Original Manuscript

OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying

2022, Vol. 0(0) 1–22
Disenfranchised Grief: The © The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00302228221097297
journals.sagepub.com/home/ome
Special Needs and the
Coping of the School Staff – A
Qualitative Study

Ronit Shalev1 , Roni Zamir2, and Orit Barak3

Abstract
The educational staff that meets the children at school struggles to cope with the death
of a child, and often avoids talking with them about the death and their sense of loss.
This way of coping is complicated in the case of grief among children with special needs,
called “disenfranchised grief ". The aim of this qualitative study was to examine the
experience and the perceptions of the educational staff in schools for special education
and to assess their way of coping, support and care they employ following the death of a
student. 15 staff members from different schools in Israel, interviewed. The findings
reveal that schools are a significant source of support for students, staff and parents,
alike, in the processing of the loss. The special education frameworks generally
maintained a special and close connection with students and families. procedures and
guidelines are required following death of a student.

Keywords
grief, bereaved children, disenfranchised grief, special needs, educational staff, students

1
Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Emek Yezreel, Israel
2
Branco weiss bw- Herzog School, Beit Hashmonai, Israel
3
Inclu-Inclusive Schools, Tel Aviv, Israel

Corresponding Author:
Ronit Shalev, Max Stern Academic College of Emek Yezreel, Emek Yezrael, Emek Yezreel, 1930600, Israel.
Email: Ronitishalev@gmail.com
2 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

Introduction
One of the most difficult life situations with which we adults cope is providing support
to children who have experienced loss. The educational staff that meets the children
every day at school struggles at times to cope with the death themselves. It’s natural for
adults to seek to protect the children and spare them emotional pain; that is why they
often avoid talking with them about their classmate’s death and their own personal
sense of loss (Morgan & Roberts, 2010; Webb, 2005). Coping with this is even more
complicated in the case of the grief of children with special needs, called “disen-
franchised grief” (Doka, 2002). These children are perceived as lacking the ability to
grieve, to experience sorrow and pain, and to understand these feelings. Sometimes
participating in the grieving process is denied to them due to society’s conduct (Doka,
2002; Gault, 2012), which creates separation, distancing and exclusion rather than
closeness and inclusion, thereby depriving the children of the emotional support they
need (Shalev, 2014). Hence, the grieving children feel embarrassed and lonely, as they
are excluded from the family discourse and have no opportunity to mourn openly
together with their family (Hooyman & Kramer, 2006).
In the past, many institutions hid from children with special needs cases of death in
their family for fear of upsetting them (Dodd et al., 2005). It is our view that children
with special needs who experience loss need adults – parents, teachers and/or school
counselors who are skilled in diagnosing their condition – to notice their distress and
accompany them through the mourning process. It is important to be attentive to the
needs arising among the staffs that accompany these children at school and to give a
voice to the children and the staff members, too, who are coping with grief and be-
reavement. In this chapter, a study is described which presents the perception of death
among children with special needs from the point of view of the educational staff. In the
course of the study, we met with staff members in schools for special education who had
experienced the loss of a student and coped with loss and grief.

Grief and bereavement among children with special needs

Children with special needs is a wide, large and heterogeneous group of diverse
disabilities, diagnoses and syndromes. Some children contend with more than one
diagnosed disability. The function range is extensive, and the attitude toward this
population depends in large part on the social norms of the child’s environment and on
their perception of a person with special needs (Lavin, 2002). In numerous studies and
articles, people with special needs are referred to as having developmental disabilities,
and the focus of these studies is on a complex, chronic disability of a person above the
age of five. According to this perception, disabilities have four characteristics: (a) any
mental, emotional or physical disability, or a combination thereof; (b) a diagnosis prior
to age 22; (c) a permanent and constant disability; and (d) having a significant everyday
effect [on the person] manifested in at least one of the following domains: ability to take
care of oneself; ability for verbal understanding and expression; mobility; self-
Shalev et al. 3

direction; ability for independent living; economic independence; and a need for
personally suited, continuous and constant care.
The researchers rely on different socio-cultural sources; accordingly, they suggest
differing definitions. In the UK, the prevalent term is Learning Disability, whose
meaning is very similar to a Developmental Disorder. This definition includes dis-
abilities such as people with borderline intelligence who suffer from a delay or a
significant difficulty in comprehending new or complex information and in acquiring
new skills, which may be compounded by a disability in social functioning, com-
munication skills, and difficulty in everyday self-management. Moreover, these
cognitive difficulties are often accompanied by a physical or sensory disorder (e.g.,
deafness or blindness).
In Israel, the literature in this domain is limited and mainly deals with the mentally
challenged adult population, suffering from intellectual impairment resulting in dif-
ficulties in cognitive functions; problems related to language, particularly in grasping
the concept of death; and difficulty in comprehending abstract concepts (Harari-Zonder
& Barazon, 2000). No studies were found in Israel that discuss children with special
needs and their coping with death and loss.

