No matter if the death was sudden or the result of a long illness, it can devastate an entire school family and its surrounding community. Students are impacted every time they walk into a classroom and see a classmate’s empty desk or a substitute teacher sitting at a deceased teacher’s desk. When tragedies like this occur, schools must respond quickly and offer what grieving students and staff need most comfort. In this book, Opalewski gives schools a guide for addressing the death of a student or staff member, including what to say and what not to say to students along with helpful communication and intervention strategies for school counselors, educators, and administrators. This resource includes:

• Learning the concepts and implementation process of comfort before counseling
• Grief research and data for children and adolescents
• Grief support group setup
• Activities to help students process grief, classroom activities, tips for parents, and more!

No school can truly prepare for the death of a student or staff member. A loss like this will shake the school family. But this book will give counselors and educators the information they need to respond to tragedy with understanding and comfort so that they can help students and staff work through their grief in a positive and productive way.