In Township Ravaged By Opioids, Educators Create Program To Help Kids Cope

The state of Ohio is one of the bloodiest battlefields in the national war on opioids.

By 2017, Ohio was second to West Virginia in rates of overdose deaths — 5,111. State district attorneys are battling with the makers of prescription opioids, and the settlements will someday help pay for programs to help addicts.

But one school district in Ohio isn’t waiting. The rural township of Minford in southern Ohio started a program for children of parents and grandparents who are dealing with addiction. These kids are suffering emotional, behavioral and physical consequences of being raised by someone who suffers from addiction, says Marin Applegate, the district’s school psychologist. 

“A lot of the behaviors that we’re seeing, traditional things don’t work,” she says. “Or we see kids