RANTOUL, Ill., (WCIA) — One Rantoul principal is back from Washington D.C. after presenting at the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) conference with educators from across the country.

At the conference, Broadmeadow Elementary was highlighted as the school in Illinois paving the way in the “REACH” initiative.

Amy Blomberg, the school’s principal, helped create the initiative in 2020. She wants it to keep growing.

The program helps train educators to recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma. That way, they can address students’ social-emotional well-being and their mental health.

While in D.C., Blomberg connected with others and focused on how they can help more kids.

“We’ve really started incorporating movement into our days for our kids,” she said. “We know that kids who have been exposed to trauma, sometimes they have toxins that are built up. This is a great way to reduce those toxins and get them moving and then back in class.”

She was able to meet with the superintendent and director of REACH to share all of their work and collaborate more as a team.

Blomberg said at Broadmeadow, they’ve met each section of the first action plan and now they’re on phase two.

Now, they’ll be focusing on more family engagement and having more strategies inside the classroom to identify trauma.