All children are likely to experience trauma and inequity in their lived experiences - by circumstance of birth, demographics or economics, geographic location, or time. Trauma can be as normative as the loss of an aging grandparent or as aberrant as a school shooting. Trauma can be acute or chronic. It can aggregate over time or be ameliorated through effective intervention.

Inequities occur along the same lines - as normatively driven as a rural child who can win 4H and FFA awards but struggles to connect to the school’s curriculum, as a child of color labeled as having learning deficits, as any child without full parental resources at home, as a dyslexic student unable to read well enough to ever be included in the richest experiences a school offers. We help educators gain insight into trauma and inequity and how longstanding practices of schools sustain the impact of trauma and inequity across a child’s life. We bring a fresh perspective on what educators can do to positively change the impact of trauma and inequity on individual learners - and the school culture.

Universal Design for Learning is not a special education philosophy for us. It’s not only about tech tools either. As we all benefit from universal curb cuts in sidewalks, all our learners benefit in classrooms where UDL is a way of life.

• We offer UDL as a practice that changes the way we use curriculum, assessments, classroom environments, technology, and school policies and norms to reach every learner.

• We focus trauma-sensitive strategies through the latest knowledge about how the brain learns - through cognitive, social, and emotional contexts.

• We share practical applications of strategies and knowledge that will make a difference with learners who challenge school systems, class norms, and teacher efficacy.