Schools and Disaster Recovery: An Overview
Disaster Recovery: An Overview
At other places on this website, there are links provided with information regarding posttraumatic stress, coping, and resiliency in reference to the general public. However, children and adolescents are a very specific population to consider. While reassuring children and adolescents following disasters is one of the first steps for all adults, teachers, and administrators, it’s especially important to remember that schools have unique roles in helping children after disaster and in facilitating mental health needs of children in academic settings. Regardless of their personal or immediate experience of the disaster, all children will be affected in some way, and the guidance that teachers and education professionals provide can make the difference between a child’s being overwhelmed and being resilient. Here are some tips to keep in mind in order to best accompany children in recovery from disasters:
Focus on your personal self-care so that you may be most helpful to those with whom you provide support and care. If you do not care for yourself, remember that you cannot properly care for others.
Schools can play an important central stabilizing role during and following disasters, and teachers and administrators can facilitate a return to mental health on the part of students and their families. Find ways to emphasize a return to stability. Look for ways to remind students that as time goes by, they are continuing on their way to recovery.
Promote resiliency through the classroom setting. The teacher-student relationship and the school setting can be an important component of children’s and adolescents’ recovery.
Incorporate healing activities into the classroom in addition to other lessons and curriculum. Anchoring academic lessons in an external context can be especially helpful for students following disaster.
Prepare for long-term reactions that are normal, such as the continued need to discuss a disaster. But you should also be alert for more serious long-term reactions. Some of these may include depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.
Some of this material is modified and adapted from this site. (pdf)
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
School Management of Serious Post-Disaster Stress Responses
Healing and recovery from disasters is a process, not an event, and it is normal for this process to take some time. By creating an environment of open communication in which you try to connect with students’ experience of disasters, you can help them cope and reduce the risk of lasting emotional difficulties. You can also educate yourself about normal traumatic and post-traumatic stress responses through information located throughout this website.
Find ways to emphasize a return to stability. When the disaster abates, return to previous schedules and maintain these for a time, even if some change in routine was planned, in order to provide a sense of security and comfort.
But teachers, administrators, and support personnel need also to be alert for more serious long-term disaster reactions, which are more severe than those experienced by most children. These might include
- persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event through intense recollections, dreams, flashbacks or hallucinations (“ghosts” of the original traumatic experience)
- persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma (for example, refusal to go near windows, go outside, or watch television)
- emotional blunting, in which students will demonstrate restricted feelings (being neither “too happy or too sad”
- diminished interest in usual activities (a formerly athletic student who refuses to participate in physical education, for example)
- signs of increased arousal, such as sleep difficulties, irritability, hypervigilance, disturbances in concentration, or exaggerated startle response.
These responses may be signs of anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress, all of which may look differently in children and adolescents than they do in adults, manifesting in the following ways:
In Preschoolers: as tantrums, physical complaints, brief periods of sadness, listlessness, or hyperactivity, lack of interest in activities, withdrawal.
In ages 5-11: as unusual and exaggerated fears, hyperactivity, conduct disorders (lying, stealing), refusal to attend school, refusal to leave parents, periods of sadness, vague anxiety or agitation, suicidal thoughts.
In Adolescents: as changes in appearance, withdrawal, fatigue, eating problems, substance abuse, risk-taking, sudden change in peer group, loss of interest, sleep problems, hostility, suicidal thoughts.
If you suspect a student is having extreme difficulties beyond his or her peers in responding to and recovering from the disaster:
- Consult with the student’s parents or caregivers to begin a collaborative approach to helping his or her recovery
- Involve the school counselor or social worker, who may have special training and resources available to them in facilitation of these sorts of responses
- Suggest to the parents or caregivers that they have the student evaluated further by a qualified mental health professional
Prevention and early detection of serious responses to disasters can help minimize the chance that they will be life-long struggles.
