How to Handle With Care: Working Suggestions from Across the United States

By Wendy L. Samford Ph.D.

Handle With Care (HWC) is a simple program intended to keep kids succeeding in school. Basically, if the police are called to a home where there are children present, they send a "Handle With Care" notice to the school. The message is then distributed to school personnel, before the bell rings the next day, to let them know something traumatic has happened to that child. How to Handle With Care was written to help answer the question so many people have: "How do I start this program?" This book presents several ways to implement HWC in your state, county, school, and within the guidelines of your local law enforcement agency. Thus, you can set up your own program by selecting bits and pieces you deem workable in your community, and avoid those that are not. This book represents a collage of ingenuity and, hopefully, will spark ideas specifically relevant to your local requirements.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9798369405789

Wendy L. Samford Ph.D.

Wendy L. Samford, Ph.D., worked in the K-12 setting as an administrator for 13 years, higher education for 8 years and has been writing and contributing to books for 6 years. Her passion lies in working to support children of all ages, no matter where that direction may lead. She wrote, “The First Wrinkle” as a follow-up to “Bloom Where Planted” and hopes to continue to share honest stories of those who grew up in the foster care system in the United States. The message in her books, non-judgement of people as they journey through this life. Wendy is happily married and has four great kids and one awesome granddaughter. Contact the Author: Website: www.WSamford.com Email: [e-mail] Facebook: facebook.com/WendySamfordAuthor/ Instagram: The_First_Wrinkle

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Copyright © 2023 by Wendy L. Samford, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Front Cover Design by Nick Dota

Rev. date: 09/18/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1The Background of Handle With Care

Chapter 2How to Implement Handle With Care in Your State

Chapter 3How to Implement Handle With Care in Your County

Chapter 4How to Implement Handle With Care in Your School

Chapter 5How to Implement Handle With Care in Your Law Enforcement Agency

About the Author

Preface

I first came across the Handle With Care (HWC) program while in a training Webex for the Guardian ad Litem¹ program. When I heard the presentation, I started to cry; it literally struck my heart and I knew right then that I had to do everything in my power to bring HWC to my county, my state, my country. That is how forceful hearing about this program hit me, and I am not alone.

Handle with Care is simple—if the police are called to a home where there are children present, they send a notice to the school that says Handle with Care. That message is distributed to school personnel that encounter that child before the bell rings the very next day. They know something traumatic happened to that child the night prior and to handle that child with extra care. It’s that simple. A deeper dive into the program is presented in the first chapter, but that is the premise of the program: communication and kindness to keep kids succeeding in school.

I am writing this little book for two reasons:

1. I received my Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction² in 2013 and never had one class on trauma sensitive education. Not in undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral coursework were there any classes on childhood trauma or what to do about it. That is wrong. Educators need to be informed and armed to handle this very real epidemic and this program provides the professional development that is critical in meeting that need.

2. Since becoming interested in implementing this program, I have spent a great deal of time in conferences, Zoom calls, meetings, and chats with people from all over the United States asking the same question about Handle With Care; How do I get started? With the assistance of others who have gone before me, I want to help people answer that question.

Unfortunately, there is no step-by-step diagram, no one size fits all answer to that question. The program is designed to fit the needs of individual communities. As you will come to find out in the first chapter, this grass-roots effort has very straight-forward protocol in place to support the fidelity of the program, but how you go about achieving that goal is very individualized. So how can you possibly write a How-To manual without a road map? A bit like driving without a GPS!

I believe the answer to that question is to present how people in other states, counties, schools, and precincts have gone about implementing their programs. This little book presents many ways to implement HWC so that you can borrow bits and pieces that work, or avoid those that do not, in order to set up your own program that best suits your individual needs. How to Handle With Care takes a code of fidelity for HWC implementation, and presents diverse ways that others in the United States have made it their own. It is literally a collage of ingenuity that hopefully will spark ideas for implementation in your own community.

This book is small purposefully so that you can read it quickly, and move forward. It gives contact information so that you know you have the support of others who have gone where you are now. You are not alone. As with the start-up of any program, it is a difficult, often uphill battle to get the pieces and players in place to begin the program. Fear of legal ramifications, bureaucratic roadblocks that hinder forward movement, technical barriers, professional development intricacies, and questions about privacy are only a few roadblocks that seem to delay the journey. This book can answer many of those questions so you can see what others all over the United States have done to drive through barriers and arrive at the destination: a successful program supporting the mental health of our kids.

The people who volunteered to share their stories of implementation of this program maneuvered through the storm facing all these fears as they lead implementation of HWC. Even in blizzard like conditions when visibility seemed to be at zero, these people plowed ahead to make a path for others. Why? Because HWC is worth the effort.

And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.³

Introduction

From 1995