In summary

• The goal of grief support is not to help students “get over” or “move on” from their grief but rather to help them to find ways to integrate it into their lives in the healthiest possible way.
• Use teachable moments to normalize and support children’s grief.
• Children express grief differently than adults. Rather than verbal expression, you may see changes in behaviour, performance, and personality.
• Children may “take breaks”, and their grief may resurface weeks, months, or even years after a death. 
• Even very young children experience grief and benefit from honest information and the opportunity to ask questions. Use age-appropriate education and support strategies.
• One student’s grief may not look or sound like another’s. This is true even when two students are grieving the same death.
• Students with intellectual disabilities experience and express grief. It’s especially important to consider whether certain behaviours might be grief-related and how you can help.
• Whenever you take advantage of a teachable moment, you’ll be supporting your students’ natural curiosity and teaching them that it’s okay to talk about dying and death. You’ll also be encouraging them to explore what life events mean to them and to other people in their lives and community.