Empowering School Communities to support their grieving students
The Coalition to Support Grieving Students is a unique collaboration of the leading professional
organizations representing classroom educators, principals, administrators, student support
personnel, and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction: grieving
students need the support and care of the school community. The Coalition’s purpose is to create
and share a set of industry-endorsed resources that will empower school communities across America
in the ongoing support of their grieving students.
Our Task
The Coalition to Support Grieving Students has come together to remedy a current gap in the
educational professions: the development of a set of resources broadly approved by leading
professional organizations to guide educators and other school personnel in supporting and caring
for their grieving students. The primary resource — grievingstudents.org — provides practical,
accessible information for classroom educators, principals, administrators, and student support
personnel and other school professionals who have come together with a common conviction. This
user-friendly, interdisciplinary site represents a major step forward in enabling educators
to learn about the issue of childhood grief and develop an understanding of how to help. Informed
by the expertise of leading bereavement expert Dr. David Schonfeld, with feedback and contribution
from each participating organization, this online resource captures current best practices for
addressing grief at school through a dynamic multimedia approach.
Why We Exist
Childhood bereavement is all too common: in the United States, approximately one in 20 children
will lose a parent by the time they reach 16 years of age and the vast majority
of children experience a significant loss by the time they complete high school. Yet grieving
children are vastly overlooked — both in society at large and in schools in particular. Schools
have a critical role to play in the grief journey of children who have lost a loved one. Teachers’
and classmates’ response to a student’s grief can either serve as a source of support and stability
during a difficult time, or as an additional hurdle to surmount. Moreover, grief can have a
serious impact on learning for school-age children; bereavement can manifest itself in decreased
academic performance, social withdrawal, and new behavioral problems.
By demonstrating support, educators have an enormous opportunity to improve outcomes for their
students.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of teachers feel unequipped for this task. In a survey on grief at
school conducted by the New York Life Foundation in conjunction with the American Federation of
Teachers (AFT), seven in 10 teachers reported having at least one grieving student currently in
their classroom. While 89 percent of teachers believe that there should be a greater focus on
training educators to support grieving students, only 7 percent reported having had any amount of
bereavement training. Teachers desire, but currently lack, the knowledge of how to support the
grieving students in their midst and identify this as the single
greatest barrier preventing them from reaching out and offering support.
Who We Are
The Coalition is made up of representatives from American educational organizations with large,
active membership bases across a spectrum of roles, geographies, and school types.
The founding organizations represented in the Coalition are:
LEAD FOUNDING MEMBERS
New York Life Foundation
National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement
FOUNDING MEMBERS
AASA, The School Superintendents Association
American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA)
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
American School Counselor Association (ASCA)
National Association of School Nurses (NASN) National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
National Education Association Health Information Network (NEA HIN) School Social Work Association
of America (SSWAA)
The Coalition was convened by the New York Life Foundation, a pioneering advocate for the cause of
childhood bereavement, and the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, led by
pediatrician and childhood bereavement expert David J. Schonfeld, MD.
For More Information
Please contact us at info@grievingstudents.org.
The Coalition to Support Grieving Students created a free school practitioner-oriented website,
https://grievingstudents.org, with over 20 video training modules on topics ranging from how to talk with grieving students to responding to a school crisis event. Endorsed by over 125 professional organizationsand free to download, the website provides module summaries, handouts, reference materials, and guidance documents that provide step-by- steppractical advice. Free resources for parents and other caring adults are also available.