Nearly a year since the nation went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, just about everyone is struggling to maintain a semblance of normality. Parents of school-aged children have taken to social media and countless news stories have been written on the difficulties of balancing remote learning with remote working.

Representatives from Connecticut school systems, state agencies, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations gathered at the University on Wednesday, Oct. 23, to develop collaborative plans to broaden school and community mental health services across the state and address issues surrounding childhood trauma.

Professor Sandra M. Chafouleas in the Neag School’s Department of Educational Psychology has been named a University of Connecticut Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor — the highest honor that the university bestows on faculty who have demonstrated excellence in scholarship, teaching, and service.

For teachers, administrators, and school psychologists, finding an easy, efficient way to track student conduct during the school day has long posed a challenge. Thanks to a new online behavioral assessment tool developed by Sandra Chafouleas, professor in the department of educational psychology and associate dean for research in the Neag School, and T. Chris Riley-Tillman, a professor at the University of Missouri, educators and school personnel can now quickly and efficiently monitor behaviors key to school success – with virtually no paperwork.

As a school psychologist and school administrator who specialized in working with behaviorally challenged children, Dr. Sandra Chafouleas learned first hand that schools are held accountable, not only for educating students, but also for addressing students’ behavioral issues and helping them to develop their social skills. “We’re well beyond the days of reading, writing and […]