Educators, students, and families are being called on to demonstrate empathy and resilience, build relationships, and utilize their collective resolve to strengthen our schools and community. These social and emotional skills offer a powerful means to support and educate each other.
For students, social-emotional learning (SEL) promotes skills needed to engage in academic learning more fully—whether in-person or at a distance. For educators, SEL helps them practice self-care, resilience, and empathy while fostering safe, equitable, and welcoming school communities.
Below are some of the innovative KCKPS initiatives that help cascade out its commitment to social-emotional learning.
As we help build a caring community, our students must understand what bullying is when witnessing or experiencing this kind of behavior. Each school has a Bully Site Action Plan that includes responding to bullying and supporting someone who has been bullied.
Parents and guardians have access to services and programs designed to help them talk to their students about the difference between bullying, teasing, conflict, and a mean moment.
Alfred Fairfax Academy (AFA) practices replacing the standard punishment/rewards system with Restorative Practices to inspire positive behavior and increased self-efficacy. Restorative approaches allow AFA to build relationships with students, making it easier for learners to trust and put in the work it takes to learn the social-emotional skills needed now and in the future. AFA tries to empower its students with tools and strategies that help them recognize and respond to the emotions they are feeling, be accountable for their actions, acknowledge and exercise acceptable behaviors, show empathy for others, and problem-solve effectively.
Meet Officer Michael D. Simmons, Restorative Justice Practitioner
Officer Michael D. Simmons has been a School Resource Officer for KCKPS for more than seven years. He began as a School Resource Officer at Fairfax Learning Center in 2015 after being employed as a Law Enforcement Officer with the KCKPD for 32 years. He is a 1979 Schlagle High School graduate.
Before his law enforcement officer career, Simmons served three years in the United States Marine Corps. His distinguished career as a KCK Police Officer allowed him to work with our city’s youth, founding and co-founding various intervention programs. The remarkable thing about Officer Simmons is that he is compassionate and understands human nature. He understands his role as a sworn Law Enforcement Officer, he understands his role as a law-related educator, and he understands his role as an approachable law-related counselor. He is a vital member of the Alfred Fairfax Academy.
The Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools Trauma Sensitive and Resilient Schools Initiative has accomplished nearly all the goals it set out to meet during the first three years of the initiative. This accomplishment helps to further KCKPS’ commitment to social-emotional support for our students and administrators.
Each school site has a Trauma Sensitive Implementation Team that sets goals and works toward implementing trauma-sensitive practices and procedures. These teams attended intensive training and were equipped with a mini-grant of $350-$400. As a result of this support, they are implementing trauma-sensitive practices at their schools. This effort has helped our teachers deepen their knowledge of Trauma Sensitive and Resilient Schools practices and policies and has empowered them to integrate this meaningful work into their classroom learning. This intentional approach will continue to enhance our administrators’ ability to build healthy and consistent relationships among their staff, students, and families.
“I am in my 5th year as a school counselor at Noble Prentis Elementary. As a part of the KCKPS Trauma-Sensitive and Resilient Schools (TSRS) initiative, I saw a need to extend my level of support in my school. My TSRS team was discussing and exploring new ways of supporting students in trauma sensitive ways. Many of my staff have gone through the pandemic together, and over the last few years, we have felt a shift in managing ourselves through our collective trauma. This allowed me to see a need to support my teachers and staff specifically. Through my searching, I found Happy Teacher Revolution. This organization ‘is a Baltimore-born, international movement with the mission to support teachers’ mental health and wellness. [They] train revolutionaries worldwide to initiate Happy Teacher Revolution support group meetings in their communities.’
“I was fortunate enough to be allowed to sign on for this training to become a “revolutionary” for teachers. I hope to create a safe space for teachers to feel supported. My goal is to help normalize mental health issues and to give my staff a way of building resilience together.”
– Ms. Megan Lopez,
Noble Prentis Elementary School Counselor
“Megan’s passion for helping her colleagues feel great about their work is the driving force behind her leadership of the Happy Teacher Revolution. This work is directly related to the five core principles of a Trauma Sensitive Community (safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment), especially empowerment. I can’t wait to see what our empowered educators do!”
– Ms. Brittany Talley,
Trauma Sensitive and Resilient Schools Coordinator
In 2021, KCKPS partnered with Mindful Momentum, a local company that focuses on the practice of mindfulness to help individuals and organizations flourish, cultivating peace, resilience, and sustainable happiness. In partnership with KCKPS’ Trauma Sensitive Resilient Schools initiative, Mindful Momentum created a mindfulness curriculum for all High School students to roll out in January of the 2021/2022 school year. To support KCKPS staff and give them a full understanding of the student program, we completed a three-session Mindfulness training for all teachers.
The driving idea behind this training was to give teachers the same tools the students would be learning, to put them into practice in their work and lives, and support the students as they learn mindfulness practices. Today, six Mindful Momentum certified trainers are working at KCKPS.
