empowerment/control in the face
of fear and uncertainty generated by the incident.
• Reduction of the arousal level is critical to the
restoration of pre-trauma cognitive processes,
learning functions, behavior and performance.

17. A shift in thinking from “What’s wrong with you?” (Reacting)
to “What happened to you?”
(Responding)
Resilient students need resilient teachers.

18. • A student’s ability to attach
• A student’s social emotional development
– Communication and Connectedness
– Empathy, Compassion & Respect
• Emotional regulation
– Hopeless, inability to impact world
– Unsure of needs or how to get them met
• Cognition and language
– Survival trumps exploration and growth (e.g. learning)
• Executive functioning: Sustaining Attention and Working
memory, Reasoning and problem-solving; Planning and task
flexibility.
Adversity/Trauma Impacts:

19. What This Tells Us
• As long as a student is not feeling safe and in control, this aroused state
makes it difficult to process verbal information, attend, focus, retain and
recall.
• Intervention designed to deactivate the arousal state and return the
student to a sense of safety and a sense of power or control, helps to
restore previous cognitive and behavioral patterns.
• The most immediate, short-term and long-term intervention, therefore,
must be designed to restore that sense of safety and control.

20. Why use the PBIS Triangle
for Traumatized Students?

21. Students need:
• Inspiration
• High standards—sense of empowerment
• Boundaries and structure (helps them feel safe)
• Authentic choices and a sense of control
• Support for transitions between home and school
• The chance to learn and practice social and
emotional competencies
When you think of a child impacted by a life of
adversity and stress – these attributes are scarce.
What we know

22. Compassionate School
A school where staff and students learn to be aware of
the challenges faced by others. They respond to the
physical, social, academic and emotional challenges
faced by students and families by offering support and
guidance to remove barriers to learning – without
judgment.

23. The Goals of a
Compassionate School
To provide a safe, supportive, and Inspirational
environment for learning and thriving in order
for students to develop:
Self-regulation the means by which an individual internally manages themselves
in order to attain their goals,
Resiliency adaptability to navigate challenges
Executive function organizes the efforts to make things happen – “make
good choices.”
Social/Emotional competencies how we get along with
each other and how we feel about ourselves.

24. Chapter 1: Trauma, Compassion, and Resiliency:
Background and Definitions
Chapter 2: Self-Care: An Ethical Obligation for Those
Who Care
Chapter 3: Instructional Principles, Curricular Domains
and Specific Strategies for Compassionate Classrooms
Chapter 4: Building Compassionate School-Community
Partnerships That Work
Chapter 5: Examples of Compassion, Resiliency, and
Academic Success Direct From the Field
Chapter 6: Resources
Chapter Titles

26. Ten Strategies of a Compassionate School
1. Focus on culture and climate in the school and community.
2. Train and support all staff regarding trauma and learning.
3. Encourage and sustain open and regular communication for all.
4. Develop a strengths based approach in working with students and peers.
5. Ensure discipline policies are both compassionate and effective (Restorative
Practices).
6. Weave compassionate strategies into school improvement planning.
7. Provide tiered support for all students based on what they need.
8. Create flexible accommodations for diverse learners.
9. Provide access, voice, and ownership for staff, students and community.
10.Identify vulnerable students and outcomes and strategies

27. • Ask, “What is going on with you?” followed by “How have you
handled that in the past?”
• Give kids other ways of thinking about things
• Remember brain is in “survival mode” and we have to help them
get to “thinking mode.”
• Relationship is the foundation for learning
• Ask kids questions that allow them to contribute.
-Julian Ford, University of Connecticut

28. Building Resiliency in Children
• My Definition:
Ensuring that all children learn the important social emotional, self-
regulation, academic, and work skills necessary to be able to face whatever
life challenges come their way and still have positive outcomes.
NCDPI says: READY relating to ready for College and Career
Compassionate Schools prepares students for LIFE!

