Educate-SMART
Educate-SMART is a one-stop, free, self-paced online course designed for school staff members, caregivers, and students to enhance their knowledge of trauma-informed behavioral health topics, including behavioral health, well-being, self-care, and crisis response.
Please note: Educate-SMART is currently open to invited schools and districts only. For more information, continue reading.
Comprehensive training, practical resources
Educate-SMART is broken down into 11 modules, exploring topics such as crisis response, the effects of trauma in children, enhancing your school's climate and culture, staff care, implementing trauma-focused group interventions, overviews of available children's behavioral health resources, and more!
As a course participant, you will also gain access to our Educate-SMART Resource Center, which provides downloadable resources to strengthen the knowledge offered in each module.
Empowering school mental health champions
Educate-SMART supports your entire school community—from administrators and staff to families and students—in building the awareness and skills needed to effectively identify and address behavioral health needs. By staff, we mean all staff: paraprofessionals, teachers, office staff, speech-language pathologists, library media specialists, nurses, mental health professionals, school resource officers, substitutes, custodians, student teachers, and more!
Programs and resources for every school
While Educate-SMART is currently open on an invitation-only basis, CHDI offers support to schools and districts through five other comprehensive school mental health initiatives: School Mental Health Assessment & Planning (SHAPE), our peer support model Students Supporting Students, the School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI), the implementation of Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) and Bounce Back group interventions, and Connecting Schools to Care IV Students (CONNECT IV).
Training Modules
Mobile Crisis
Learn how Connecticut’s Mobile Crisis services work and what to do in the event of a youth behavioral health crisis.
Suicidality
Explore issues related to youth suicidality including risk and protective factors, warning signs, and intervention resources.
Trauma
Build your awareness of trauma and its impacts on development, and how to build trauma-sensitive school practices.
Staff Wellness
Strategies for supporting school employees with health and wellness through a trauma-informed lens.
Climate and Culture
Gain the skills to develop a positive school climate that fosters strong relationships with students and families and improves consistency and fairness schoolwide.
School Mental Health
An overview of systems, supports, and methods of engagement that enhance student mental health and well-being.
Student Development
Discover how children grow and develop from infancy to adolescence, and understand the lasting impact trauma can have during these formative years.
Connecticut's Children's Behavioral Health System
Learn about the mental health services available to children statewide and how to connect children and families to them.
CBITS and Bounce Back
How to get started with implementing the group interventions Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) and Bounce Back.
Student Peer Support
Explore peer support models that empower students to support one another's mental health in schools.
CHDI Initiative Overview
Information on CHDI's comprehensive school mental health initiatives, including SHAPE, peer support, SBDI, CBITS, Bounce Back and CONNECT IV.
"I liked the structure of the online course [modules]. They were easy to access, but informative."
About Educate-SMART
Educate-SMART training was developed by the Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI) for Connecticut's Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience Education) Initiative, a program that supports partnerships and collaboration between state and local systems to promote the healthy development of school-age youth and prevent youth violence. CT Project AWARE partners included the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF), and the U.S.Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Learn more about Project AWARE