How REACH teaches schools new approaches to meet mental health needs

The Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing program in Illinois was launched in December 2020 through a partnership between the Center for Childhood Resilience at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and the Illinois State Board of Education. Its primary goal is to equip schools with resources and best practices to help meet a variety of challenges facing students as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mashana Smith, a psychologist and the director of REACH at Lurie Children’s, discusses how the program has been getting it done.

Can you discuss the program’s early goals and approaches?

The REACH initiative is a response to the pandemic’s effect on students’ and educators’ mental health. Some students were experiencing major stressors or trauma that ranged from the loss of a parent’s job or the sudden loss of a loved one to the experience of physical abuse. The state board of education and the Center for Childhood Resilience responded to the need to create trauma-responsive spaces through education and other tools. In its pilot program, REACH evaluated the experiences of school staff participants and the potential impact of the initiative on schools. Participating schools formed REACH teams to build their capacity to implement and expand trauma-responsive policies and practices.

In April 2022, the board of education partnered with the state public health department and CCR to expand the program to all Illinois schools that wanted to participate, addressing the mental health needs of children heightened by the pandemic.

How many schools participated at the start and how has that changed?

The pilot program included 55 schools representing 26 school districts across Illinois. A total of 367 staff members participated, including principals, school-based mental health professionals, teachers, caregivers and community partners. During the most recent quarter, 45% of those who registered for the REACH Learning and Resource Hub were teachers, 20% were clinicians and 14% were administrators. All team members participated in different asynchronous or live training sessions to learn various trauma-informed practices, including building mental health infrastructure, creating a sense of safety, forming relationships with students, teaching students social and emotional skills, and addressing self-care for educators.

To date, more than 400 schools in 209 districts have created REACH teams and nearly 1,300 educators have accessed the Learning and Resource Hub for free, on-demand training. We’ve estimated that nearly 200,000 students have benefited from their school’s participation. While any school is eligible, so far only public and charter schools have participated.

From the start, mental health experts understood that the toll on children’s mental health would be one of the pandemic’s many impacts.”

What were some of the initial effects of the pandemic on schools, and how did the program respond?

The pandemic forced everyone into unfamiliar and uncharted territory. From the start, mental health experts understood that the toll on children’s mental health would be one of the pandemic’s many impacts. The REACH pilot program took place in the midst of the pandemic, and those 55 schools tried something new during an already difficult time. They came away with an increase in trauma knowledge, feelings of preparedness, restorative strategies and action plans. Now, three years into the pandemic, rules and regulations have been relaxed, but the long-term effects of living through the crisis are still being felt through learning loss, behavioral challenges and increased anxiety and depression.

Fortunately, participating REACH schools are better-equipped to help address these challenges.

You noted the REACH program’s expansion in early 2022. What did that include?

The expansion to all schools statewide included launching seven regional social-emotional learning hubs offering localized training and support for trauma-informed practices in schools. The hubs provide professional development resources to districts in their region so they can establish and expand social-emotional learning programs in schools. They also assist school-community leadership teams to implement data-driven strategies focused on addressing student trauma and mental health needs.

Can you share any measurable results from the program?

In a survey of 306 school-based REACH team members who had participated for a full semester, respondents reported that the REACH training content had been helpful in preparing and supporting them in completing their self-assessment of their trauma-responsive policies, procedures and practices (73%); understanding trauma-responsive approaches (69%); and developing feasible action plans (90%).

Additional data regarding the impact of schools’ participation in the REACH initiative on students’ academic achievement, discipline and attendance are forthcoming. It will be at least a year until we have impact data related to students, since the data are measured and reported on an annual basis. It’s also important to point out that we know school transformation efforts take time. We need to give schools a full year, at least, to implement REACH before we can expect those changes. In the meantime, anecdotally, when asking administrators what changes they have seen with students, we’ve heard promising messages.

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