29. Second Step Curriculum
by Committee for Children
• 4 Units
• Skills for Learning
• Focusing Attention & Listening, Using Self-Talk
• Empathy
• Identifying Others Feelings, Understanding Perspectives
• Emotional Management
• Managing Embarrassment, managing anxious feelings, managing
anger
• Problem Solving
• Solving Problems, Being Assertive

30. DESSA SSE
Deveraux Student Strengths Assessment
• Skills for Learning (nine items): A child’s ability to use the skills of
listening, focusing attention, self-talk, and assertiveness.
• Empathy (nine items): A child’s ability to identify and label
emotions in himself/herself and others and take on others’
perspectives.
• Emotion Management (nine items): A child’s ability to cope with
strong emotions and express them in socially acceptable ways.
• Problem Solving (nine items): A child’s ability to effectively handle
personal challenges and interpersonal conflicts in prosocial ways.

31. Community Resiliency Model (CRM)
Key Concepts for the Community Resiliency Model:
 Set of 6 wellness skills that anyone can learn
 People respond to stress in similar ways.
 People are resilient by nature.
 People can learn skills that will mitigate the impact of stress.
Master Community Resiliency Model Trainers in Buncombe County
 MaryLynn Barrett, Director of Behavioral Health, MAHEC
marylynn.barrett@mahec.net
 Dr. Stephanie Citron, Independent Psychiatrist
stephcitron@gmail.com

32. CRM Skills for Self-Regulation
• Tracking: Awareness of physical sensations of the nervous system.
How are the sensations of turmoil different from well-being.
• Resourcing: Utilizing positive characteristics, i.e. a good memory,
place, animal, or anything that provides comfort, peace, or happiness..
• Grounding: Use of mindfulness, physical tension in the body,
awareness of body contact with objects, sensations and stability
provided, etc. Yoga techniques provide grounding.
• Gesturing: Finding naturally comforting gestures that calm us.
• Help Now: Activities that help break the cycle of anger/turmoil, i.e.
pushing against wall, naming colors or objects, etc.
• Shift and Stay: Moving attention away from unpleasant sensations
and staying there.

33. Compassionate Schools
Examples of Implementation
• Book Studies: Brain Rules
• Growth Mindset/Compassionate Schools training for teams from each
targeted school
• Developing Common language:
Resliency, Self-regulation, Trauma-informed, chronic stress
Personal Agency,
• Mindfulness: Admin, teacher & student classes
• Self Care Assessments: starting with teachers
• Integrating Compassionate Schools with PBIS
• Community Resiliency Training and some trained as trainers.

34. Next steps for Buncombe County Schools:
• Better Integration of School-based mental health services into school
culture, tiered intervention model
• Train the trainer sessions for Compassionate Schools Model
Utilization of Research/Evidence based mental health practices into
MTSS/PBIS model
• Parent engagement through community Parent Advisory group
• Continue to strengthen community partnerships through local ACES
collaborative and MARC grant project

35. Next steps:
• Build knowledge of brain research on trauma and learning
• Examine practices that teach self regulation
• Create time and integration of Social/Emotional Learning into core
curriculum
• Examine current policies and practices and consider integration of
Resorative Practices into discipline
• Utilize practices such as calming areas with sensory, mindfulness, or
other calming activities integrated into the instructional day. (2-3
min.)

36. Community Involvement in Buncombe Co
• Ongoing ACES collaborative of 40+ agencies, parents, medical
practices, DHHS, courts, mental health, etc.
• Conducted Southeast ACES Summit to generate movement for change
• Integration of trauma screening into pre-natal and early childhood
development and medical care
• Inclusion of multiple agencies into school teams planning
Compassionate Schools: school nurses from medical practice, mental
health therapists, child care/after-school providers, etc.
• Collaboration to use physicians from MAHEC for consultation/support
in schools

37. Contact Information:
• David Thompson, Director of Student Services, Buncombe County
Schools(david.thompson@bcsemail.org, )