| Being inclusive of all learners, including those with disabilities |
- Create a culture of disability in your program: Include disability art in your physical space, include disability stories and materials in your curriculum, and include disability images in your outreach materials and website.
- Consider the role of the formal and informal assessments that you use to understand your students learning abilities
- How can this assessment inform your work? What is missing in this assessment? What was unanswered?
- Ask questions of students during intake or at the beginning of class, including:
- “What do you need to make school work for you?”
- “What would be your ideal classroom set up and what would help you concentrate?”
- “Tell me about yourself. I am here to listen.”
- Connect with your local Mass Rehab Commission, find out what services are available to your students.
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Enroll in this 3/4/22 session: Resources for Disability Inclusive Program Design and Delivery
Search Job Accommodation Network’s SOAR Searchable Online Accommodation Resource
Get in touch with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission (MRC) |
| Being inclusive of all students, including those with acute and continuous trauma |
- Recognize when you don’t have enough information about a student to know what is at the root of the problem, and use appreciative inquiry to find out more (where appropriate and welcome).
- Spend time at the beginning of class setting expectations around safe spaces. Make sure students are the architects of what constitutes a safe space.
- Encourage use of native language between students when discussing difficult and potentially re-traumatizing topics.
- Normalize the discussion of difficult topics. Create a monthly meeting for open sharing, or a support group for student led peer-to-peer exchange.
- Establish clear referral practices to local mental health supports and share with all staff. Program policies should describe a consistent and equitable process for how, when, and where to refer students for mental health support.
- Establish a program-wide check-in for staff well-being. Encourage self-care strategies and normalize the effects of vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue.
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Review and use these ideas: Co-Created Strategies for Creating Healing Spaces
Evaluate your program through the lens of this Trauma Informed Program Checklist
Read and extract helpful Tips for Teachers During Times of Trauma
Sign up for Mental Health First Aid on April 29th, 2022 (see SABES calendar to sign up).
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