Some of this material is modified and adapted from this site. (pdf)
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
Children’s Developmental Level and Disasters: A Fact Sheet for Teachers and Administrators
People of all ages share some similar feelings and reactions in response to disaster. Teachers and administrators, however, have a special role to play in meeting the needs of children and adolescents in coping with and recovery from disaster. School personnel have the capability to understand these needs and can help students through these difficult times. In addition to staff and faculty, it is also important for students to understand their own responses in order to cope with disaster and trauma.
Typical disaster-related reactions for children and adolescents of all ages include:
- Fears of future disasters or of events associated with the disaster
- Loss of interest in general activities, school, work, or hobbies
- Regressive behavior such as thumb-sucking and toilet-training accidents
- Sleep disturbances and night terrors
Here are some responses of people of various ages, and some suggestions for ways of being helpful.
Preschool (ages 1-5): Children in this age group are particularly vulnerable to disruption. These children often need others to help them cope with the disruption and with their responses to the disturbance. Abandonment is a major fear associated with this age group. Thus, children who have experienced losses of loved ones (including pets or even toys) often need special reassurance. Typical responses include:
- Thumb sucking
- Bed-wetting, loss of bladder or bowel control
- Fears of the darkness or of animals
- Physical and emotional “clinginess” to parents and teachers
- Night terrors
- Speech difficulties (e.g., stammering)
- Loss or increase of appetite
Teachers and support professionals can respond helpfully to children between the ages of 1-5 by:
- Encourage expression through play or other symbolic creative activities such as coloring or clay sculpting. Children of this age often express their feelings of grief and loss mostly clearly through non-verbal methods.
- Provide verbal reassurance and physical comforting
- Give frequent and extra attention
- Plan calming and comforting activities, and de-emphasize stressful tasks
- Encourage parents to allow short term changes in sleep arrangements such as allowing children to sleep with a light on or with the door open, or on a mattress in the parents' or another child's room, or remaining with the child while the child falls asleep. Reassure your students of your predictable and stable presence.
Early childhood (ages 5-11) In this stage of development, children often display Regressive Behavior. This is when children tend to display behaviors or interaction styles from previous developmental levels. This is one of the most typical responses is children of this stage. This is thought to be because children in this developmental stage experience a sense of loss more intensely than others in ways that are more difficult for them to manage. Some typical forms taken by regression include:
- Irritability
- Whining
- Clinging
- Aggressive behavior at home or school or other in other settings.
- Open competition with younger siblings for teachers’ attention
- Night terrors, nightmares, fear of darkness
- School avoidance or other problems
- Withdrawal from peers
- Loss of interest and poor concentration in school
Some things that are helpful in the school environment are:
- Patience and tolerance
- Play sessions and discussions with adults and peers
- Relaxation of expectations at school or at home (with a clear understanding that this is temporary and the normal routine will be resumed at a later date).
- Opportunities for structured but not demanding tasks at school
- Rehearsal of safety measures to be taken in future disasters in a way that is appropriate to the developmental level of the students
Pre-adolescent (ages 11-14): Peer reactions are especially significant in this age group. Students need to feel that their fears are both appropriate and shared by others. Responses should be aimed at lessening tensions and anxieties and possible guilt feelings.
Typical responses include:
- Sleep disturbance, appetite disturbance
- Rebellion in the home and school
- Task refusal such as not doing homework or assignments
- School problems (e.g., fighting, withdraw, loss of interest, attention seeking behavior)
- Physical problems (e.g., headaches, vague aches and pains, skin eruptions, bowel problems, psychosomatic complaints)
- Loss of interest in peer social activities
Some things that may be helpful are:
- Group activities geared toward the resumption of routines
- Involvement with same age group activity
- Group discussions geared toward relieving the disaster and rehearsing appropriate behavior for future disasters
- Structured but undemanding responsibilities
- Temporary relaxed expectations of performance at school
- Additional individual attention and consideration
Adolescent (ages 14-18): Adolescence is a time when peer-groups are most important. Thus, any disaster or disruption of these groups or activities and roles associated with peer-groups are usually the most distressing for individuals in this age group.
