Do Schools Know What to Do When a Parent Dies? Policies and Training Worldwide

In most countries, what happens at school after a child's parent dies depends on the school they happen to attend. Denmark and Norway are the clear exceptions: bereavement response plans have been built up there over three decades and were reported by almost all of the daycare institutions that answered two large surveys. Elsewhere, curricula are starting to name grief, but surveys of school staff in the United States and Northern Ireland find that most report no bereavement training or lack the information they need, and many do not know of a school policy^[1][2][3][4].

For a child whose mum or dad has died, school is often the one place where ordinary life carries on. It is also where they spend most of their waking hours with adults who are not family. Whether those adults know about the death, have thought in advance about how to respond, and feel able to talk about it is shaped less by any one teacher than by the systems around them: national guidance, the curriculum, school policies and training. This study sets out what is known about those systems in different countries, and where the evidence simply has not been collected.

National bereavement systems for schools are rare, and best documented in Scandinavia

The most developed school bereavement systems are in Scandinavia. A 2025 narrative review of 59 peer-reviewed studies by Martin Lytje and Atle Dyregrov found that bereavement response policies and plans have been built up over three decades "in parts of Scandinavia, most systematically documented in Denmark and Norway"^[1]. A bereavement response plan sets out in advance what staff do when a child's family member is seriously ill or dies: who tells the class, who contacts the family, how the child is welcomed back, and who checks in later.

These plans now reach down to the youngest children. In two large surveys of daycare institutions, published in 2024, 87% of Danish institutions (603 telephone interviews with daycare leaders in 2019, weighted by location and institution type) and 98% of responding Norwegian ones (an online survey in 2021 answered by 11% of institutions, a result the authors say "should be interpreted conservatively") had a bereavement plan. Respondents in both countries said the plans gave staff a sense of safety when supporting bereaved children^[3]. A document analysis of 65 Danish and 30 Norwegian daycare plans found that, despite a shared origin, the two systems had diverged. Norwegian plans were often longer and written by professionals, and the authors put the difference down partly to organisational factors such as Norwegian law^[5]. Danish institutions typically develop their own plans rather than obtaining them from municipalities or external partners^[3].

A 2019 review by researchers at the University of Cambridge with the charity Winston's Wish concluded that "currently only Denmark and Australia seem to have school bereavement response systems that are implemented on a national scale"^[6]. We could not check the Australian system at source for this study, so we describe it no further.

Having a plan is not the same as having a good one. A 2026 analysis of 45 crisis management plans from Swedish compulsory schools found they focused mostly on logistics, symbols and rituals. They said little about psychosocial support or long-term follow-up, and most relied on outdated theories of grief^[7]. The review of the Scandinavian evidence reached a similar conclusion: plans can strengthen preparedness and staff confidence, but how well they work "depends on local ownership, leadership, training"^[1].

Curricula increasingly name grief, but as a lesson topic, not a support system

A second route into schools is the curriculum: teaching all children about death and grief before it touches them. Here the clearest examples we could verify are in the UK's nations.

In England, revised statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education came into effect on 1 September 2026. By the end of primary school, pupils should learn "that change and loss, including bereavement, can provoke a range of feelings, that grief is a natural response to bereavement, and that everyone grieves differently". By the end of secondary school, they should learn how families change over time, "including through birth, death, separation and new relationships". Schools must have regard to the guidance^[8].

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence goes further in one respect. Its health and wellbeing outcomes are framed as the "responsibilities of all", and the framework states that "it is the responsibility of every teacher to contribute to learning and development in this area". One outcome, repeated at every curriculum level from early to fourth, reads: "I am learning skills and strategies which will support me in challenging times, particularly in relation to change and loss"^[9].

Sources: Denmark and Norway^[3][5]; Sweden^[7]; England^[8]; Scotland^[9]; Northern Ireland^[4]. Countries are listed only where we fetched the primary source; absence from the table is not evidence of absence of policy.

A curriculum outcome tells schools what to teach, not what to do on the morning a pupil's parent has died. Neither the English guidance nor the Scottish outcomes, as we read them, sets out a duty to have a bereavement response plan. We did not verify the position in Wales, Ireland, the United States, Australia or elsewhere at source, and so do not characterise it. A systematic comparison of national school bereavement policies across countries does not appear to exist; that is a gap in itself.

Where policies are voluntary, many staff do not know of one

Outside Scandinavia, whether a school has a bereavement policy is usually left to the school. In Northern Ireland, an estimated 1,600 pupils are bereaved of a parent or sibling each year, which researchers equate to at least one child in every school class. There, schools are encouraged to have a bereavement policy, "it is not currently a statutory requirement", and bereavement training is not mandatory^[4].

An evaluation by researchers at the charity Marie Curie of a one-day training course, developed with Cruse Bereavement Support, gives a rare snapshot of what staff knew beforehand. Of 293 school staff who answered a survey at the start of the training day in 2022 or 2023, 23% agreed that they had access to a bereavement policy. Only 14% said they had the information they needed to support a grieving young person, and 15% that they had the tools and resources to do so^[4]. These were staff attending bereavement training, so they are not a representative sample of all teachers.

