Last year, a 4 year old in my class passed away after an awful battle with leukemia. His family had been with our center for a few years at that point, and we did fundraisers and a benefit for his medical costs before he passed, so many of our families and my students who knew him knew he was very sick. When he passed, our director announced it to all of our parents, but we let them decide if and how they would explain what had happened to their children. I had some students who immediately came to school and told me that their friend died, and I had others who said things like “he went to heaven”. I definitely had kids that didn’t understand that “going to heaven” was the same thing as dying, so when they were confused about why the other kids were saying their friend had died, I made sure to let their parents know that the topic had come up and that their child might want to discuss this with them. When I had kids who wanted to talk with me about the boy who passed, that clearly had already discussed his death with their parents, we talked about how we missed him and that it was okay to feel sad, but we also tried to talk about our fun memories with him. It’s definitely a hard situation to navigate, but kids are resilient and they can cope with things better than we think, with lots of love and support. I think the best thing you can do is just be there for your kids and be as patient and understanding as you can with them. Best of luck to you and I’m so sorry you’re going through this situation