OVERVIEW:
A recent national survey of the incidence and prevalence of children’s exposure to violence and trauma revealed that 60% of American children have been exposed to violence, crime or abuse. Forty percent were direct victims of two or more violent acts. Prolonged exposure to violence and trauma can seriously undermine children’s ability to focus, behave appropriately, and learn. It often leads to school failure, truancy, suspension or expulsion, dropping out, or involvement in the juvenile justice system.
The South Carolina Statewide Handle With Care Initiative, commonly referred to as “Handle With Care,” is tailored to reflect the needs and issues affecting children in South Carolina by working with individual communities. Handle With Care, a result of a collaborative effort of key stakeholders and partners, builds upon the success of proven programs throughout the country. The goal of Handle With Care is to prevent children’s exposure to trauma and violence, mitigate negative effects experienced by children’s exposure to trauma, and to increase knowledge and awareness of this issue.
Model Handle With Care (“HWC”) programs promote safe and supportive homes, schools and communities that protect children, and help traumatized children heal and thrive. HWC promotes school-community partnerships aimed at ensuring that children who are exposed to trauma in their home, school or community receive appropriate interventions to help them achieve academically at their highest levels despite whatever traumatic circumstances they may have endured. The ultimate goal of HWC is to help students to succeed in school. Regardless of the source of trauma, the common thread for effective intervention is the school or child care agency. Research now shows that trauma can undermine children’s ability to learn, form relationships, and function appropriately in the classroom. HWC programs support children exposed to trauma and violence through improved communication and collaboration between law enforcement, schools/child care agencies and mental health providers, and connects families, schools and communities to mental health services.
ORIGINAL SC HANDLE WITH CARE PILOT:
“Handle with Care” was an initiative piloted at Mary C. Snow West Side Elementary School in Charleston, WV in 2013. The school, located in an urban area of the city plagued by drug and violent crime, housed approximately 500 students. Ninety-Three percent of the students came from low-income families. The school ranked 398 out of 404 elementary schools in West Virginia for poor performance. In conjunction with “Handle With Care,” the United States Attorney’s Office launched a Drug Market Intervention in the area to address high level drug and street crime.
HANDLE WITH CARE IN SOUTH CAROLINA:
The Palmetto Pyramid Police Partnership (P4) was conceptualized and launched through a federal Preschool Development Grant awarded to DSS, facilitated through collaborations by multiple state agencies. The goal of P4 is to pilot a model of best practice by providing consistency of care through the Handle With Care notification model and Pyramid Model implementation. P4 was piloted in Richland One School District with law enforcement support by the Columbia City Police Department and Richland County Sheriff’s Department in August 2021.
Since the original P4 Pilot, Handle With Care has grown through multiple initiatives that include a variety of partners. The SC Department of Public Health (formerly the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control) received a Comprehensive Community Approaches Preventing Substance Use (CCAPS) grant in March 2022. In collaboration with the SC Department of Education, the Center for Disability Resources at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Children’s Trust, and other partners, this grant was used to guide the launch and implementation of Handle With Care as a part of local-level efforts to decrease Substance Use Disorders and overdoses in focused areas. These areas included Anderson, Laurens, Greenwood, McCormick, Edgefield and Union Counties. Greenville County developed their own Handle With Care initiative specific to their single, unified school district and law enforcement jurisdictions within the county. The SC Department of Mental Health has included Handle With Care as an initiative with other grant funds to address mental health concerns and suicide prevention efforts in various parts of the state. A single school in Berkeley County has implemented an internal Handle With Care notification system that utilizes notifications from parents and school staff to address the needs of students internally. Currently, Handle With Care is being implemented in 8 counties in SC in some fashion.
STATEWIDE HANDLE WITH CARE PROJECT IN SC:
In October 2023, the Center for Disability Resources (CDR), located at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, received a Byrne State Crisis Intervention Grant administered by the South Carolina Office of Highway Safety and Justice Programs to guide the statewide growth and implementation of Handle With Care through the P4 Initiative. This grant included funding for a Statewide Handle With Care Coordinator, 3 Regional Coordinators, a Statewide Mental Wellness Coordinator and an Administrative Assistant to support the statewide team.
