CPLI: Indiana schools should adopt 'traumainformed practices'
Nov 17, 2024
INDIANAPOLIS — A new report from the Children's Policy and Law Initiative of Indiana suggests Hoosier State schools need to adopt "culturally-responsive and trauma-informed practices."
According to the CPLI, these practices will allow students to have greater access to faculty members. Such practices will also give faculty the ability to facilitate a safe and caring educational environment.
"This can be achieved when all school districts and schools require all staff to participate in annual professional development on culturally-responsive, trauma-informed care, mental health, bullying, suicide prevention and child/adolescent development," the CPLI wrote in the report.
Later, the report notes that trauma-informed practices can address and reduce the trauma and mental health issues that students may face both within and outside of school grounds. Per the CPLI, this includes systemic racism and other injustices, economic disparities, bullying and violence.
"Our goal is to create change within schools and the community where our students live that supports our youth and prevents them from entering the school-to-prison pipeline," the CPLI wrote.
Specifically, the CPLI recommends that, for every 250 students, there should be one counselor and one social worker. Per the report, in the state of Indiana, there is an average of 624 students for every school counselor, and 2,788 students for every school social worker.
A similar statistic applies to school psychologists and school nurses.
The CPLI recommended that the ratio of students to psychologists should be between 500 to one and 700 to one. Currently, Indiana's average is 2,699 to one. The CPLI also suggested there should be 750 students for every nurse. The average ratio for that in Indiana is 959 to one.
For more information on the CPLI, click here.