The picture in Britain more widely is similar but less precisely measured. The 2019 Cambridge review found that "small numbers of British schools have a planned, managed and holistic response to bereavement. Provision is patchy with existing examples of good and bad practice", and that bereaved students report receiving "only little or no help at all"^[6]. A 2026 systematic review of research from 2018 to 2025 found that teachers "do not always feel equipped or confident to provide support and children and young people do not always feel well supported"^[10]. The 2019 review called for a large-scale, high-quality study of the current state of bereavement support in British schools^[6].

Teachers in several countries say they want training more often than they have had it

The largest teacher survey we found is from the United States, and it is now old. In 2012 the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers' union, surveyed 1,253 of its members online, including 813 classroom teachers. The survey was a joint project with the New York Life Foundation, the charitable arm of a US life insurer; fieldwork was by Hart Research Associates, and we could see only the published summary. Of the classroom teachers, 69% had at least one student in the past year whose parent, guardian, sibling or close friend had died. Yet 93% said they had never received bereavement training, and only 3% said their school or district offered it. Fewer than half of educators said their school had a protocol for responding when a student experiences the death of someone close^[2]. Union members who answered an online survey may not represent all US teachers, and these figures predate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Smaller studies elsewhere point the same way, in different terms. In Spain, interviews with 63 teachers found that discomfort when talking about death was seen as something that hinders children's grieving^[11]. In Italy, a questionnaire on common myths about grief, answered by 233 people including teachers, found that "most participants responded inaccurately to most statements"; health and social care workers were more accurate than teachers on some myths, particularly about grief in children^[12]. In the United States, 14 educators in New York and Florida interviewed after a grief-sensitive schools training programme described increased confidence in engaging grieving students, and wanted the training repeated^[13].

Teachers are not the only school staff involved. In Sweden, a web survey of 62 school nurses found that 93% had experience of meeting children in grief, and 90% felt secure in their professional role^[14]. In a US survey of 648 members of the National Association of School Nurses, most said supporting grieving students caused them personal distress; training was linked with finding more meaning in that work^[15].

Training and plans raise staff confidence; their effect on children is barely measured

The evidence that training helps staff is consistent, if modest in design. In the Northern Ireland evaluation, staff answering four months after the course were far more likely to agree that they had the information they needed (80%, against 14% at the start) and knew where to refer a pupil for further support (86%, against 33%). Agreement that they had access to a bereavement policy rose only from 23% to 31%^[4]. Only 65 people answered at follow-up, so the before-and-after groups are not the same and the change may be overstated. Even so, the authors found statistically significant improvements in confidence and knowledge, and some schools went on to write or update a policy^[4].

In Scandinavia, the review of 59 studies concluded that bereavement plans "can strengthen institutional preparedness and staff confidence". It also found persistent barriers: "gaps in grief literacy, institutional resistance, and misconceptions about grief"^[1].

What is largely missing is evidence on the children themselves. In our searches we found no study, in any country, that compared bereaved children's later wellbeing, attendance or attainment between schools with and without a bereavement plan or trained staff. The population-register studies that show lower average attainment after a parent's death do not record what schools did. One Danish register team concluded simply that "support for bereaved school children may be more important than realized"^[16]. We cover those outcome studies in school attainment after a parent dies and attendance and leaving education early, and the wider evidence on support in what helps bereaved children.

What the evidence asks of us

The evidence is thinner than the need, but it points in a consistent direction.

• Make a plan the norm, not the exception. Denmark shows that near-universal coverage is achievable without legislation, at least in daycare; Norway's figure points the same way but rests on a low-response survey^[3]. Where policies are voluntary, as in Northern Ireland, researchers have called for all schools to be "required and enabled" to strengthen bereavement support, including whole-school training^[4].
• Write plans for the months after, not just the first day. The Swedish analysis found plans heavy on logistics and ritual and light on long-term follow-up, and called for updated guidelines that include long-term psychosocial support^[7].
• Train the whole staff, and keep training. US teachers most often cited insufficient training as a barrier to supporting grieving students, and evaluations in Northern Ireland and the US found staff confidence rose after training^[2][4][13]. Training works best, the Scandinavian review suggests, alongside local ownership and leadership^[1].
• Connect the curriculum to the response. England and Scotland now name grief and loss in what children learn^[8][9]. Teaching all pupils that grief is normal sits naturally alongside a plan for the pupil whose parent has just died, but the guidance we read treats them separately.
• Fund the research that is missing. A large, representative survey of schools' bereavement provision was called for in Britain in 2019^[6], and no country appears to have tested whether school plans or training change bereaved children's outcomes. Bereavement organisations and education departments are well placed to commission both.

