A new school year can bring both excitement and anxiety, no matter who you are. Whether you are a student starting on a new campus, a parent juggling work and sports practices, or a teacher returning to a familiar classroom, our simple, practical tools can help everyone feel better quickly when stress starts to take a toll.
Back to school season is a powerful opportunity to build resilience and connection. As adults, one of the best things that we can do to help our students (and ourselves!) manage back-to-school stress is to model resilience tools and show them how YOU manage stress. We should always make sure we are self-regulated first before helping students
Here are some of our other favorite tips and tools to help everyone in the community start the school year strong, secure and grounded.
For Parents: Create a Stable Home Base
- Start with Connection: Begin each day with a moment of connection—whether it’s a hug, a shared breakfast, or a few minutes of conversation. Feeling seen and heard helps children regulate stress and feel safe.
- Normalize Big Feelings: Back-to-school transitions can bring anxiety, excitement, or overwhelm. Let your child know it’s okay to feel all of it. Use phrases like, “It’s normal to feel nervous before something new. Whatever you’re feeling makes sense to me.” Avoid trying to fix behavior and shift to understanding and validating emotional responses.
- Model Resilience Tools: Deep breathing, taking “brain breaks”, and naming emotions and sensations are powerful tools they can learn simply by watching you. Also because stress can give us tunnel vision and make it hard to notice the things that are going well, make sure to regularly highlight the bright spots that happen throughout your day. Str
For Teachers: Build a Resilient Classroom Culture
- Foster Safe Spaces: Consistency and stability help students feel secure. Create “calm down corners” and other physical spaces in the classroom or play-yard to allow students to reset independently or with teacher support. You can also create a sense of predictability by posting daily and weekly schedules, using consistent language, and offering gentle reminders to ease transitions throughout the day.
- Use Regulation & Reset Strategies: Incorporate frequent “brain breaks”, movement, and mindfulness into the schedule to help students stay regulated and ready to learn. Techniques like pressing against a wall, sipping water mindfully, or walking while focusing on physical sensations help calm the nervous system and bring the brain “back online.”
- Foster Connection and Belonging: Greet each student by their name, celebrate small wins, and create opportunities for peer connection. Create a common language around stress with shared terminology (e.g., “flipping your lid,” “the dog is barking”) to describe emotional states and responses.
For Students: Build Your Own Resilience Toolkit
- Know Your Signals: Pay attention to how your body feels when you’re stressed. Tight shoulders, racing thoughts, or a fast heartbeat are signs to pause and use a Rapid Reset tool. Once you begin to recognize your own triggers you can then begin to use strategies to self-regulate.
- Practice Self-Compassion: Mistakes are part of learning. Talk to yourself like you would a friend, affirming “I’m doing my best, and that’s enough.”
- Use Your Tools: Whether it’s deep breathing, journaling, or talking to a trusted adult, find what helps you feel calm and connected—and use it often.
Together, We Thrive
Practicing these tools and techniques can shape communities for generations to come. As you implement a culture of resilience, empathy and patience at home and in the classroom, watch as everyone begins to thrive and develop stronger connections with themselves and others.
Perhaps the best part of these tools is that we can implement them with little to no preparation, planning or materials.
Back-to-school season is more than just a return to academics—it’s a chance to build stronger, more resilient communities. By supporting each other with compassion and practical tools, we can create environments where everyone feels safe, seen, and empowered to grow, learn and thrive.
Want more?
- This Edutopia article outlines more great tips for the school year and features our signature Rapid Reset tools to help people of all ages stay calm and grounded.
- This Forbes article features our Executive Director, Ann DuPre Rogers, on back to school tips for working moms.
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