Historical background
It was only around five decades ago that researchers began studying the realm of coping
with grief and bereavement among people with special needs. Until then, the prevalent
belief was that the loss of a close person had no emotional impact on these people. This
resulted in insensitive treatment, exclusion from mourning rituals, and a lack of
awareness of school staffs and family members to their pain. The people around them
tended to disregard their pain and loss, and there were even those who presumed that
people with special needs lack the same emotions felt by the general population.
Therefore, they remained alone, deprived of any understanding or empathy for their
pain, and even excluded from their grieving family (Oswin, 1991, 1992). While most
research in the past focused on adults and staffs in institutions that care for adults with
special needs, research on the coping of children with special needs at times of grief and
loss was not conducted until recent years (McAdams & Stough, 2018). Currently, there
are indications of a growing trend to involve people with special needs in the reality of
death and burial. In studies on the coping of staff members in organizations that
accompany adults with special needs (Dodd et al., 2005) it was found that while the
staff did not hide from them the occurrence of death, they emphasized that there is no
written procedure or organizational code on this subject, and they feel that people with
special needs do not understand the concept of death. It seems there is insufficient
knowledge and understanding both with regard to beneficial factors and harmful
aspects associated with the support of bereaved people with special needs in order to
help them mourn properly, and thus avoid aggravating their condition (Blackman,
2008). People with special needs experience sorrow and loss just like other people;
however, their ways of processing them are different. Notwithstanding, in cases such as
4 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

these the caregivers and family members largely treat this population in a patronizing
manner (Hoover et al., 2005). According to the experts in this field, children with
special needs are at risk for complications related to mourning if they do not receive
understanding and necessary support following the death of a loved one.

Comprehending the concept of death

One of the aims of intervention with relation to mourning is to help the mourner find
meaning in life after the loss and to go on living without the person who is gone.
However, this process necessitates a comprehension of the finality of death. In the
research literature, four aspects are attributed to the conception of death, as follows: (a)
the irreversibility of death, i.e., comprehending that death is a one-directional phe-
nomenon – the dead body does not come back to life; (b) the finality of death, i.e.,
comprehending that all bodily functions have ceased, and after death, the dead person
does not see or breathe; (c) the causality of death, i.e., comprehending the causes of
death – an accident, an illness, or old age; and (d) the universality and inevitability of
death, i.e., comprehending that everything that lives will die 1 day and that death is
unavoidable (Harari-Zonder & Barazon, 2000). Without comprehension, even if only
partial, of the irreversibility of death, the mourning process cannot commence because,
ostensibly, there is no reason to mourn. Only acknowledgment of the loss of the beloved
person evokes sorrow and pain (Kliman, 2009), although sometimes even a partial
understanding of the concept is sufficient to create the experience (Harari-Zonder &
Barazon, 2000). A misconception of death is liable, therefore, to aggravate and prolong
the mourning period, and with regard to people with disabilities, uncertainty as to how
much they understand the concept constitutes one of the reasons for withholding
information from them (McEvoy et al., 2012; Chow, et al., 2017). And, indeed, in their
views on this issue, the researchers are divided. Some assert that people with dis-
abilities, including those with intellectual disabilities, are incapable of comprehending
the concept of death and its finality, resulting at times in the caregiving staff and family
members thinking, erroneously, that they forget the deceased immediately after his
death (Harari-Zonder & Barazon, 2000; McEvoy et al., 2012). Others argue that people
with disabilities understand the concept of death only partially, and this partialness is
liable to find expression in confusion and in inaccurate and improper thoughts after the
death of a loved one. This situation could potentially endanger them in that they may
develop emotional difficulties such as depression and complex mourning (McEvory,
MacHale & Tierney 2012; Chow et al., 2017). That said, other researchers have found
that people with disabilities understand the concept of death compatible to their
chronological age; that is, according to the accepted norm in society (Lipe-Goodson &
Goebel, 1983), and they are able, regardless of their cognitive level, to realize and
acknowledge the fact that their loved one is dead.
Examining the correlation between the conception of death and one’s knowledge of
biology (e.g., how the human body works) among people with disabilities illuminates
another aspect of grasping the concept: that the greater the understanding of bodily
Shalev et al. 5

functions – for example, when the heart stops pumping the person cannot survive – the
greater the understanding that death is the point at which the body stops working
McEvoy et al. (2017).

Disenfranchised grief
Society’s basic attitude toward death reflects a lack of preparedness and an unwill-
ingness to cope with the notion of death (Silverman and Nickman, 1996). Society
denies not death itself but rather the sorrow and pain inherent in it. This attitude
explains the loneliness felt by many mourners, since the society surrounding the
bereaved person, which struggles to cope with its own sense of grief and sorrow,
expects him to show restraint, to contain his emotions, and recover quickly. Conse-
quently, the bereaved are liable to experience shame and guilt about their feelings (Bar-
Nadav, 2007).
Doka (2002) defined “disenfranchised grief” as a person’s grief that goes unrec-
ognized; a person who cannot mourn in public or be entitled to society’s support for the
mourning process he is undergoing. This type of grief can also occur when the society
believes that the bereaved person is incapable of mourning, as in the instance of
cognitive disability. When the bereaved mentally-challenged person’s family, friends
and relatives do not acknowledge his loss, then his grieving response may be perceived
as inappropriate, and he may show signs of adjustment problems. Kauffman (1994)
claims that while social support and recognition provide legitimacy and neutralize the
shame, society’s non recognition of grief contributes to the person’s sense of shame and
is liable to exacerbate the pain of abandonment. Children with special needs experience
loss from the moment they are born. Their arrival often constitutes an experience of loss
for the family, which mourns the perfect child they seemingly have ’’lost’’. Some of
these “imperfect” children grow up outside of their families and experience an am-
biguous loss (Shalev & Ben Asher, 2012). Children with special needs are particularly
vulnerable following a parent’s death as many of them are required – following the loss
of their primary caregiver – to part from the familiar, homey atmosphere where they
have now lost a key figure who had always mediated the difficulties in the child’s social
world vis-à-vis the various providers of child services (McAdams & Stough, 2018).
Children with special needs may find it hard to “speak” their pain and will be at risk of
developing added difficulties such as depression and complicated grief (Dodd et al.,
2008). Therefore, the educational staff is called upon to pay attention to these children’s
reactions in the period of mourning (Sormanti and Ballan, 2011).

