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Although the COVID-19 pandemic has officially been declared as being over, students’ lives remain disrupted, and the School System is taking steps through a special grant to help them deal with the trauma they’ve faced.

Eric Vanzant, Campora Family Resource Center director, updated the School Board on May 8 about how the $163,000 the system received from a $10.2 million statewide Resilient School Communities Grant from the Tennessee Department of Education is working.

The grant will be used to train teachers and implement a continuing program to address the trauma students face, help them deal with it and keep them on track to be productive in their learning environment.

Vanzant said key elements provided through the grant include adding Gail Castle as a trauma-informed specialist and Pam Turner as a behavioral interventionist. He added that money has also been made available to pay school personnel additionally for their roles in leading before- and after-school groups specializing in dealing with trauma and behavioral issues.

Vanzant told the School Board that another factor that plays into the trauma- and behavioral-mending picture is that the system has been able to have guidance counselors in place at all of the system’s 11 schools, up from the nine who had been handling those duties. He added that the two positions were not included as part of the grant program, but the system opted to fund them.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives in a way never seen before and left children away from school and outside of their comfort zones, resulting in school systems having to adopt “trauma-informed practices” to counter the negative impacts.

Sheri Byford Smith, district social emotional learning & mental health coordinator and North Middle School’s counselor, and Vanzant coordinated the grant initiative at the local level.

Smith recently explained her approach toward the effort.

“Trauma-informed practices empower school personnel with the strategies needed to effectively respond to trauma-induced behaviors,” she said. “Trauma-informed schools help to foster a school climate where students feel safe and confident.”

Vanzant agreed.

“We just want the kids to be OK and the teachers to be OK and have the skills to reduce the level of trauma the kids are facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Smith said that about 70 percent of children have experienced some form of physical or emotional trauma that can impede their ability to feel comfortable, leading to behavioral problems and hindering their ability to learn. She added that the COVID-19 pandemic had greatly added to the trauma level students who returned to school had faced.

She said the grant ensures that all 11 schools in the Franklin County School District will have trained personnel who use trauma-informed practices and skills at the elementary, middle, high-school and alternative-school levels. She added that the schools will be designating three- to five-team members to carry out the process.

Vanzant said the teams will be trained for the upcoming school year which begins in August.

Smith explained the grant will provide training, material, substitute teachers and cost of travel for the teams.

The teams will be trained in the “train-the-trainer format” of Building Strong Brains — a model for prevention, treatment and mitigation of what have been deemed “adverse childhood experiences” by the National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect.

The new school trainers will train each of their schools, Smith said, adding that the teams will continue to implement strategies learned from trauma-informed training.

The teams will also continue to monitor the individual schools and the overall district’s action plan.

After the trauma-informed training, each school will be encouraged to establish a team of school leaders who will monitor, discuss, and implement trauma-informed strategies that will change school culture, Smith said, adding that the district will continue to monitor the results.

Smith and Vanzant said they will serve as a resource for each school team as well as organizing the district training of the teams.

The coordinators will work to ensure the individual schools have any needed support while training faculties and staffs.

In addition, the coordinators will guarantee that the trauma-informed schools’ district action plan is completed, being followed and has its progress monitored through the activities and the training that occur in the schools.

Smith said the action plan will follow the direction of Jorge Elvir, a noted expert in dealing with discipline strategies for addressing students’ problematic behavior.

The training will provide school leadership teams with practical, easy-to-implement restorative-discipline strategies for addressing the negative behavior, Smith said.

She said the grant’s impact will increase student competence and confidence and implement protective factors by providing afterschool, skill-based small groups that focus on developing healthy relationships, dealing with grief and implementing healthy coping strategies to deal with anxiety and stress.

The groups will provide needed support to students impacted by COVID-19 who are experiencing mental health issues due to the impact of the last three years, Smith said.

Vanzant said another focus will be to incorporate service learning, such as organizing and distributing Thanksgiving and Christmas food boxes, providing tutoring to elementary students, sorting clothes in Campora’s Clothes Closet and organizing food drives for the food pantry at the Campora Family Resource Center.

He said the rationale for providing service-learning opportunities for students is that it will help them develop social skills, leadership ability and a higher sense of belonging.

Vanzant said the students who participate in the groups will acquire needed skills that will assist them in becoming ready for college and their career by learning to manage their emotions, anxiety and stress in a healthier way.

The money from the grant will provide stipends for current personnel, including counselors, student advocates, teachers and staff who sponsor the groups, Smith and Vanzant said.