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Grief often hides in plain sight at school. While teachers and administrators focus on academic progress and behavior, the emotional pain of a grieving student can go unnoticed, especially if the child isn’t ready to speak about it. Roughly 1 in 14 children in the U.S. will lose a parent or sibling by age 18, according to the Judi’s House/JAG Institute CBEM Report (2023). That’s more than five million students grappling with grief during critical […]

Children rarely grieve with words. Instead, they grieve with blocks, paint, dolls, and silence. According to the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model, an estimated 5.6 million children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18. For many of them, the vocabulary of loss hasn’t yet formed, but the need to express it lives in every drawing, every reenacted story, every quiet moment of play. Unlike adults, children don’t sit […]

When a child loses a sibling, the impact reaches far beyond what most people see. More than 500,000 children in the U.S. lose a sibling or close family member every year, according to the Children’s Bereavement Estimation Model by Judi’s House and the New York Life Foundation. And yet, their grief often goes unrecognized, overshadowed by the pain of grieving parents or the visible absence of the lost child. Siblings experience loss in intensely personal […]

A child’s understanding of grief isn’t formed by age alone, it’s also deeply shaped by culture. From the words adults choose to explain death to the rituals children are invited to witness or perform, culture influences nearly every layer of how young people experience loss. In fact, a 2021 review in the Journal of Child and Family Studies found that culturally responsive grief support significantly improves emotional outcomes in children—especially those from underrepresented communities. That […]

Children often grieve quietly, yet deeply. Nearly 1 in 12 children in the U.S. will experience the death of a parent or sibling by age 18, according to Judi’s House/JAG Institute (2023 Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model). For many of them, talking to adults can feel overwhelming or even pointless when the words just won’t come. That’s where peer connection changes everything. Group therapy offers a guided, age-appropriate space where grieving children don’t feel so alone. […]