Participation in mourning rituals and customs

Mourning ceremonies and customs, which assist the bereaved in coping with loss, make
an important contribution to the development and tangible nature of the concept of
death and to the legitimacy of expressing sorrow openly (Harari-Zonder & Barazon,
2000). Religious and social traditions provide support systems for coping with death
6 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

(McEvory et al., 2012); it is therefore recommended to allow children to participate in

these rituals, suited to their age and the type of ceremony deemed appropriate for
children, such as funerals for example. Adults should adjust their support to the child’s
cognitive capabilities; the explanations should be more concrete and less abstract, and
the adults should attend to the child’s emotions and wishes and allow him to express
them in a way that is appropriate for him (Lavin, 2002; Oswin, 1991, 1992).

The perception of mourning by the staff and caregiving entities

In the past, sickness and death were hidden and far removed from people with special
needs, thus denying them the possibility of being with the family at the time of the
anticipated death (Gault, 2012). In the view of Deutsch (1985), the reasons for this
desire to spare the children pain are the inability of the caregivers and family members
to relate to the death, combined with the belief that children cannot comprehend the
meaning of death and communicate it properly, and the assumption that their cognitive
disabilities will make them easily forget the person who passed away (Stoddart &
McDonnell, 1999). Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to enhance the knowledge and
training of the educational staff and to emphasize the right of every human being to be
told the truth and their right to mourn the loss of a loved one (Oswin, 1991).
In cases of death within the school community or within the family, the child’s
exclusion may further complicate his grief and deplete the resources he needs to cope
with any future loss and/or crisis (Stoddart & McDonnell, 1999). In studies conducted
by McAdams and Stough (2018), it was revealed that teachers [in regular mainstream
schools] struggled to accompany classes whose students were in mourning. The
teachers reported lacking the necessary knowledge and having negative feelings about
the need to talk with these students and to contend with their pain and emotional
hardship. In contrast, it was found that teachers of special education were an important
source of support for children with special needs in their time of grief, because the
teachers were very familiar with their learning difficulties and emotional needs and
were thus better able to interpret and understand the children’s behavior, even when the
children had difficulty in verbalizing it.
After the tragedy of 9/11, Christ and Christ (2006) performed research on students
with special needs whose firefighter father had perished. They found that the special
education teachers who had received training to provide appropriate counsel and
support were significant persons for the children during the grieving process. Special
education teachers who were interviewed for the research of McAdams and Stough
(2018) described the children’s behavior in class during the mourning period thusly:
The children sought physical closeness to the teacher and reacted with interminable
sobbing and crying, with physical violence, and a loss of interest in familiar actions. All
of the teachers attributed this behavior to [the children’s] mourning and loss. With the
death of a parent, the child lost not only his normal routine but was left with a parent
who was immersed in his/her own sorrow and absence of emotional availability
(Shalev, 2014). The interviewees emphasized that it is important to inform the child at
Shalev et al. 7

the time of the death, despite his cognitive impairment, and to include him in the funeral
and mourning rituals. According to the study, the school staff initiated an array of
activities designed to support the bereaved children, whether it be reading books in
class about death, using flashcards that display feelings, or playing music to them.

Training the educational staff

It is every person’s right, and that includes children, to know that he has lost a loved one
or a friend and to mourn that person (Oswin, 1992). Therefore, the adults in the
children’s orbit should provide a true and credible explanation for the death. Con-
ceptualization reduces confusion and eases the adjustment process. This is all the more
reason to construct guidance programs focusing on death as a natural part of the cycle of
life (Harari-Zonder & Barazon, 2000). In special education, students spend prolonged
periods in a variety of educational settings (e.g., schools, afternoon-care, hostels,
assisted living etc.) where the educational staff is an important source of support. In
some special education schools, there are students suffering from complex medical
conditions and whose life expectancy is relatively short. Their mortality rate is high,
thus increasing the likelihood of students coping with the death of a classmate (Hoover
et al., 2005). Professionals in the realm of grief and bereavement are crucial for training
an educational staff to become adept at helping children with special needs, yet expert
professionals in this field are rare. It has been found that training that is suited to the
patient’s diagnosis and addresses students’ and parents’ questions is key in preventing a
downward spiral and the development of complex grief (Gault, 2012; Blackman,
2008). All of the teachers participating in the study of McAdams and Stough (2018)
reported feeling strong emotions in response to their exposure to the grief of children. In
many homes, parents find it difficult to talk about death; consequently, the children
remain without support. In school, while the teachers recognized the children’s grief
and acknowledged it, they themselves experienced emotional challenges and were in
need of guidance and support as part of the in-school staff training. In their words, they
had to put aside their own feelings in order to concentrate on their students’ pain; in this
way, they in effect neglected their own pain.
In the system as a whole, when coping with loss among the special needs population
(Stoddart & McDonnell, 1999), relating to students’ emotional needs is likely to be
assigned a lower priority by everyday urgent demands. Due to high staff turnover and
the fact that some children belong to several frameworks simultaneously, the staff is not
always familiar with the situation or aware of the grieving child’s relationship with the
deceased. In such situations, the caregivers in each setting may respond differently to
the child’s grief. Staff turnover makes it difficult to provide them with proper and
ongoing training (Hoover et al., 2005), even though the caregivers recognize the
importance of discussing and processing their own grief and that of their care recipients.
Speaking with professionals in the field and with close friends within the staff proved to
be a source of support in situations of loss and grief. It is recommended to prescribe
clear treatment protocols for caregivers when dealing with loss, in general, and a
8 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

