Proposed, for board reviewFirst 90 days for the training survey; months 4 to 24 for training cohorts and school-based delivery
Train a bench for children and staff who need more than the first weeks
Survey and train the clinician roster in the school-delivered trauma treatments with the best evidence behind them (Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools, or CBITS; Bounce Back; and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or TF-CBT), deliver them through the school-based health center sponsors and county school-based services that can bill, offer the affected district a staff recovery track only if invited, share privately a nonpartisan position on drills and memorials, and brief local newsrooms on safe messaging before anniversaries.
Communities that have been through this recover better when children and staff can get care in the months after, not only in the first weeks, and the timelines do not match the usual response. Where more talk-therapy providers practice, the rise in youth antidepressant use after a shooting is smaller. Studies of schools elsewhere also find that staff turnover rises afterward. The county’s existing supports are built for the acute weeks: a critical incident debriefing team and a 24/7 Stabilization Center. What is missing is a bench for the months after.
Trauma-Focused CBT is rated well-supported on the main child treatment evidence registry. CBITS, delivered in school, reached 98 percent of eligible students in a trial after Hurricane Katrina versus 37 percent for clinic referral; Bounce Back is the companion program for younger children. We found no source that says how many local clinicians hold this training, so the first step would be to count.
Schools also face pressure for dramatic drills and quick memorials. The April 2026 drill guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists and its partners says simulation drills can harm students; Bend-La Pine has been reported to say it does not simulate active shooter drills; school crisis experts advise temporary, student-shaped memorials that are never mandatory. The group’s job would be to share that quietly with the people who decide, never to publish a position at them, and to stay entirely out of the event’s details.
Why we think it works
- In studies of schools elsewhere, students exposed to a school shooting showed a 27.6 percent rise in chronic absenteeism, more grade repetition, lower graduation and about $2,600 less in annual earnings in their mid-twenties, and staff turnover rose afterward. (Trauma at School: The Impacts of Shootings on Students' Human Capital and Economic Outc..., strong evidence)
- Local exposure to a fatal school shooting raises youth antidepressant use by 21.4 percent over the following two years, and the effect is smaller in areas with more mental health providers who focus on behavioral rather than medication based treatment. (Local Exposure to School Shootings and Youth Antidepressant Use (NBER Working Paper 265..., strong evidence)
- In a randomized trial after Hurricane Katrina, 98 percent of students offered school based CBITS began treatment versus 37 percent offered clinic based TF-CBT, and both treatments significantly reduced post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms; a separate randomized trial of CBITS in Los Angeles found lower PTSD and depression scores at three months. (CEBC: Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (rating 3), strong evidence)
- Trauma-Focused CBT is rated 1, Well-Supported by Research Evidence, by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for child and adolescent trauma treatment, and children experiencing childhood traumatic grief can also benefit from it. (CEBC: Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, strong evidence)
- The April 2026 best practice guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists and its partners says simulation-based and sensorial active-threat drills can harm students and staff and recommends announced, non-sensorial drills with mental health staff involved. (Best Practice Guidance for School Safety and Lockdown Drills: Preparing for Active Thre..., strong evidence)
What we would do
- Within 90 days survey the 35 therapists and the wider practitioner list for TF-CBT, CBITS, Bounce Back, Psychological First Aid and Skills for Psychological Recovery training; share the count privately with the High Desert Education Service District (the regional agency that supports all six school districts) and the affected district.
- Seek a two-year commitment from the Oregon Community Foundation's rapid response fund or St. Charles before the first cohort; fund one CBITS onsite training cohort and TF-CBT web training plus consultation for roster clinicians who would deliver in schools, prioritizing group delivery in outlying districts.
- Deliver groups through entities that can host and bill: the school-based health centers run by Mosaic Community Health (the region's nonprofit community health center), Deschutes County School Based Services and the school-embedded clinicians of BestCare Treatment Services (a nonprofit behavioral health provider) in Jefferson and Crook counties; trained roster clinicians would work under those entities' credentialing and consent rules.
- Offer, in writing and only through the ESD School Response Team and the affected district, a staff recovery track (Skills for Psychological Recovery groups, protected counseling access, workload relief) through the 2027 to 2028 school year; accept no as an answer; any reporting on staff retention would be the district's own, to its own board.
- Share privately with superintendents and the ESD a one-page position drawn from the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Coalition to Support Grieving Students, citing the April 2026 drill guidance: announced, opt-out drills with no sounds or props that mimic an attack, with mental health staff involved and parent notice; temporary, student-shaped memorials first; no mandatory grief events. Publish nothing.
- Offer the roster and the fiscal sponsor to the Oregon Department of Justice Crime Victim and Survivor Services Division as a ready sub-recipient for federal emergency assistance funds, and let the state and the district attorney victim assistance programs decide who leads.
- Keep a communications calendar with pre-drafted anniversary and after-a-national-incident messages that follow the Deschutes County safe messaging guide, and offer local newsrooms (The Bulletin, KTVZ, KBND, the Nugget, the Madras Pioneer, the Central Oregonian) a briefing on the Don't Name Them and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reporting guidance before each anniversary.
- Write it down: no storage or Advocate content in any recovery material.
How we would know it is working
- Number of roster clinicians trained in CBITS, Bounce Back and TF-CBT
- Number of school-based groups delivered and students served, by district, as reported by the host entity
- Districts that received the drill and memorial position and the staff recovery offer
- Newsroom briefings offered before each anniversary, with the number held reported
- Zero recovery materials carrying storage or advocacy content
What could get in the way
- A published position on drills and memorials from an outside group in the first year reads as pressure on the affected district; drills are governed by state law and memorials belong to families and the district.
- Share the position privately with the superintendent and the ESD, cite the April 2026 drill guidance and Bend-La Pine's practice as the local example, and publish nothing.
- School-delivered CBITS and Bounce Back groups are treatment in a school building: parental consent, a provider agreement, space and confidentiality in small schools; districts are likely to insist the provider is a contracted entity, not individual volunteers.
- Deliver through the school-based health center sponsors and county school-based services under their agreements, with trained roster clinicians working for those entities.
- An uninvited staff recovery track from a new group reads as criticism of district leadership, and the county's critical incident debriefing team already runs.
- Offer only through the ESD School Response Team and the affected district, in writing, and accept no.
- A two-year training horizon outlasts the attention cycle, and absenteeism or retention comparisons cannot cleanly show what caused a change.
- Ask for year-two money before the first cohort; count clinicians trained and groups delivered; treat absenteeism as context the district reports.
Who we would work with: The affected district and the ESD School Response Team, Deschutes County critical incident debriefing team and Behavioral Health, Mosaic Community Health and Deschutes County School Based Services, BestCare Treatment Services (school-embedded clinicians), St. Charles Health System, Partners In Care and Clear Mourning (grief support), Oregon Department of Justice Crime Victim and Survivor Services Division, County district attorney victim assistance programs in Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson, Local newsrooms