Handle With Care: Oklahoma

Program offers a new way to help traumatized kids

November 28, 2018

A program begun in West Virginia is taking hold in the Oklahoma City area, and has the potential to do considerable good for youngsters whose home lives are far from ideal.

The Oklahoman‘s Darla Slipke wrote Sunday about “Handle with Care,” a collaboration involving the Oklahoma City police and fire departments and city schools.

The goal is simple: to inform school officials when a student has been through some sort of trauma. Unfortunately, that likelihood is high for many Oklahoma City students — during remarks to civic leaders in August, Superintendent Sean McDaniel noted that one in four of the district’s students has had at least one parent who has been incarcerated. Hundreds of students are in foster care and more than 3,000 are considered homeless. More than 90 percent of the district’s students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.