Notifying individual students of a death loss: practical recommendations for schools and school counselors

Although there is a growing body of literature focused on child and adolescent grief, surprisingly little information addresses the needs of school communities with regard to death. The emerging literature has focused primarily on crisis management when someone within the school community dies. Neglect has been the more common occurrence in which an individual child must be notified of the death of someone close. This article provides practical recommendations for schools and school counselors regarding preparation and follow-up associated with individual death notification situations, as well as specific suggestions pertaining to the who, when, where, and how of notification. Recommendations offered are based on a synthesis of relevant research and literature (e.g., children and death, general death notification, school culture), the clinical experience of the authors, and the collective wisdom of a sample of school counselors currently working in the field.