Trauma and the School-to-Prison Pipeline Part 6: Spotlight on Bank Street’s Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice
Supporting whole schools, families and classroom teachers to meet the needs of all students
Who is in the Spotlight?
Do you have a student or a subset of students who are just not responding to your systems, seemingly no matter what you try? Just maybe, you have come to the right place.
Bank Street College of Education, located in New York City, is a global name in progressive education. You might not know that they have a whole division focused on supporting students who experience trauma: the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice, or ERP.
What do they do?
The center provides a range of offerings to schools and teachers, from building community and knowledge building across schools through seminars and an annual conference, to supporting parents and other caregivers, to customized coaching in schools, based on community needs and readiness.
Participants in their programs learn about attachment theory, trauma and practical tools for supporting students.
What do I need to know?
This is the real deal. I have personal experience working with ERP, and what I most appreciated where the following key elements:
Like any good emotional practice focused on children, the work begins within us.
The practices start with relationships and the tenet that each student is a whole person with a story and a need to be seen. The practices are designed to serve all students, and can be especially useful for children who have experienced trauma.
They work! It’s almost magic to see a child who just will not conform to all your behavior management plans and techniques become calm and organized when their needs, not at all apparent on the surface and probably not even to themselves, are met. And those needs begin with feeling connected and safe—in relationship with caring adults who will value their feelings and also uphold structures that make schools safe.
A great starting point is the annual Emotionally Responsive Schools Conference, which usually takes place in December. The 2025 conference was online, making it convenient wherever you are. Read the highlights from 2025 here. Due to scheduling needs, this year’s conference will be on Friday, January 22, 2027. The theme will be Building Authentic Communities of Care. Mark your calendar! Write to erp@bankstreet.edu for more information or to subscribe to the mailing list.
Closing out this series
I truly believe that supporting students who have experienced trauma should be one of the priorities of educators over the next decade, for more reasons than I can name. I hope that you have found information and resources in this short series, which began in April with this post.
Here are a couple of final resources, both 10+ years old now, to close out the series:
For an introduction to the concept, watch this seminal 2015 TED talk by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, explaining the lifelong health implications of childhood trauma
If you are at a school that is ready to try something new, a first step might be to explore this screening tool from the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice.
