Deborah Oster Pannell’s husband died when her son, Josiah, was 6 years old. That week, Pannell visited Josiah’s school and, with his teacher and guidance counselor, explained to his first-grade class what had happened.
“I’ll never forget the three of us sitting up there — and all these little shining faces looking up at us — talking about how Josiah lost his dad and he might be sad for a while,” Pannell says.
Josiah, who is now 11 years old, has a few painful memories of the visit. “That day they were all just blatantly explaining what had just happened to me,” he says. “It was really uncomfortable.”
But Josiah also believes the visit helped make his classroom a healthy, safe space for his grieving.
So how should educators handle the death of a student’s loved one?
A new website — GrievingStudents.org — is trying to help teachers and school leaders answer that question. It’s a database of fact sheets, advice and videos. The materials were produced by the Coalition to Support Grieving Students, a group including 10 national organizations that represent teachers, school administrators and support staff.
Using census data, the group estimates that 1 in 20 children will lose a parent by the time he or she graduates from high school. And that doesn’t include the many more kids who will lose a sibling, grandparent or close friend. To read more from ELISSA NADWORNY, click here.