S-CCATE: An Online Tool for Planning to Alleviate Trauma
VIENNA, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES:The rise in mental health issues and feelings of loneliness and isolation for children has left educators and administrators feeling overwhelmed. Students’ mental health, academic performance, and overall well-being have been impacted during this pandemic. This is why school-based compassionate and trauma-informed practices are more important than ever.
S-CCATE was developed by the Center for Educational Improvement in partnership with local school leaders. It is based on the Heart Centered Learning framework (HCL), which is CEI’s signature approach to social emotional learning and mindfulness. S-CCATE helps educators to vision and plan, as well as monitor their progress towards the implementation of compassionate, trauma- informed practices. It is designed to help educators and school communities address trauma, alleviate stress, and uplift students and staff.
The assessment is completed by teachers and school personnel, who answer questions about themselves, their students, and their school leadership. Schools are then provided with a report containing their schools’ results and customized recommendations designed to improve well-being for students, teachers, and the wider school community.
“S-CCATE helped our administrators identify our strengths and also where we needed to focus to improve our school culture. It is an empowering tool—it provided a way for staff to make decisions about their professional development,” shares Joan Cavallo, principal of Maple Run Unified Schools in Vermont.
S-CCATE can be taken three times a year, allowing schools to track their progress in becoming a trauma-informed school and their improvements in school culture and social emotional learning. S-CCATE also complements many other SEL frameworks. It provides an easy-to-use, efficient, evidence-based solution to help school communities build resiliency and address trauma, with recommendations to support both students and staff.
“S-CCATE gave us a way to measure areas of need. We focused on making sure that teachers and other staff understood more about the neurobiology of trauma and about mindfulness and ways to consciously connect with one’s emotions and better understand self and others. We found it helpful and plan to continue using it to measure progress,” said Dr. Rachel Santa, Director of Special Services for the Cumberland School District in Rhode Island.