Typical responses include:
- Psychosomatic symptoms (e.g., rashes, bowel problems, asthma)
- Headaches and tension
- Appetite or sleep disturbance
- Hypochondriasis
- Amenorrhea or dysmenonhea
- Decrease in energy level
- Apathy or Agitation
- Irresponsible and/or delinquent behavior
- Decline in autonomy and assertiveness in the school environment
- Poor concentration
Some support responses that might be helpful are:
- Encouraging participation in the community rehabilitation or reclamation work
- Encouraging the resumption of social activities, athletics, club involvement, etc.
- Encouraging discussion of the disaster experiences with peers in the school environment in a way that is safe and contained
- Temporarily reducing expectations for level of school and general performance
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
Connecting With Students’ Experience of Disaster: A Guide for Teachers and Administrators
Everyone responds to disasters differently, as a function of our life experiences and developmental levels. Thus, it is very important for Teachers, Administrators, as well as Students to understand what is going on inside and among individuals following disaster or trauma. Below are some general guidelines for connecting with students and individuals in these times of difficulty.
Support professionals must strive to put aside personal experiences in order to best connect with children’s experience of the disaster. Some ideas on how to do this are:
- Paying attention to children's fears that are often very different from those of adults. Any time that students are motivated to speak out or to ask a question, teachers and faculty should use it as an opportunity. The field expresses the idea that in schools, professionals should, “let the crisis become the curriculum” for some time following the disaster.
- Recognizing the feeling underlying students’ actions and attempt to put it into words. Saying something like, "It makes us sad to think about all of the people and homes that were affected by this hurricane," or "It seems to me that you are feeling really angry that this happened," can sometimes help tremendously. Try not to make students feel embarrassed or dismissed when they express their thoughts, feelings, or fears. Knowing how to respond to students’ concern is often difficult, but it becomes easier when we set aside the need to respond perfectly and only try our best to be the most helpful that we can be. When no other words come to mind, sometimes a touch, a pause, or offering a thoughtful response about the difficulty of the situation will at least show the student that you care.
Sometimes students may have an overwhelming fear that they are unable to put into words, and you may need to express it for them. This relates back to the previous point as well. For instance, if students are talking about a child who loses his mother during a flood, you might want to say to students, "You may be scared that something will happen to your family member too. But we are all safe and the flood waters are leaving, so we are going to make it out of this flood.”- Respect students’ wishes not to talk until ready. Recovery takes place along predictable stages of grief and we need to respect this journey as it is individual for everyone.
- Help students’ to put the events of the disaster in perspective by giving them information about the disaster in ways that match again their level of development and understanding. Sometimes simply having the facts can facilitate progress towards recovery best.
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
Promoting Childrens’ Resiliency in the Classroom
Children are remarkably resilient in their ability to “bounce back” from life problems in a way that makes them stronger. Some psychologists think that it is precisely through confronting developmental crisis, in which category many disasters would certainly fall, that children grow and develop.
Resiliency conditions take place along three dimensions of our experience: I AM, I CAN, and I HAVE. This fact sheet will discuss each of these as it relates to disaster recovery in children.
I AM refers to personal characteristics such as self-esteem, confidence, and recognition of personal strengths and assets. Children do not have a lifetime of experience on which to draw, but they do have optimism and hope and confidence, and they are beginning to accumulate experiences of being survivors. Feeding students’ sense that they “are survivors” can help foster resiliency.
I CAN as an element of resiliency refers to recognition of not just self-esteem but self-efficacy, which means the ability to DO and PERFORM survival- and recovery-related tasks. Although they may not possess the roles and resources and social positions of older people, children can bring their own talents of wisdom and perseverance and perspective and spirituality that they can bring to the disaster experience.
I HAVE refers to the supports around each of us that promote resilience. These supports are like the airbags in our cars that even when we crash can keep us from being wounded too seriously. For students these support systems center around the family and the school. It is essential, therefore, that children have experiences in school that promote resiliency.