separate protocol in case of the death of a care recipient with special needs that will
provide caregivers with specific support that is focused for their needs (Bennett, 2003).
These principles are relevant in schools for special education that are contending with
more frequent cases of students’ sickness and death.

The death of a student – the empty chair in the classroom

A student’s death is a difficult experience. Oftentimes, the bitter news reaches the
teacher in the staff lounge, after which she must enter the class and announce the death
to the children. The teacher is obliged to keep her wits about her and be a source of
stability and support to her students before she herself has had time to assimilate and
process the loss. Coping with the loss of a child who just yesterday was sitting in that
same classroom is extremely difficult for teachers and other school staff. Contending
with the rumors, the pain, the hysteria, and sometimes even with the media and the
parents leaves no time for thinking and planning. During an event of this kind, there is
no need to display feigned strength to the children; but rather, we adults must be an
authentic model of coping and a source of support and information. There is no need to
conceal our pain and sorrow from the children. It is advisable to plan what to say to the
students and to make sure that the information is consistent in all of the classes. It is also
desirable to avoid divulging too much information but rather convey an explanation for
their feelings and tell them what is expected to happen and what may help them get
through it (Shalev, 2014). Children have an uncanny ability to sense a person’s pain,
sorrow, relief, guilt, and embarrassment. It is important to be familiar with the whole
gamut of feelings and even to explain them to the parents. The explanation should be
appropriate for the children’s age and development stage; they should be given a “road
map” for feelings; and they should listen and ultimately understand that their feelings
are natural and normal.
The teacher is the role model that guides her students on the path that leads to the
completion of the mourning process (Lahad & Ayalon, 1995). Grieving children are at
some degree of risk when the adults in their orbit do not acknowledge their suffering
and only consider seeking help following expressions of severe distress. There is a
discrepancy between the number of children who have experienced loss and those
known to the school staff and who are receiving care (Ben Asher and Arbel-Baruch,
2012). School counselors who have experienced the loss of a student reported not
having been sufficiently trained to provide prolonged support to grieving children, and
they are in need of such training, especially with regard to supporting children with
special needs (Sormanti and Ballan, 2011).

Research aims
There is scant research in the literature that has engaged in the topic of grief and
bereavement among children and adults with special needs. In Israel, the only published
study is that of Harari-Zonder and Barazon (2000) who investigated the perception of
Shalev et al. 9

the concept of death among adults with intellectual disabilities. Schools for special
education teach students with special needs, some of whom suffer from complex
medical conditions and a short life expectancy; hence, their staffs frequently experience
grief and bereavement within the school walls. The students’ teachers, principals, and
counselors are often compelled to cope with the crisis of death in the school. The
present study examined schools’ ways of coping with the death of a student in order to
better understand what can alleviate the crisis and help the staff cope optimally in such
adverse and stressful events. Therefore, the research aim was to explore the educational
staff members’ experience and perceptions and to examine their coping mechanisms,
the support system and care available to them following the death of a student with
special needs.

Methodology
Fifteen subjects took part in the present study, consisting of homeroom teachers, a
teaching assistant, an emotional therapist, and school counselors – 13 women and 2
men employed in schools for special education. All of them had experienced the death
of a students in the course of their work. Although many more potential participants
were approached and asked to take part in the study, these 15 were the only ones who
consented to be interviewed. For the sake of ensuring the confidentiality and privacy of
the study participants and school staffs, the personal and demographic data are dis-
played generically, and the subjects are presented with pseudonyms in the Findings and
Discussion chapters.
Due to a lack of relevant research in Israel, the current study made use of a
phenomenological qualitative research method suited to preliminary description and
understanding of a phenomenon from the viewpoint of those experiencing it (Larkin
and Thompson, 2012). According to this method, reality is perceived as a human
construct which is constructed upon and exists thanks to the subject and his personal
and cultural aspects. The reality is built on the interpretation of the research subject and
the researcher. This theory, which relies upon pure experience, without prior as-
sumptions and conceptions, deals with the facts themselves and the phenomenon only
(Sabar Ben-Yehoshua, 2001).
The present study employs qualitative research based on the Constructivist ap-
proach, centering around interviewees and the content that derives from the interviews,
descriptions of their world, and understanding their unique way of interpreting their
experiences. In this approach, while the research commences in an intended direction
and focus, the researcher must exhibit flexibility and be able to make alterations
according to the issues that emerge from the interviews. In this research methodology,
the focus is on processes and meanings, not quantities, and on power and frequency
(Shkedi, 2012).
10 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

Research procedure
The interviews conducted in the framework of this study were scheduled at times and in
venues chosen by the participants to ensure their utmost privacy. Each interview lasted
approximately 90 minutes, and all were recorded and meticulously transcribed.

