This presentation explores the impact of trauma on the educational well-being of court-involved students.  It also provides youth perceptions of student behavior and school climate before and after introducing a trauma-informed teaching curriculum to school personnel.  Findings demonstrate that court-involved students are sensitive to the exposure of strong negative externalizing behaviors in the classroom, and desire greater teacher involvement in managing them.  This study highlights the importance of trauma-informed practices and training to educate school staff and increase their sensitivity to student traumatic stress.  This research carries important implications for the use of trauma-informed mental health knowledge and training in school settings.

 Shantel Crosby, LMSW is a licensed clinical and macro social worker and a doctoral candidate at the School of Social Work at Wayne State University.  She formerly worked as a mental health therapist in community mental health as a part of a juvenile justice mental health program, providing home-based, outpatient, and school-based services.  Throughout her doctoral program, she has worked in mixed methods research on the educational wellbeing of court-involved youth.  She also served as staff of the Transition to Independence Program (TIP), an organization designed to increase college access and retention rates of foster care youth at Wayne State University.  She is co-founder of 5 H.O.P.E., a community service non-profit organization with the mission of promoting service and civic engagement formulated to improve educational, behavioral health, and juvenile justice outcomes in the city of Detroit.  Founded in 2011, 5 H.O.P.E. has sponsored community health and behavioral health events, and has provided on-going tutoring and education services to local youth.