School teachers, administrators, and support personnel can promote students’ resiliency through:
- Demonstrating an example of coping skills
- Teaching some specific coping skills for children that might include focus on breathing, stretching and exercise, positive thinking, and appropriate expression of feelings such as anger and sadness
- Enhancing children’s sense of control and mastery through involving them in classroom management and decision-making. Maybe you can even find ways to involve children in creating a school disaster plan to follow in the event of an emergency.
- Assuring children of their ongoing and strong advocacy and presence in their lives.
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
Incorporating Healing Activities in the Classroom
A wise person advised that in post-disaster recovery, “The crisis should become the curriculum.” This means that school administrators, support personnel, and teachers should seek to find ways in which they can integrate students’ experiences of the disaster with students’ overall academic experience and this integration can facilitate their recovery from it. Here are some general guidelines for this effort:
- In their recovery, children need ways to experience and express grief that correspond to their level of development as it relates to their experience of and response to the disaster. The classroom, as well as counselor offices can be helpful places for contained and safe expression of emotions related to the disaster.
- Incorporate disaster-related material in the curriculum to help children begin to integrate their experience of the disaster into their understanding of their life experience. For example, a mathematics lesson might include exercises on food and water supplies, or a social studies lesson might address the history and role of disaster relief organizations. Such attention will not heighten students’ experience of trauma, but rather give them a safe and contained place in which to begin to make sense of their experience.
- Integration of the disaster is an important component of healing, and whatever can be done to build bridges between the student-as-victim and the student-as-survivor is well worth doing.
- Plan practical activities to help children express feelings and make meaning of the disaster. Such activities as planting a tree as a memorial for a death, writing poems or stories for a class book about the disaster, and incorporating personal stories of the disaster into the curriculum can help students in their recovery.
WEb Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
The School’s Role in Disaster Recovery
Garrison Keillor said, “Nothing you do for children is ever wasted,” and nowhere is this more true than in the school’s role in helping students recover from disaster. Teachers and administrators can have a significant impact on the successful coping and recovery of the entire community after a disaster. It is vital that schools and communities recognize the long-term impact of tragedies on children and provide support not just for the first few days and weeks, but throughout the period of recovery and healing.
As school personnel educate themselves about the mental health implications of disasters and as they extend themselves to children, schools can:
- create caring and supportive environments that are a reminder of the predictable and stable elements in students’ lives even after disasters as they recreate pre-disaster routines
- provide an outlet for children to express a range of emotions and to communicate their feelings about the disaster in a supportive and contained environment
- facilitate the grief and recovery process for all affected by the disaster
- serve as a resource for educating not only students but parents and community leaders, and by conducting meetings to contribute to recovery
Here are some general principles for which teachers and administrators may find more detailed information elsewhere on the website:
- Focus on involving yourself with recovery in a way that corresponds to the developmental level of the students affected by the disaster. Parent-teacher interventions at the elementary level, for example, will be necessarily and appropriately different than those at the high school level.
- Understand and anticipate some of the normal stress-related responses of children, such as:
• Fear of the future
• Behavioral regression
• Academic regression
• Nightmares - Strive to be a predictable and safe and reassuring presence in students’ lives. Many of them may have lost possessions or homes or even family members, and school as a reliable and stable presence can be an essential anchor for students’ recovery in re-establishing routine, providing peer support and friendships, and providing additional opportunities for children to express themselves.
- Create an environment in which students and parents can begin to recover and cope in a safe and supportive environment. Allow them to express their emotions in a warm, supportive environment. Every child has a story to tell. Listening to a child re-examine his or her experience in a non-judgmental, supportive manner helps the child process the event and begin to recover.
- Relocated children and their families present special mental health recovery challenges. Although relocation may provide families with new homes, schools, and a sense of routine, successful integration of students into the system is paramount for children to re-establish roles and a sense of identity in their new communities. Administrators, support personnel, and teachers can help children integrate by involving them in school and community activities similar to those in which they were previously involved.
