Abstract
The Commonwealth of Kentucky has taken its first steps in creating trauma-informed K-12 schools through passing the School Safety and Resiliency Act of 2019. School districts were tasked with developing trauma-informed education plans by July 2021. However, the Commonwealth’s mandate gave broad autonomy to school districts in shaping their trauma-informed education plans’ processes and content. Through a critical policy analysis design, this study examined the availability and quality of trauma-informed education plans from each school district in Kentucky and compared them to the trauma-informed framework developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Findings indicate that only 19 out of 171 school districts published their trauma-informed education plans publicly. Out of those 19, only three met all the criteria recommended by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. There is a discussion of how a lack of state-level guidance impacts the quality of trauma-informed education plans followed by recommendations for improving these plans.
Recommended Citation
Wells, Tommy; Taylor, Alexandra J.; and Lein, Amy
(2023)
"A Critical Policy Analysis of Kentucky School Districts’ Trauma-Informed Education Plans,"
Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children: Vol. 10:
Iss.
2, Article 1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.61611/2995-5904.1050
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/ktej/vol10/iss2/1