Many children face adversity with traumatic abuse, neglect, or special needs that often leads to apathy, learning problems, or aggressive behavior. Dr. Rappaport presents a comprehensive, accessible, and flexible framework for intervention with traumatized children and their caregivers. As the author of the influential book Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students, she will share the FAIR plan method of understanding and improving behavior in challenging students which looks at the function of the behavior, accommodations, interventions, and nurturing responses to traumatized children. Dr. Rappaport will offer new strategies for healing support to promote resilience and motivation in the children who need us the most. Dr. Rappaport will use interactive case studies to allow participants to engage with the FAIR plan method right away.

Dr. Rappaport also has provided assessments and consultation to schools for over twenty years addressing whether a “child is safe to be in school” and her research shows that many times these are students with significant trauma. She will provide critical information about building a safety assessment team as well as provide an overview of warning signals for substantive threats while also emphasizing context and nurturing developmental competencies in traumatized children.