Overall, the Statewide Handle With Care Initiative seeks to support those counties/sites where Handle With Care notifications already exist by providing technical assistance and opportunities for engagement with each other to continue seamless implementation, as well as developing relationships and collaborations to further the implementation of the HWC initiative in additional counties with the eventual goal of statewide implementation. Examples of this support and technical assistance includes, but is not limited to:
- Leading the HWC Steering Committee, a multi-disciplinary committee composed of over 20 representatives from state agencies, local law enforcement agencies, local school districts, and other community-based organizations working to support children and families in SC who have experienced trauma.
- Organizing monthly HWC Points of Contact meetings for representatives from all HWC sites to meet and receive training and technical assistance. These meetings will also provide an opportunity to share project successes with those beginning the process of interest/implementation, in addition to being a space for those facing barriers to implementation to receive peer support.
- Assist and support community members interested in implementing Handle With Care throughout the interest, launch and implementation phases of Handle With Care in their counties.
- Provide information about Handle With Care to audiences across SC to increase the number of counties implementing, collect ongoing data from HWC points of contact, and publicize that data through the SC Handle With Care website.
P4–HANDLE WITH CARE AND THE SC MENTAL WELLNESS COLLABORATIVE
As the work has progressed, the P4 Collaborative has developed into the Handle With Care Notification System, the training and support provided to those who provide notifications and respond to the children and families being identified has developed in the SC Mental Wellness Collaborative. Handle With Care and the SC Mental Wellness Collaborative work together to realize the original goals of the P4 Initiative: to model best practice by providing consistency of care through the Handle With Care notification model and Pyramid Model implementation.
LAW ENFORCEMENT:
“Handle with Care” provides the school or child care agency with a “heads up” when a child has been identified at the scene of a traumatic event. It could be a meth lab explosion, a domestic violence situation, a shooting in the neighborhood, witnessing a malicious wounding, a drug raid at the home, etc. Police are trained to identify children at the scene, find out where they go to school or daycare and send the school/agency a confidential email or fax that simply says . . . “Handle Johnny with care”. That’s it. No other details.
In addition to providing notice, officers also build positive relationships with students by interacting on a regular basis. They visit classrooms, stop by for lunch, and simply chat with students to help promote positive relationships and perceptions of officers.
SCHOOLS:
Teachers have been trained on the impact of trauma on learning, and are incorporating many interventions to mitigate the negative impact of trauma for identified students, including: sending students to the clinic to rest (when a HWC has been received and the child is having trouble staying awake or focusing); re-teaching lessons; postponing testing; small group counseling by school counselors; and referrals to counseling, social service or advocacy programs. The school has also implemented many school-wide interventions to help create a trauma sensitive school (Greeters; pairing students with an adult mentor in the school; utilization of a therapy dog; and “thumbs up/thumbs down” to indicate if a student is having a good day or a bad day).
COUNSELING:
When identified students exhibit continued behavioral or emotional problems in the classroom, the counselor or principal refers the parent to a counseling agency which provides trauma-focused therapy. Currently, there are two partnering agencies providing trauma focused therapy on site at the school in a room provided by the Family Care Health Center housed within the school. Once the counseling agency has received a referral and parental consent, students can receive on-site counseling.
The counseling is provided to children and families at times which are least disruptive for the student. The counselors also participate in MDT, SAT and other meetings deemed necessary by school personnel, and as authorized by the child’s parent or guardian. Counselors provide assessments of the child’s need, psychological testing, treatment recommendations, accommodation recommendations, and status updates to key school personnel as authorized by the child’s parent or guardian.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Components of this program were developed with guidance and technical assistance from the Massachusetts Advocates for Children: Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative, in collaboration with Harvard Law School and the Task Force on Children Affected by Domestic Violence. Special thanks to Joe Ristuccia, Ed.M., co-author of Helping Traumatized Children Learn, Edward Jacoubs with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office in Brockton, MA, and Huntington, WV community activist and volunteer Leon White.