Supporting Immigrant Students: Trauma-Informed, Relationship-Centered  Strategies for Teachers

Key takeaways include:

• Understanding the Current Reality: Immigrant students face significant stress due to enforcement actions and worries about family safety, which can impact their concentration and learning. Teachers should recognize that behavioral issues may stem from environmental factors, and the classroom can be a crucial safe space.
• What to Watch For: Teachers should observe changes in student emotions and social behaviors, such as increased absences, withdrawal, difficulty focusing, academic changes, anxiety, or sleep/eating disruptions. These changes are often linked to harmful policies and neighborhood factors.
• Immediate Response Strategies: When concerning changes are noticed, teachers should initiate gentle one-on-one check-ins to show care, normalize worry by briefly sharing their own reactions, and avoid forcing disclosure or making assumptions about immigration status.
• Building Resilience and Strengthening Connections: Lasting support comes from daily routines and intentional interactions that foster belonging. Teachers should prioritize relationships, use relational practices (restorative approaches, community-building), and systematically build social networks among students and families.
• Classroom Environment Strategies: After addressing immediate concerns and building connections, teachers can transform their classroom culture by creating transition time (e.g., breathing exercises, “Creating Space for Learning” routine from Harvard Project Zero), making the room a “greenhouse of possibility” by fostering joy and belonging, and giving students voice and choice to empower them.
• When Students Need More Support: Beyond formal referrals, teachers can connect students to caring peers and families to other families or community resources, which often feel safer. Professional support should be considered if students explicitly ask for help, safety concerns arise, families request resources, or persistent changes don’t improve.
• Supporting and Connecting All Students: All students have migration stories. Teachers can invite sharing family histories, help non-immigrant students understand their role as allies, and recognize that hostile environments negatively affect everyone.
• Taking Care of Yourself: Teachers must pay attention to their own stress signals, limit news consumption, connect with colleagues, maintain self-care, and seek support if feeling hopeless or overwhelmed.
• Remember Your Role: Teachers have the power to create a joyful and safe space where students feel they belong and can focus on learning, providing consistent safety and connection.

The guide is based on an interview with Dr. Maryam Kia Keating, a clinical psychologist specializing in trauma and resilience, and encourages educators to ask questions for further support. Additional resources are available at reimaginingmigration.org.