Building Resilience in Students Impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences

Use trauma-informed strategies to give students the skills and support they need to succeed in school and life

Nearly half of all children have been exposed to at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), such as poverty, divorce, neglect, homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, or parent incarceration. These students often enter school with behaviors that don’t blend well with the typical school environment. How can a school community come together and work as a whole to establish a healthy social-emotional climate for students and the staff who support them? 

This workbook-style resource shows K-12 educators how to make a whole-school change, where strategies are integrated from curb to classroom. Readers will learn how to integrate trauma-informed strategies into daily instructional practice through expanded focus on:

• The different experiences and unique challenges of students impacted by ACEs in urban, suburban, and rural schools, including suicidal tendencies, cyberbullying, and drugs
• Behavior as a form of communication and how to explicitly teach new behaviors
• How to mitigate trauma and build innate resiliency through a read, reflect, and respond model 

Let this book be the tool that helps your teams move students away from the school-to-prison pipeline and toward a life rich with educational and career choices.

"I cannot think of a book more needed than this one.  It gives us the tools to support our students who have the most need while practicing the self-care necessary to continue to serve them."
—Lydia Adegbola, Chair of English Department
New Rochelle High School, NY 

"This book highlights the impact of trauma on children and the adults who work with them, while providing relevant and practical strategies to understand and address it through reflective practices."
—Marine Avagyan, Director, Curriculum and Instruction
Saugus Union School District, Sunland, CA 

Victoria Romero is an educator with over 42 years of experience working as a classroom teacher, principal, and leadership coach. She continues to coach administrators, directors, principals, vice principals, and school leadership teams for equity and sustainable school improvement in three school districts in Washington. Victoria is a certified consultant and lead author of two Corwin Press books, "Building Resilience in Students Impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Whole Staff Approach" (2018) and "Race Resilience: Achieving Equity Through Self and Systems Transformation" (2021). Both books focus on the impact of traumatization as it relates to social-emotional needs of students as well as how to create school cultures that foster resilience. In her more recent work, Victoria provides guidance to school staff in engaging in authentic dialogue about how racialization and racial positioning influences perceptions, behaviors, expectations, and decisions. Her guiding framework emphasizes that systems will change when the people working in them change. Ricky Robertson is an educator, author, and consultant. He has had the privilege to work with students from pre-K to 12th grade who have persevered in the face of adversity and trauma. He began his career in education as a New York City public high school teacher, teaching in one of the city’s highest-performing public schools. He then went on to work as a teacher, behavior specialist, and, eventually, as an administrator in traditional and alternative schools supporting students with significant mental health and behavioral needs. Ricky is the co-author, along with Victoria Romero and Amber Warner, of the Corwin bestselling book, Building Resilience in Students Impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Whole Staff Approach. The model that he and his co-authors developed in their book was included in the Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, & Health as an example of best practices for schools to support children and families impacted by toxic stress and trauma. Ricky continues to work with state and federal policymakers as an adviser on trauma-informed care in public health and education policy.  As a consultant and coach, Ricky works with schools, school districts, education service districts, and state departments of education across the country to develop systems of support that foster achievement, well-being, and resilience among staff and students. His work has been featured in podcasts, online media, books, magazines, national conferences, as well as a trauma-informed teaching video series developed by the National Education Association, WETA, and AdLit. Ricky finds inspiration in the resilience of young people and the heart and hard work of educators.   Amber N. Warner is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, with over 20 years of experience. She has had the privilege of serving as a community outreach case manager (4 years), school social worker (8 years), medical social worker (5 years) , and behavioral health therapist (3 years). As a School Social Worker, in addition to her work with children and their families, she was part of the school wide Modern Red School House Leadership Team and the Positive Behavior Interventions and Systems Team. She facilitated K-6 monthly classroom discussions utilizing Second Step and Character Counts curriculums. Amber is also a co-author of Building Resilience in Students Impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Whole Staff Approach. In 2011 Amber worked in healthcare and part of the organization’s leadership team, she was introduced to the work of Dr. Bryan Sexton on healthcare providers’ staggering burnout rates and the healing proponents of Positive Psychology. A new passion and interest developed for her. She became a Certified Duke Patient Safety Officer in 2013 at Duke University’s Patient Safety Center.  Amber has also studied under the direction of Dr. David Burns, leading Psychiatrist, and adjunct professor at Stanford University and the developer of TEAM a new form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the treatment of depression and anxiety. She has achieved Level 2 TEAM certification from the Feeling Good Institute.  She has a certification from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth in Trauma-Informed Care. Most of all, Amber has a passion for people, their wellness, and quality of life. She currently resides in California. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, Inferno Pilates, learning new things, traveling, community service, attending church, and an occasional new pair of shoes.