While the usual transitional concerns will be present when schools reopen, it is anticipated that this fall's return to school will be particularly challenging. Teachers and administrators should operate on the assumption that everyone, (students, families and staff) will have experienced some degree of anxiety and stress, uncertainty, illness,…

Encourages Montessori educators and others to consider the importance of talking with children about loss and death and helping them to identify the basic process of grief and the coping skills used for proceeding with grief work in one's lifetime. Describes helpful activities, such as using children's books, keeping journals, and creating a grief…

This pamphlet offers practical guidance to parents of young children who have experienced the death of a close relative or other loved one. It is intended to explain the child's emotional needs and assist the parent in planning for the child's involvement in the various stages of the death-funeral-mourning process. The text is presented as answers…

A neighborhood's reaction to the announcement of a school closing involves the five progressive stages Elisabeth Kubler-Ross describes as inevitable for one's reaction to the death of a friend or relative. (DCS)

When Issaquah (Washington) superintendent, after battling a brain tumor, entered the hospital for the last time, school district had to develop a crisis plan to deal with the possible death of the superintendent. A contingency planning team developed a telephone tree for school officials to keep in close contact with teachers and administrators.…

Discusses the use of children's picture books to assist preschool children's understanding of the "realness," permanence, and inclusiveness of death as part of the life cycle. Provides a list of "Do's and don'ts for helping children grieve" and a bibliography of books to share with preschoolers when a pet dies. (JPB)

While grieving is a process both children and adults experience, children do not grieve in straightforward ways. There is often a connection between feelings of loss and a child's misbehavior when those feelings are not processed. This article describes how to help children understand the concept of death and offers suggestions for helping them…

Although death is the one certainty in life, death or the grieving process is rarely discussed. Grief includes physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological reactions to loss, and is not limited to feelings about death. Grief can be the response to loss of home or country, separation or displacement, and changes resulting from new life stages.…

Although a world of uncertainty and continual change is difficult to explain to children, by exploring and discussing the process of grief, parents can begin to understand the significance and necessity of the grief process and help their children to cope with difficult events. This booklet offers parents advice on how to talk with children about…

Describes the illness and death of a young boy enrolled in an early childhood program. Discusses how maintaining open communication, sharing genuine reactions, talking with parents and a clinical psychologist, sharing carefully chosen books, and supporting the child and his family throughout the experience were helpful in coping with this event.…

Based on interviews with 30 families who adopted children over the age of 2, this book provides prospective and current adoptive parents with insight into the seemingly irrational behavior of the older adopted child, providing coping models and questioning the policies governing the services provided to such children and their families. The first…