The Coalition to Support Grieving Students appreciates the important role that schools can play in supporting grieving students. This topic has rarely been part of professional preparation for the majority of school professionals or included as a component of continuing education offerings. This website was created to fill this gap. It provides training resources specially designed for school professionals, including brief video modules on a range of topics. Each video module is accompanied by a handout that summarizes the key points covered in the video; many of the modules are divided into several “chapters” so that you can watch part of the video and return to a subsequent chapter at a later time. There are also some additional materials, as well as links to other websites, that can be found in the Additional Resources section.
School counselors, school nurses, school psychologists, school social workers, and other student support personnel often are in the position to provide ongoing bereavement support to grieving students, assist families in identifying appropriate community resources, and help classroom teachers and other school professionals become better prepared to provide support to their students. We invite you to incorporate the training modules in your own presentations to classroom teachers and other school professionals, recommend that school personnel view the materials for self-directed professional development, or draw ideas from the modules to help you directly provide support to grieving students.
You will also find resources that address how to support students in the event of a school crisis where deaths are involved. We will add more materials to the website over time, as well as periodically post special information after major national disasters or crisis events. Please feel free to contact us if you have suggestions for new topics or questions, or if you would like to consult with someone from the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement about how to address the needs of grieving children in your school.