Our Work with Schools and Communities

Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice

ERP teddy bear graphic The Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street works with schools, child care centers, and other programs to create supportive learning environments that nurture children’s mental health and emotional wellbeing. We help educators, administrators, and social workers understand children’s emotions and behaviors through child development and life experiences. This helps create safe, caring communities where kids can thrive. Our approach is unique because we also focus on the mental health of the adults who care for children, ensuring they are better equipped to meet children’s emotional needs.

Partner With Us!

The Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice is experienced in addressing the emotional needs of all children from infancy through adulthood, and our services are adaptable to all types of programs. If you’re interested in scheduling a consultation, please email us at erp@bankstreet.edu or call 212-961-3430.

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Safe and Sound Schools Conference audience

The Emotionally Responsive Schools Conference

This annual conference invites professionals from elementary schools and early childhood programs to engage in a deeply interactive study of ERP. Participants learn about child development, the social and emotional foundations for learning, parent engagement, and the mastery of supportive techniques for building safe and nurturing school communities.

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Two children holding teddy bears in a classroom

Comfort and Connection: Teddy Bears Supporting Emotional Growth

One of our most celebrated approaches is Teddy Bears in Classroom Practice, developed by our founding director Lesley Koplow. It has been used in early childhood classrooms across New York City and beyond for over 20 years. By giving each child a personal teddy bear, this approach helps them express their emotions and gives teachers insights into their well-being. The bears create a sense of security and community, helping children process their feelings and life experiences. We’ve also developed Teddy Bears in Traumatic Times: Journeys, which supports classrooms with immigrant and asylum-seeking children. This guide adds strategies like emotionally responsive literacy, journaling, and story-sharing to help reduce emotional isolation and support children who have experienced trauma.

About Our Founding Director

Lesley Koplow

Lesley Koplow, GSE ’79, is a clinical social worker, educator, and author based in New York City. She founded the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice at Bank Street Graduate School and has written numerous books for educators, including Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal and Creating Schools That Heal. Since 2020, she’s also written a series of children’s books focused on emotions and healing. After retiring in 2023, Lesley left behind a legacy of emotional care for children and educators in schools, childcare, and temporary housing. The Center continues her mission of creating nurturing, supportive spaces where children feel seen and valued.

A Word From Our Partners

Every child has the right to be supported by their parents/caregivers, teachers, school leaders, and community to grow, learn, and develop. When all children, regardless of their social histories, are educated together, with a shared and inclusive program like ERP’s Teddy Bears in Classroom Practice, everyone benefits. It helps build empathy, compassion, and community that allows for student voice, expression, and engagement… to foster a supportive, caring environment where students feel safe that they can learn and where teachers feel they can teach.

Reginald Higgins

Deputy Superintendent, District 2, New York City Public Schools

A Word From Our Partners

Incorporating the Teddy Bear Curriculum at PS 65 has been instrumental in supporting the emotional, social, and academic needs of our young scholars. Our teddy bear program has helped bring a greater sense of safety and warmth into the classroom as students are learning to develop positive attributes, such as caring, sharing, and helping. Providing for these teddy bears has afforded our students to put their thinking and caring into action, which fosters the development of building friendship, acceptance, diversity & inclusion.

Jasmine Gonzalez

Principal, PS 65, Mott Haven, New York City Public Schools