Development and validation of the Trauma Responsive Schools Implementation Assessment (TRS-IA).

School systems are increasingly interested in becoming trauma-responsive settings. While many school and district teams seek guidance and tools to assess and improve their trauma-responsive efforts, to our knowledge, there are no systematically developed tools to help teams plan and evaluate this work. This article describes the development and validation of the Trauma Responsive Schools Implementation Assessment (TRS-IA). Study 1 describes measure development using a modified version of the RAND Corporation/University of California, Los Angeles Appropriateness Method, a systematic approach that involves a literature review and multistage expert input. Study 2 describes the validation of the TRS-IA with a national sample of 2,694 school and district personnel. Study 1 findings resulted in seven domains and 32 indicators for the TRS-IA. Study 2 supported the TRS-IA as an empirically validated, reliable measure to assess schools' implementation of trauma responsiveness. Our results suggest that the TRS-IA may be a pragmatic tool to guide the implementation and evaluation of trauma-responsive school system efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).