Data analysis
The findings that arose from the interviews were analyzed by a thematic analysis
method; that is, a macro method which regards words and descriptions as a reflection of
the individual interviewee’s feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and knowledge. In the initial
stage of the process, the data were sorted into categories. This was followed by a search
for similarities and differences between them by observing recurring themes (Shkedi,
2003).

Research instruments
The interviews were conducted using the semi-structured in-depth method. An in-depth
interview is designed to understand the experience of others and the meaning they
ascribe to the experience (Shkedi, 2003). In a semi-structured interview, the interviewer
formulates questions in advance; however, the questions are not asked in a certain
predetermined order. This method enables the interviewee to speak freely, as the
interviewer is perceived as being a neutral and interested party, aspects which can
enrich and lend greater depth to the interview (Sabar Ben-Yehoshua, 2001).
The research questions in this study are described as follows:

A. The special education staff members’ experience in cases of a student’s death

B. The processes occurring in the school from the moment of the death
announcement
C. The procedures taken within the school following a student’s death
D. The support that the staff receives at the time of the loss and the effects on their
private lives
E. The role of the special education school counselor in the school’s overall coping
with a student’s death
F. The nature of relations with the students’ families during and after the student’s
death
G. The psycho-educational preparation and guidance for students and the staff in
the realm of grief and bereavement

Data analysis
In this section, the themes that were identified during the interview analysis will be
presented and elaborated upon below:
Shalev et al. 11

The special education staff members’ experience in cases of a student’s death. Cases of
death are familiar and present in schools for special education: "[We] experience lots of
cases of death, sometimes two or three in a single year,” explained Y, and N said,
“Regrettably, by the very nature of things, we have cases like that here in our school,
because we have children here who have diseases.” M added, “All the classes have lost
a student in recent years and even further back in history. It is totally ‘out there’. I mean,
death happens. It’s not the only thing that happens and not the main thing that happens
in the school or the residential facility, but it definitely happens.”

The school protocols following the death of a student. Following a student’s death, clear
principles of action were described. Z mentioned a typical principle in school conduct
which appeared in all of the interviews: “We have here lots and lots of thinking in every
aspect; in every aspect there has been in-depth thinking.” She went on to say, “A
response was given to everyone; a response to the staff, a response to the family [of the
deceased child]. A response to the students, when necessary. There’s a student who
needs more, and a student who needs less, and there’s a student that doesn’t want to talk
about it, and there’s a student that is terribly frightened [by it] … the school prepares for
all kinds of things."
The processes that occur from the moment of the death announcement occur si-
multaneously among the school staff, the students, and their parents. “We try to identify
the circles of vulnerability and also look at everyone and intervene when we detect that
it is difficult for someone. After each case, we identify the one for whom it is difficult
and support him.” S, the school principal, described how “the entire treatment structure
is recruited [to care] for whoever needs help.” In special education, the treatment
structure is wide and influential, and in these cases [of a student’s death] its presence is
felt even more, both at the individual and schoolwide level.

The death notification. The interviews revealed that the announcement of a student’s
death is initially conveyed to the homeroom teacher, who then passes it on to the school
principal and subsequently to the staff members in a controlled manner according to the
circles of closeness to the deceased. Careful thinking is devoted to the manner in which
the announcement should be conveyed to the students closest to their deceased
classmate. N described it thusly:

“There’s a gathering [in the staff room] and the principal makes an announcement. From
the staff it goes to the classrooms. The homeroom teacher enters her class and announces
[the death]. Any teacher in need of the help of a professional – for example novice teachers
for whom it’s a terribly heavy task to go in and tell their class – receives the help she needs,
whether it’s from psychologists, social workers, school counselors, or therapists. The
whole caregiving system enlists to aid the teachers if they need help. “

M revealed that at the school where she works, the question if and when to inform
the students in cases of a student’s death are at the discretion of the homeroom teacher.
12 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

In all of the interviews, the interviewees described availability, accessibility and support
on the part of the therapeutic staff to the needs of the educational staff, depending on
how close they were to the student and the case. Some of them did not receive sufficient
guidance and expressed a need for constant, ongoing support.

The announcement to the students. “It is our view that the students feel and understand
[the situation] and even the most highly disabled class holds a farewell ceremony for the
[deceased] student. There’s just a different approach,” described T. It was apparent in all
of the interviews that the interviewees gave it thought and adapted the farewell to a
certain group of students according to the case and specific child. “It’s important to
adapt it [the farewell ceremony] to their cognitive level,” said M who described how she
does this in her class, where the children’s communicative ability is limited:

To show his [the deceased’s] photo; if there’s a video of him, it’s even more real, or the
sounds he used to make. To tell the students who it is; Then to explain what ’dead’ means,
that we will never hear him again and never see him again. And also [encourage them] to
give [expression] to feelings or some kind of response.

O described it thusly:

You enter [the classroom] and constantly explain that he [the deceased] was very, very sick
and reiterate that he doesn’t have what you’ve got, again hopefully. In classes that have a
child with a degenerative disease, you think very, very carefully about every word that
comes out of your mouth because you mustn’t lie, especially to the older kids who know
they have the [same] disease and know that this [deceased] child had it too, so you have to
weigh every word carefully.

