Lessons from Implementing Grief-sensitive Training in US Public Schools as Told Through Focus Groups with Educators

Background: Approximately 9 in 10 American adolescents experience the death of a significant person by the end of high school. While grieving children and adolescents may turn to their teachers for support, most educators feel unprepared to support them. The National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (NCSCB) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles provides grief-sensitive training to school districts participating in New York Life’s Grief-Sensitive Schools Initiative (GSSI). Data is limited on what is most helpful about the training and what could be improved. Additionally, since COVID-19 began, as part of the GSSI, the NCSCB has initiated trainings in some of the largest school districts in the country. To understand how the training could better support educators during this critical time, we conducted focus groups with educators who recently completed GSSI training in a large metropolitan school district which was an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: Educators were invited to participate after indicating their interest on their post-training evaluation. In total, seven educators participated across three focus groups: four classroom teachers, one school psychologist, and two administrators. Five participants were employed at high schools, and two at elementary and middle schools. Ninety-minute focus groups were conducted via Webex video meeting software. Main themes explored in the sessions included: educator experiences supporting grieving students before and after training, helpful aspects of the training, areas for improvement, and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transcripts from the sessions were then coded by two independent coders using grounded theory analysis into NVivo coding software.

Results: The majority of participants had not completed formal training on bereavement prior to the GSSI training, and reported greater comfort with the idea of supporting grieving students afterwards. Educators described the training as similar to mandated reporter or social emotional learning trainings in terms of importance. The most valuable aspects of the training identified by participants included learning the signs of grieving in students, specific words and strategies to support them, and certain phrases to avoid. Participants shared that the pandemic has introduced new stressors and losses into the lives of their students, exacerbated old stressors, and made it harder for them to assess who needs help. Educators reflected on their own emotions during interactions with grieving students and verbalized the potential for compassion fatigue and burnout. Recommended additions included concomitant training on professional self-care and supporting grieving parents and colleagues, debrief sessions with other educators, refresher trainings, and offering the CSGS’s family-facing resources in more languages.

Conclusion: Our research illustrates that the GSSI training helps educators feel more confident in supporting grieving students, and is a useful resource during the COVID-19 pandemic. We plan to conduct future focus groups in other school districts to incorporate a more diverse set of perspectives.