August 18 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT/ 9:00 am – 10:00 am PST
This webinar will introduce a new tool designed by the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement for educators and other caring professionals that outlines practical strategies to talk with and support children after a death or other school/community crisis. This tool – the 5Es (Engage, Empathize, Explore, Educate and Empower) – can be used by all educators and other caring professionals, including those without a mental health background. The aim is to go beyond the more typical advice on how adults can support students to instead identify strategies to empower students/children to take a more active role in their own coping and subsequent recovery. Additional freely available tools will be showcased, such as 3 new versions of the popular wallet-sized tip cards for What to Say and What Not to Say to a Grieving Child that were developed for use after deaths from suicide, violence, or natural disasters and will be available for free from the New York Life Foundation.
Continuing Education (CEs): 1.0 continuing education credit available
Target Audience: Counselors, Social workers, Bereavement support professionals
Instructional Level: Basic – This best describes a topic or issue that the prospective audience is encountering for the first time in a meaningful way
Format: Live Interactive Webinar
Cost: Free for All
Registration Deadline: August 18, 2026, at 11:59am ET.
Objectives:
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- List the 5 “E”s describing practical strategies to talk with and support children after a death or other school/community crisis
- Describe the role of Children’s Bereavement Centers/Programs in advising school staff and other caring professionals on how to support children after a crisis
- Incorporate these approaches in training for your Center’s/Program’s facilitators for use with children served by the Center/Program
- Know when and how to partner with the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement after a local school or community crisis to provide support
Speaker Bio:
David J Schonfeld, MD, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician, founded the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (www.schoolcrisiscenter.org) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The NCSCB coordinates the Coalition to Support Grieving Students which is comprised of over 140 professional organizations representing educators, medical professionals, and other interested groups. For 35 years, he’s supported schools/communities after crises and loss, including the COVID-19 pandemic, shootings/stabbings in Winder, GA, Parkland, FL, Santa Clarita, CA, Newtown, CT, Las Vegas, NV, Aurora, CO, & Osaka, Japan; hurricanes Helene (TN), Maria (San Juan), Sandy (NYC/NJ), Katrina (New Orleans), & Ike (Galveston); tornadoes in Joplin, MO & Alabama; wildfires in Maui, HI, Butte & Sonoma Counties, CA, Sevierville, TN; & Sichuan, China earthquake. His school-based research (e.g., funded by NICHD, NIMH, NIDA, MCHB, WT Grant) involves children’s understanding of and adjustment to serious illness and death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention. He is Chair of National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters, and former Commissioner for the National Commission on Children and Disasters and Sandy Hook Advisory Commission.