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
Administrators, Support Personnel, and Teacher Roles in Disaster Response and Recovery
Elsewhere we have prepared detailed information on children’s disaster response and recovery and discussed the ways in which schools can play a central role in facilitating the recovery journeys of students and their families, with specific recommendations for teachers and administrators.Following are some additional recommendations for various school-based groups in their disaster-related roles.
Administrators:
• Get input from a crisis team before making decisions
• Conduct faculty meetings
• Verify facts and tell the truth
• Be visible, available, and approachable
• Don’t be afraid to show emotion
• Empower staff and students
• Accept outside help when needed
• Keep everyone updated
• Help the staff understand that the crisis becomes the curriculum, and relax school expectations about such things as homework and dress codes.
Support Personnel:
• Give permission for a range of emotions
• Help faculty first
• Recognize the individual crisis history of each person and the role it may play in each individual’s reaction to the disaster
• Inform and educate parents
• Locate additional help, and keep record of who was seen and any concerns
• Ensure that the people most affected receive ongoing services
• Resist testing/placement immediately after a disaster or relocation, because academic regression is expected.
Teachers:
• Listen to each child’s story, and provide activities to express emotions
• Emphasize coping strategies
• Be patient regarding academic performance, as trauma affects learning ability
• Help students remember positives about deceased friends and loved ones
• Help students communicate with victims’ families or with their own families
• Be familiar with developmental stages of grieving
• Prepare students for funerals and what is to come regarding the rebuilding of their communities.
This material is excerpted and modified from the following sources:
»Brock, S., Lazarus, P., & Jimerson, S. (2002). “Best practices in school crisis prevention and intervention.” »Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.
»La Greca, A. (2005). “After the storm: Hurricane season 2005,” available on line at www.7-Dippity.com.
»Poland, S. (1999). Coping with Crisis: Lessons for Schools and Communities. Sopris West, www.sopriswest.com. (pdf)
Kansas State University provides this 3 page article titled Children May Experience
Long Term Effects of Disaster which explores general events that may bring about fear for children, tips for parents, tips for teachers and defines types of violence in the household (pdf).
Web Links:
This site provides mental health resources for teenagers and their teachers.
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma
Teacher and Administrator Self-Care Following Disasters
Teachers and administrators play a central role in facilitating students’ recovery from disasters. However, staff must also focus on their own mental health and recovery and develop coping skills in response to the disaster. Here are some helpful principles of self-care following disasters:
- Practice healthy self-care activities too, and try to deal with your own reactions to the situation as fully as possible.
- Consider joining a professional educator support group if you are not part of one already, and resuming your activity with any groups to which you might belong. Being part of a community is especially important during disaster recovery.
- Seek help as needed. Fewer than 5% of school personnel sought professional counseling following the Oklahoma City bombing, despite their direct involvement with their own and with students’ experience of this tragedy. Supportive psychotherapy can help make meaning of life experiences that are otherwise confusing and overwhelming and solitary.
- Many of your usual ways of managing stress will still be effective, but understand that you will have to modify some of them as you do your own recovery work from the disaster.
- Set an example of calm and in-control behavior. The more in control you appear to be, the more confident children will be that things have the possibility to turn out all right.
- Keep in mind that children learn from watching the adults in their lives, and that especially includes teachers: children are wonderful imitators, and they give close attention to how teachers respond to stress and concerns. Pay attention to what your behavior and mood are teaching children about how to respond to disasters.
Web Links
The American Red Cross offers information on disaster education for children
Another fact sheet from the American Psychological Association offers adults and teachers age-specific reactions and guidelines following a disaster
The National Institute for Mental Health offers resources regarding traumatic events and children and adolescents
Ready.gov offers a site specifically designed to help kids understand disaster preparedness
SupportOffice.org offers comprehensive information on supporting children during disaster and trauma