"Handle with Care." Those three small words can have a huge impact on students throughout Turlock Unified School District who may have been exposed to violence or trauma, thanks to a program that has quietly worked to help lessen the effects of traumatic experiences on children throughout Stanislaus County over the past year and a half.
On Tuesday evening, the Board of Trustees received an update on the Focusing On Children Under Stress, or FOCUS program, implemented throughout the county last April. A partnership between the Stanislaus County Office of Education and the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office, the FOCUS Program was modeled after a similar program in West Virginia called Handle With Care, which allows law enforcement agents who encounter a child in a traumatic event (i.e. domestic violence, child abuse, death in the family, witness to a crime, loss of home due to a house fire, etc.) to collect the child's name, date of birth and his or her school. Then, that officer proceeds to alert the child's school that the student has been exposed to violence or trauma, and to handle them with care.
Inspired by West Virginia's program to provide children with a more stable alternative in the aftermath of traumatic events, Papadopoulos and Maribel Garcia of the Stanislaus County Probation Department decided to bring the Handle With Care ideals to Stanislaus County, but added a few tweaks of their own.
FOCUS supports children exposed to violence and trauma through improved communication and collaboration with all first responders, not just law enforcement, schools and community resources.
To read more of Angelina Martin's article, please click here.
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