Language: this piece uses plain words such as “died” rather than euphemisms, because they are clearer.

Why we're publishing this

Bereavement organisations have argued for years that schools matter to children whose parent has died, and that support should not depend on which school a child attends. The data gathered here support that case, and show how little has been measured. We hope schools-facing bereavement services, charities and policymakers can use it to argue for national plans, routine training and the research that would show what works for the children themselves.

How to read this data

Almost nothing here is official statistics. The Danish figure comes from a weighted telephone survey of 603 daycare leaders; the Norwegian figure from an online survey answered by 11% of institutions, so it is less reliable and may overstate coverage. The Northern Ireland, US, Swedish nurse and Italian figures come from surveys of self-selected groups: people attending training, union members, professional association members or volunteers. They describe those groups, not all teachers in a country, and they cannot be compared directly with each other because each asked different questions in a different year. The US teacher survey dates from 2012. Curriculum wording is quoted from the official documents in force in October 2026. Countries not mentioned have not been assessed; absence here is not evidence that a country has no policy.

Use this data

Free to cite with attribution to Understanding Bereavement. Charities, schools, services and journalists are welcome to reuse these figures and charts. For the underlying figures as a spreadsheet, get in touch. Explore more studies in the research library on bereaved children.

Important: This study summarises published research about groups of people for general information. It is not medical advice or bereavement support, and it cannot describe or predict anything about an individual child or family. If you are worried about a child or about yourself, please speak to a GP or another qualified professional.

Sources

1. Lytje M, Dyregrov A. Bereavement policies and plans in education: evidence, barriers, and recommendations. Death Studies, 2025. europepmc.org/article/MED/41056138
2. American Federation of Teachers and New York Life Foundation. Grief in the classroom: groundbreaking survey of educators shows overwhelming interest in helping grieving students (survey summary; fieldwork by Hart Research Associates). American Federation of Teachers, 2012. aft.org/sites/default/files/release_bereavement121012.pdf
3. Lytje M, Dyregrov A, Gjestad R. Evaluating bereavement response plans in daycare: a comparative analysis of support systems in Denmark and Norway. Illness, Crisis & Loss, 2024. doi.org/10.1177/10541373241268047
4. Crooks J, Orr A, Irvine C, Simpson-Greene C, Hudson B, McEwan J. Bereaved pupil support in schools: teacher training. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 2024. europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC11671948
5. Lytje M, Dyregrov A, Bergstrøm MD, Fjærestad A, Fisher-Hoyrem L. Same origin, different implementations: a document analysis of Norwegian and Danish bereavement response plans. International Journal of Early Years Education, 2021. doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2021.1902787
6. McLaughlin C, Lytje M, Holliday C. Consequences of childhood bereavement in the context of the British school system. University of Cambridge Faculty of Education and Winston’s Wish, 2019. educ.cam.ac.uk/networks/eri/publications/winstonswish/…
7. Eklund R, Nyström AS, Dyregrov A, Sveen J, Lytje MB. Crisis management plans in Swedish compulsory schools: do they address death and grief? Death Studies, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/42007501
8. Department for Education. Relationships education, relationships and sex education (RSE) and health education: statutory guidance (in effect from 1 September 2026). GOV.UK, 2025. gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-…
9. Education Scotland. Curriculum for Excellence: health and wellbeing across learning: responsibilities of all: experiences and outcomes. Education Scotland. education.gov.scot/media/i32j1wu0/hwb-across-learning-eo.pdf
10. Abraham-Steele M, Lewis R. An exploration of the factors that facilitate and hinder schools’ engagement in providing bereavement support: a systematic literature review. Death Studies, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/41277452
11. Morell-Velasco C, Fernández-Alcántara M, Hueso-Montoro C, Montoya-Juárez R. Teachers’ perception of grief in primary and secondary school students in Spain. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 2020. europepmc.org/article/MED/31928803
12. Venuleo C, Rollo S, Nogueira D. Misconceptions on grief and bereaved people’s needs among health and social care professionals, teachers and general population in Italy. Behavioral Sciences, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/41898081
13. Lively-Endicott HR, Naimi K, Hudson SM, Schonfeld DJ. Educator perspectives on grief-sensitive training during the COVID-19 pandemic in US public schools. Journal of School Health, 2024. europepmc.org/article/MED/37879312
14. El Gharbawi N, Karlsson A, Clausson E, Sjövall K. Creating security for the child in grief: a delicate task for the school nurse. Journal of Research in Nursing, 2026. europepmc.org/article/MED/41523962
15. Demaria T, Gilman R, Mazyck D, Schonfeld D. The impact of distress, personal meaning and training on the delivery of support to grieving students by school nurses. Journal of School Nursing, 2023. europepmc.org/article/MED/34490823
16. Høeg BL, Johansen C, Christensen J, et al. Does losing a parent early influence the education you obtain? A nationwide cohort study in Denmark. Journal of Public Health, 2019. europepmc.org/article/MED/29684221