All of the interviewees described ways of commemoration and diverse possibilities

of expression and processing for the students, such as a commemoration corner inside
the classrooms prepared by the students with the help of their homeroom teachers and
other members of the staff. In several classes, the students chose to leave the deceased
student’s bed and belongings for a few weeks, or to leave his drawer and a memorial
noticeboard with the drawings they had made for him and to move with them when they
move up to the next grade. In most of the schools in this study, the parents were
informed and were offered support. The staff itself took part in mourning ceremonies
and the funeral.

The existence of a school protocol for coping with a student’s death. The interviews revealed
that while a clear procedure exists, in most schools it is informal and unwritten. N
described how in her school "there’s a kit developed by the school. There’s a procedure,
actual written guidelines, on what to do in case of the loss of a student. The moment it [a
death] happens, first of all, we announce it and how [to do so].”
Z described functioning without a procedure:
Shalev et al. 13

“Apparently, the procedure does not exist, but the feeling was [as if] it does. We prepared
ourselves for it immediately; we knew what we were doing, how to respond, how to
assemble everyone, what technical actions to perform. It was all so clear that we didn’t get
confused for even a minute, except in that case I told you about, the first case when we
needed [to consult with] someone from the outside.”

S, as a [male] school principal, described it thusly: “You do a great many things, but
it isn’t written in orderly procedural documents. There’s a lot of experience. A multi-
disciplinary consulting team convenes on a regular basis in cases of death."
In contrast to the above, M described a non-existent protocol in her school, as
follows:

“Since each homeroom teacher underwent the process alone, it was very, difficult because
we didn’t have a suitable format of any kind for our [special] population, which we could
rely on and then adapt it to your class; something that will be a basis.”

The homeroom teachers emphasized the need for procedures laid out in order and in
clear guidelines in the event of a student’s death. Some of the interviewees related to
external support from the Educational Psychological Service felt a sense of difficulty
and ambivalence. It seems that in the schools [for special education] there is an internal
way of conducting things based on knowledge and experience. The procedures, which
were written by staff members without any external support, lay out in detail how to act
in the event of a student’s death. However, the procedures are inconsistent, and their
origin is in the establishment outside the school or a higher authority.

The support provided to the school staff at a time of loss and the implications for their personal
lives. The staff members described hardship, fear, weeping, and feeling great pain at the
death of a student and its effect on their personal lives: “It touches sensitive nerves
within the staff, too. I, personally, who accompany all the cases, it touches me dif-
ferently every time, depending on my familiarity and proximity to the case,” T shared.
“These things meet you later on in your personal life. You pay a price for this. It doesn’t
[go away]" (N).
Z relates the following:

“The daily routine somehow puts these things aside, but when it happens, it’s difficult and
painful. You can avoid it, but you can’t forget it. It exists; it’s hovering in the air all the
time. You just pray that it won’t happen, and when it does, you deal with it. You tell
yourself [I wish] that it won’t happen on your watch, that it won’t happen during the school
day. You worry about yourself with protections of this kind, but unfortunately, in the end, it
happens.”

The educational staffs described means of coping with the complexity of balancing
their professional and private lives following the loss of a student: “At first, I remember
14 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

it being very difficult, and I carried it [the emotional weight] with me to such an extent
that I was unable to function,” shared O. N described the coping as being vital in her line
of work: "It’s not easy to lose a student. Nonetheless, you need to know how to take care
of yourself […]. If you have exposed flesh, as it were, you’re exposed from the inside.
Like I told you, it catches up with you later on in your private life in all kinds of
episodes."

Mourning rituals and customs. The educational staff took part in mourning customs and
ceremonies such as funerals, condolence visits, nurturing a tree planted in the student’s
memory and so on. The birthday of her son coincided with the funeral of a student from
K’s class. The principal suggested that she forego the funeral and stay home to celebrate
with her son. K stressed the desire to decide for herself: “Not always do people go to
funerals for the family’s sake; people also go for themselves. The same is true for the
‘shiva’ [condolence week] or any other event […]. I replied, ‘I need to decide’."

The support of the staff

In special education schools, the teamwork includes prominent and important in-school
support and help. N described the teamwork and the staff as a supportive community:
“Teamwork is a very dominant thing here. We have really good teamwork […]. I have
someone to talk to, and that’s the most important thing, that you have a supportive
community” All of the interviewees mentioned the system of support offered to the staff
from within the school and the extensive emotional-therapeutic staff in their respective
schools. At the same time, they were helped by their colleagues on the basis of personal
closeness and friendship.

The role of the counselor in special education schools in coping with a student’s death. N
described the educational counselor as a dominant figure in the school who provides
support and guidance: “I enter the counselor’s office, close the door, and I have a place;
I have this corner, a room that can accommodate me. And this person [sitting] across
from me, who knew how to give the appropriate hug, also knew how to guide me and
take me out of there.” The school counselor is part of the caregiving staff and school
administration. The counselor was described as being present, dominant and available
while the school was coping with a student’s death. The counselor listened to the staff
members’ concerns and even accompanied some of the teachers when announcing [the
death] in the classes. Besides the professional guidance, the counselor provided
personal support. The counselor was also described as someone who provides support
to the students and their parents, too.

Relationship with the class parents leading up to and following the student’s death. The
staff’s relationship with the class parents was described as unique and profound. Z said,
“The intimacy is very close, and the parents constantly reiterated this, especially in
Shalev et al. 15

these difficult situations of [a student’s] death.” The school as a home was frequently
mentioned in the interviews: “The school was like a home […] like a family."

