The impact of unaddressed toxic stress among elementary and high school students is undermining our children's ability to concentrate on schoolwork and eventually to be prepared as mature young adults for college or work. Traditionally schools have viewed themselves as places of learning, and tended to refer distressed students to health professionals outside of the school. However, more and more we are learning that it is exactly while the students are in school and attempting to focus on their work that toxic stress has its most significant detrimental impact.

      ALIVE is an innovative program designed to help students, classrooms, and schools-as-a-whole become responsive, in the moment, to the effects of negative experiences on the educational mission. Through specialized stress reduction sessions, classroom-wide psychoeducation, and school-wide early detection and screening, ALIVE aims to create an open conversation about the effects of stress, and link the students' lived experiences with curricular material.