{"title":"How are adults at boarding schools trained to keep students safe?","slug":"how-boarding-school-adults-are-trained-to-keep-students-safe","type":"post","excerpt":"Good boarding schools train adults to be close enough that students trust them and clear enough about limits that the closeness stays safe. Here is what that training looks like, and what to ask.","content":"Good boarding schools train their adults to be two things at once: close enough that a student trusts them, and clear enough about limits that the closeness stays safe. Screening matters, but training and culture are what parents rarely hear about. One resource some schools use to teach that balance is the book *One Trusted Adult* by Dr. Brooklyn Raney.\n\n## The worry under the surface\n\nEvery so often, the news carries a story about an adult at a school who crossed a line with a student. If you are picturing your teenager living among teachers and coaches, it is natural for that to come to mind, even if nobody mentions it on an admissions visit.\n\nIt is a fair worry, and it deserves a direct answer rather than reassurance. A school that only says \"our faculty are like family\" hasn't answered it. A better answer describes how adults are chosen, how they are trained, and what the limits are.\n\n## Why closeness is the point, and why it needs limits\n\nThe case for boarding rests on adults who know your teenager. In a 2024 survey by TABS and Canadian Accredited Independent Schools, boarders were \"88% more likely to have one or more trusted adults at school\" than day students. That survey reports only relative figures and doesn't disclose its sampling, but the pattern fits what boarding is: more adults, more of the time.\n\nThat same closeness is why schools have to be deliberate. The adults who eat dinner with students, coach them and live on the same campus need to know exactly where the lines are, and students need to know too.\n\n## One way schools teach it: *One Trusted Adult*\n\nDr. Brooklyn Raney spent about ten years as a teacher and school administrator before founding [One Trusted Adult](https://www.onetrustedadult.com), an organization that trains people who work with young people. She holds a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania, and she gives talks and workshops for school faculty and staff, parents and youth organizations.\n\nHer book, [*One Trusted Adult: How to Build Strong Connections & Healthy Boundaries with Young People*](https://www.onetrustedadult.com/products/one-trusted-adult-second-edition), is now in a revised second edition. Its central idea is that one trusted adult can make a real difference in a young person's life, and that trusted adults are **accessible, boundaried and caring**.\n\nThe word in the middle is a key point. The framework puts boundaries right alongside care: being close to students and keeping clear limits are meant to go together, not to be traded off. The revised edition adds boundary strategies meant to protect young people and to help adults sustain the work, along with reflection questions and tools for training a whole staff together.\n\nHer organization says it has worked with more than 150 schools and organizations. It offers training for faculty, advisory programs for students, and a course written for boarding school dorm parents, and some schools have their faculty read the book together. This isn't a review, and I have no financial tie to the book or its author.\n\n## What boundaries look like in practice\n\nBeyond any one book, the clearest public guidance comes from a 2018 task force formed by NAIS and TABS on preventing educator sexual misconduct. Among its recommendations:\n\n- Keep interactions between adults and students \"readily interruptible and observable,\" for example with doors open.\n- Give the code of conduct to staff, students and parents, so everyone knows the rules.\n- Train the adults responsible for events in faculty housing and on overnight trips.\n- Offer a way to report concerns anonymously.\n\nIt also warned that criminal background checks alone are often not enough to identify people who would harm children. For how schools screen staff, and the questions to ask about dorm supervision, see [What does a dorm parent actually do?](/post/what-a-dorm-parent-does)\n\n## Questions to ask about training and culture\n\n1. What training do new faculty and dorm parents get on boundaries with students, and how often is it repeated?\n2. Is that training for everyone who works with students, including coaches and staff, or only teachers?\n3. May I read your code of conduct? What does it say about texting, social media, rides in cars and being alone with a student?\n4. How do students learn which adults they can go to, and how to report a concern?\n5. What happens after a concern is reported, and who outside the school is told?\n\n## What training can't do\n\nNo training program, and no book, guarantees that nothing will go wrong, and no school can honestly promise you zero risk. What should reassure you is specificity. A school that answers these questions concretely, hands you its code of conduct and doesn't get defensive is showing you its culture. A vague answer is information too.\n\nAnd the most important trusted adult may still be at home. Keep talking with your teenager about who they spend time with and what feels right, wherever they go to school.