Training and guidance for the students and the staff in the context of death and loss. The
school staff expressed a need for training in the sphere of mourning and bereavement.
“It’s very important that it be communicated, that it won’t be so urgent every time [it
happens]," said K. The supervisor of the assistant teachers, Y, described it thusly:
“Nobody talks with them [the assistant teachers] even though I really want someone to
talk with them.” M added, “No one spoke about bereavement in any course; [not] about
loss, the family’s coping, or the surrounding [support] systems. Graduate degree studies
are the place to delve deeply into it and also to look at what’s happening in the world.
Not a word was said to us about this domain, which is a huge issue that touches on a
million and one things.” From their testimonies what emerges is a lack of staff training.
In several special education schools, a preparation process takes place intended for
coping with the impending death and separation, mainly during hospitalization or a
deterioration in the [sick child’s] medical condition, as well as continuous updates
provided to his classmates. In some of the classes, a letter was sent to the parents, a
video was prepared for the sick child, and the class underwent preparation for the
imminent death.
The staff described a lack of psycho-educational training and guidance for inci-
dences of a student’s death and the coping with grief and bereavement experienced by
children with special needs. Among these students, the picture is more optimistic
thanks to the recognition and support of the educational staff.

Discussion
Coping with incidents of a student’s death in special education schools is a common and
well-known phenomenon. The life expectancy of people with complex disabilities is
shorter, and their mortality rate is higher, than the rest of the population. Therefore, it is
only natural that the majority of institutions that care for this population will deal with
the loss of students and subsequently accompany their classmates (Hoover et al., 2005).
The aim of this research was to learn and ascertain what is likely to assist special
education staffs in coping with the death of a student in their school.

The coping of the school staff

Our study reveals that schools are the predominant source of support in the processing
of the loss for the students, staff, and parents alike. Raviv and Katzenelson (2002)
discuss the role of the school at the time of the death of a student and the significance of
supporting the other students. They assert that it is actually the relative detachment of
the educational staff that enables such support. Furthermore, we found that special
education institutions maintain a unique and close connection with the students and
their families. The school staff supported the homeroom teachers, the deceased
16 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

student’s family, his classmates and their parents, both when the patient’s medical
condition was deteriorating and death was imminent and after he passed away.
The educational staff’s role in the event of a student’s death begins at the stage of the
death notification and continues up to the stage of adjustment to routine life at the
school (Raviv & Katzenelson, 2002). The staff is accompanied by mental health experts
who work in the education system, such as school counselors, psychologists, emotional
therapists, and social workers, who provide support by contributing from their re-
spective fields of expertise. It was found that the students in our study receive ac-
knowledgment of their grief and are entitled to be informed, contrary to what is
described in the research literature (Sormanti and Ballan, 2011). It was further found
that there exist honest and direct discourse, listening, and mutual sharing which
characterized the entire school staff. This depiction is in line with the recommendation
for generating a considerate and supportive environment (Stoddart & McDonnell,
1999). The notification of death was conveyed thoughtfully and sensitively in the form
of reliable information suited to the students’ development and needs. The intervention,
too, was suited to the students and combined varied aids and means of communication
(Lavin, 2002; Harari-Zonder & Barazon, 2000; Lahad & Ayalon, 1995).

The support of and care for students

The child’s perception of death and the mourning process are affected by his cognitive
understanding; therefore, the choice of intervention should be adapted to the indi-
vidual’s cognitive ability and function (Stoddart et al., 2002; Silverman & Nickman,
1996). Researchers who investigated psychologists’ perceptions of the experience of
death and bereavement among children with intellectual disabilities were of the view
that an incomplete understanding of death can prolong and even deepen the be-
reavement process. For this reason, the psychologists strongly recommended that
children with intellectual disabilities should be included in bereavement rituals, should
be supported with concrete and visual explanations of death, and should be given
opportunities to understand death through natural human experiences of loss and grief
(McClean & Guerin, 2019).
The intervention among the students reported in this study included accompaniment,
support, and treatment, all suited to the students and their cognitive abilities. In the
present study, the students participated in ceremonies and in some of the mourning
customs if they wished or chose to do so. This is in contrast to previous studies that
described disenfranchisement of the children’s needs, exclusion from the grieving
process and mourning rituals, and the resultant risk of developing complex mourning
(Rubin et al., 2016; Doka, 2002; Blackman, 2008). Hoover et al. (2005) argue that, for
the most part, the caregiving entities treat children with special needs in a patronizing
manner. In the present study, there was only one educational institution that had no
uniform procedure for dealing with a student’s death, in which the homeroom teachers
opted not to include the students. The other special education school staffs that par-
ticipated in this study acted according to internal procedures of their intuition. The help
Shalev et al. 17

they offered their students was both emotional and concrete. They employed stories,
symbols, and diverse nonverbal tools to explain the concept of death and to mediate it to
the children. The staffs undertook actions to memorialize the deceased student, to bring
up memories, and to create an emotional connection to the experiences they had shared
in class with the deceased child, while all the time providing individual and group
support.
Stoddart and McDonnell (1999) describe the stage prior to the loss as an opportunity
to improve the coping ability and emphasized the preparations for the loss, particularly
among children with special needs. In the study it was reported that during the
worsening medical condition of one of the students, his classmates and their parents
were kept up-to-date, thus preventing the shock and resultant pain. Harari-Zonder and
Barazon (2002) note that observing others’ emotional expression serves as a model and
grants legitimacy to one’s own expression of emotions. Findings of other studies
describe adults who were incapable of supporting grieving children (McAdams &
Stough, 2018), while the present study’s findings present homeroom teachers who
support their students and serve as role models for manners of response and emotional
expression following the loss of a student.

