The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted existing inequities as a result of zero tolerance and exclusionary policies that disproportionately impacted the world's learners living in poverty, people of color, and those experiencing special challenges. Under the existing educational system, marginalized students often feel devalued and without a voice. Integrating family history and genealogy into the elementary school learning space provides a methodology and framework that focuses on the historical conditions that promote healthy dialogues and sustain discourses connecting to other historical events. The process of creating positive experiences with family history, improving the classroom environment, effectively communicating, rapport and trust building, and strengthened socio-emotional skills reduce childhood trauma. The six recommended strategies include introspection and reflection, navigating parallel time periods, valuing genealogical tools, encouraging an environment of hope, normalizing authenticity, and transforming the learning environment.

Childhood trauma was found to increase the risk of aggression and disruptive behavior in classrooms. The disruptive behavior risks exposure to the school-to-prison nexus, a result of inequities in zero tolerance and exclusionary policies. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted the world's learning systems leaving in its wake feelings of anxiety, depression, fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness. This exacerbated the existing trauma experienced by students. Thousands of studies involving hope theory advanced to a science with predictable outcomes and progressively more benefits for dealing with childhood trauma. The eight recommended practical strategies for higher hope include acknowledging that hope takes work, understanding the tenets of hope theory, emphasizing a personal approach to student needs, protecting educators from vicarious trauma, listening more and talking less, developing ambassadors of hope, and creating partnerships of hope focused on positive experiences, effective communication, and resilience to reduce the effects of childhood trauma.

This chapter outlines strategies and practices that align with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's trauma-informed approach applied to school pedagogy in the United States to minimize or prevent trauma, especially for students referred to the school-to-prison pipeline, consequently reducing mass incarceration. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the United States' health crisis exposed a vulnerability for people of color, poorer communities, and those incarcerated, stressing a need to respond expediently to address trauma in marginalized communities. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Connection referred to childhood trauma as “America's hidden health crisis.” Focusing on trauma for school-aged youth offers a path to preventing or minimizing trauma. Research suggests that more robust, multidisciplinary research, with an intentional purpose to transform teacher practices and responses to disciplinary conduct, is needed.