Supporting Grieving Students Webinar (for any school employee)

Space is limited. Click here to register.

Before graduating high school, one in seven New Mexicans will grieve the death of a parent or sibling. Since New Mexico ranks 2nd in the nation in childhood bereavement, New Mexico students must navigate grief, in addition to their everyday school responsibilities, while pursuing their education.

Regardless of age and stage, grief will impact the learning process. Although grieving students frequently report feeling isolated and lonely, schools are in a unique position to help. In this training, you will learn how to approach conversations about death and grief with young people, how children’s grief compares with adult’s grief, as well as strategies for supporting grieving students in the classroom.

This training is appropriate for any school community who is interested in information in advance of an incident, as well as schools seeking to heal after a death. While grieving students are resilient, they deserve support from consistent and trusting adults, including teachers, counselors, social workers, school nurses and school staff. By recognizing and responding to grief-associated behaviors, the school community can better support students and create safe spaces for students to process their emotions. The Training includes:

– Understanding how children grieve differently than adults.
– Identifying some of the key differences between bereaved youth at different developmental stages; distinguishing between elementary, middle, and high school-aged students, to create effective interventions.
– Understanding our typical cultural responses to grief (i.e. fear of explicitly discussing the death and obscuring the facts with euphemisms, offering platitudes, ignoring the death) are not helpful. Learn how to replace typical responses with more helpful responses and compassionate companionship.
– Exploring ideas for supporting students immediately following a death and throughout the school year.

This presentation is 1-hour long, free of charge, and provided via Zoom. Thank you to the Office of Student and Adolescent Health (New Mexico Department of Health) for sponsoring this event.