Support and training of the staff

The understanding that most people with special needs will cope with cases of death in
their lifetimes, and thinking about how to help them cope evokes great distress among
the caregiving entities (Harari-Zonder & Barazon, 2000). Their research findings show
that alongside recognizing the frequency of these cases emerges a request to train the
staff in coping with bereavement and loss and to institute organized and constant
support for the staff. The study of McAdams and Stough (2018) illuminates the need for
training when acquiring the profession.
Bennett (2003) suggests that the training should include preparing clear procedures
and protocols for the staff, and our research shows that an internal procedure exists for
intervention in the case of a student’s death. The support of the staff, the sharing, the
reciprocity, the reliability, the recognition and acceptance of the emotions that arise out
of the loss, as well as thinking about the future, are all essential to the teamwork (Rubin
et al., 2016; Shalev, 2014; Bennett, 2003). Therefore, all of the caregiving entities must
provide the staff and the mourners with their choice of preferred support (Lavin, 2002).
This recommendation is supported by our research, which shows a willingness on the
part of the school’s educational staff to receive support from its therapeutic staff,
beyond the support of personal friends.

Practical conclusions and recommendations

The Two-Track model of Rubin (1993, 1999) emphasizes the two paths of grief and the
importance in giving appropriate and effective support. Acknowledging that there is a
hidden, inner path that reveals itself in discourse reinforces the importance of open
18 OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying 0(0)

communication and adapting the professional intervention to the staff, the students, and
their parents. In all of the schools, the staff is given the possibility to share, to talk, and
to consult with the therapeutic staff, thus avoiding loneliness and lack of recognition
(Shalev, 2014). Participation in ceremonies is important as a source of emotional
support, for processing the grief, and for perceiving the concept of death, and for the
students it even provides continuity and reduces ambiguity (Blackman, 2008; Hoover
et al., 2005, 2002; Lavin, 1999; Stoddart and McDonnell,1999; Silverman & Nickman,
1996).
In the special education context, as emerged from our research, death is present in
the life of the school, a fact which necessitates proper, continuous training for the
educational staff and the students alike. The staff also needs personal support due to the
tendency of education professionals to neglect their own private grief and to focus
solely on the students. The discourse about death with children with special needs
should take place as part of the regular work plan and not only following the death of a
child from the class (Bennett, 2003). In our research it was found that open discourse
was formed exclusively at the initiative of the students themselves or following the
death of a classmate, and not as part of the life skills taught in the school. We rec-
ommend that schools for special education maintain open, ongoing discourse with the
students on the subject, and not just in cases of the sickness or death of a classmate.
Based on the findings of the present study, our recommendation to the Educational
Psychological Service to write a uniform and permanent procedure of intervention
regarding the death of a student, including specifications on the manner of support and
the continuous training and supervision adapted to the various institutions.
Support for these findings can be found in a study by Stratford et al. (2020) which
reviews 91 articles that investigated interventions in situations of trauma and grief at
school. The authors strongly recommended constructing a treatment plan for dealing
with trauma and traumatic grief which involves the whole school as an ecosystem – the
educational staff and the non-professional support staff alike – and to enrich their
knowledge in the realm of trauma and grief.

The importance of supporting the parents

Whereas the present article focused on the school staff, research on children’s grief and
authors who developed school intervention programs to treat children who have ex-
perienced trauma and loss (Cohen et al., 2017) stress the importance of including the
parents in the process of supporting their children emotionally at a time of trauma and
grief. Intervention programs such as TF-CBT, developed by Cohen et al. (2017), as well
as a group intervention program called TGCTA (Herres et al., 2017) both emphasize the
fact that parental support is a significant predictor of their children’s mental health when
coping with crisis events. These programs are recommended as they provide parents
with necessary skills and offer a psychoeducational explanation that recognizes and
normalizes the children’s and the parents’ experiences and reactions to the grief.
Additionally, they reinforce the parents’ confidence and reduce their resistance to
Shalev et al. 19

receiving treatment and support. The above intervention programs provide tools for
relaxation, breathing exercises and positive self-affirmation, vital information on the
topic of death, and various cognitive skills. Informing parents of the death of a student
or staff member, providing information and guidance on how to speak with their child,
how to inform him/her of the death and answer the child’s questions about death in
general – all of these empower parents and enable them to complement the support
provided by the school for children coping with loss and grief (Castrillón, 2020;
McClean & Guerin, 2019; Cohen, et al., 2017).
The present study has several limitations. The research sampling was small;
however, the interviewees represented a diverse range of special education institutions
serving students of different levels of function and different roles in the education
system, including a school principal. homeroom teachers, an assistant teacher, an
emotional therapist, and school counselors. This diversity facilitated a broad view of the
means of coping with a student’s death within the entire staff; however, one must
approach this with caution when generalizing the present study’s findings with regard to
all staffs in special education institutions.
The main contribution of the research is in emphasizing the right of every person to
mourn, to feel and express sorrow and pain, and to know the truth, even if that person
has special needs or an intellectual disability.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

ORCID iD
Ronit Shalev  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5074-3177

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