Committee for Children Blog

A Parent’s Guide to Role-Playing Bullying Reports

Bullying is serious. Make sure your child knows that it is important to practice reporting the way he or she would do it in real life. When you and your child practice giving and receiving reports, you’ll have the skills and confidence to handle bullying if it really happens. When your child reports bullying, it is most important to really listen and ensure your child’s safety. The following are steps you can take when your child comes to you about a bullying situation.

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Expand Your Bullying Prevention Toolkit with Social-Emotional Learning

Every year schools and communities across the country unite in their bullying prevention efforts during the month of October for National Bullying Prevention Month. Does this mean that if you focus on bullying prevention for one month you’re done? Not at all! This month is meant to jump-start continued efforts to prevent bullying. And social-emotional learning can make a great addition to the toolkit that helps you do this.Read More


Welcome Wave of Change: Positive Discipline and SEL in Schools

I bet you can easily conjure up an image of a school teacher rapping the knuckles of a naughty girl with a ruler. Or a principal paddling the bottom of a boisterous boy. For a long time, this was how students were disciplined in school. They were physically punished with rulers, straps, paddles, or hands. Or shamed by being made to stand in the corner, wear a dunce cap, or write lines on the board. Perhaps you think these harsh, punitive discipline practices are a relic of a past, something we now only see in old movies or on episodes of The Simpsons. But in 19 states it’s still legal to use corporal punishment in schools.1 And since the late 1980s, zero-tolerance policies have resulted in thousands of students being excluded from schools, their right to an education stripped away for infractions sometimes as minor as chewing gum.

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Get a Two-fer This October with Bullying Prevention

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. It’s the perfect time to shine a light on the bullying prevention efforts in your setting and find ways to beef them up. And while doing so, you’ll also be doing important work to create a safe and supportive learning environment. Now that’s a two-fer—two benefits for the price of one—everyone…Read More


Fostering School and Family Partnerships

Schools and families both play critical roles in students’ social-emotional and academic success. To meaningfully strengthen these important partnerships, we must first abandon the notion that family engagement is about whether family members attend school events or volunteer in the school buildings. It also includes the things that families do at home with their children (Wilson, 2013). It encompasses both parent voice and presence.Read More


school safety, SEL, social emotional learning, child safety

SEL Helps Schools Create Safe, Supportive Learning Environments

Schools can be a sanctuary where all children—including those who need it most—experience safety and support. And when children feel safe and supported, they are ready to learn. Learn how SEL can help to create a safe and supportive learning environment. Read More


The (Near) Future of Abuse Prevention: A Conversation with Joan Duffell

Child Abuse Prevention Month (April) is just around the corner, so PR Manager Allison Wedell Schumacher sat down with Joan Cole Duffell, executive director of Committee for Children, to talk about the organization's past, present, and future in abuse prevention, and about our new Child Protection Training that will be released later…

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A Story About Bullying: Part 3

I offer one final series of reflections on the subject of my last two blogs; the bullying situation of Connor and his parents. Here are some thoughts and comments that have flooded my mind as Connor’s parents and I continue to stay in touch. They are important to share, especially with those of you who may be having similar experiences yourselves, or with your children or students.Read More