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [One Trusted Adult, *One Trusted Adult: How to Build Strong Connections & Healthy Boundaries with Young People*, revised second edition, book page, accessed 19 October 2026](https://www.onetrustedadult.com/products/one-trusted-adult-second-edition)\n- [One Trusted Adult, home page (programs and \"over 150 schools + organizations\"), accessed 19 October 2026](https://www.onetrustedadult.com)\n- [One Trusted Adult, \"Meet the Team\" (Brooklyn Raney biography), accessed 19 October 2026](https://www.onetrustedadult.com/pages/meet-the-team)\n- [Fort Worth Country Day School, \"Seen Read Heard: January 2025\" (faculty reading the book together), 21 January 2025](https://www.fwcd.org/news/2025-01-21/seen-read-heard-january-2025)\n- [NAIS and TABS Independent School Task Force on Educator Sexual Misconduct, \"Prevention and Response\", 2018 (PDF)](https://www.icmec.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NAIS-Tabs-allegation-response.pdf)\n- [TABS and CAIS, \"School Life in Focus: The Boarding Advantage\", survey March to May 2024](https://www.boardingschools.com/boarding-advantage-report)\n\n## Frequently asked questions\n\n### Are boarding school teachers trained in boundaries with students?\n\nAt good schools, yes, though training varies from school to school. Ask what new faculty and dorm parents are taught about boundaries, how often it is repeated, and whether coaches and staff are included.\n\n### What is One Trusted Adult?\n\nIt is a book by Dr. Brooklyn Raney, now in a revised second edition, and an organization she founded that trains educators, dorm parents and others who work with young people. Its framework says trusted adults are accessible, boundaried and caring.\n\n### Are background checks enough to keep students safe?\n\nNo. A 2018 NAIS and TABS task force said criminal background checks alone are often insufficient, and recommended interviews, reference checks, re-checking current staff, a shared code of conduct and anonymous reporting.\n\n### What should I ask a boarding school about safety?\n\nAsk how adults are screened and trained, to see the code of conduct, what the rules are about being alone with a student or messaging one, and how a student reports a concern. A school with a strong culture answers specifically.\n\n## Related\n\n- [What does a dorm parent actually do?](/post/what-a-dorm-parent-does)\n- [Is boarding school for troubled kids? The true part and the false part](/post/boarding-school-is-not-for-troubled-kids)\n- [Homesickness at boarding school: what's normal and what helps](/post/homesickness-at-boarding-school)\n\n*Last reviewed October 19, 2026.*\n","publishedAt":"2026-10-19T00:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-19T17:10:15.640Z","author":{"name":"Michael Janzen"},"categories":[{"name":"Guides","slug":"guides"}],"tags":[],"featuredImageUrl":null,"aeo":{"summary":"Boarding schools put teenagers around adults all day, so good schools train those adults in both connection and boundaries. One resource some schools use is One Trusted Adult by Dr. Brooklyn Raney, whose framework says trusted adults are accessible, boundaried and caring; she runs workshops for school faculty and staff and a dorm parent course. A 2018 NAIS and TABS task force recommended codes of conduct, observable interactions, training and anonymous reporting, and said background checks alone are often insufficient.","questions":[{"q":"Are boarding school teachers trained in boundaries with students?","a":"At good schools, yes, though training varies from school to school. Ask what new faculty and dorm parents are taught about boundaries, how often it is repeated, and whether coaches and staff are included."},{"q":"What is One Trusted Adult?","a":"It is a book by Dr. Brooklyn Raney, now in a revised second edition, and an organization she founded that trains educators, dorm parents and others who work with young people. Its framework says trusted adults are accessible, boundaried and caring."},{"q":"Are background checks enough to keep students safe?","a":"No. A 2018 NAIS and TABS task force said criminal background checks alone are often insufficient, and recommended interviews, reference checks, re-checking current staff, a shared code of conduct and anonymous reporting."},{"q":"What should I ask a boarding school about safety?","a":"Ask how adults are screened and trained, to see the code of conduct, what the rules are about being alone with a student or messaging one, and how a student reports a concern. A school with a strong culture answers specifically."}],"entities":[{"type":"Person","name":"Brooklyn Raney","description":"Founder and lead trainer of One Trusted Adult; author of One Trusted Adult.","sameAs":"https://www.onetrustedadult.com"},{"type":"Organization","name":"The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS)","sameAs":"https://www.boardingschools.com"},{"type":"Organization","name":"National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)","sameAs":"https://www.nais.org"}],"keywords":["boarding school safety","are boarding schools safe","boarding school staff training","one trusted adult book","brooklyn raney","teacher student boundaries","questions to ask boarding school about safety"],"hideQaFromReaders":true},"site":{"name":"Boarding School Rocks","url":"https://boardingschoolrocks.com"},"_links":{"canonical":"https://boardingschoolrocks.com/post/how-boarding-school-adults-are-trained-to-keep-students-safe","markdown":"https://boardingschoolrocks.com/post/how-boarding-school-adults-are-trained-to-keep-students-safe/llm.txt","json":"https://boardingschoolrocks.com/post/how-boarding-school-adults-are-trained-to-keep-students-safe/data.json"}}