A new city-wide program will help provide care to traumatized children in the Fort Worth area.
The Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) has partnered with Education Service Center Region 11 and Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) to launch the Handle with Care (HWC) program for the 2022-23 school year.
Law enforcement officers frequently respond to scenes where children are present — incidents that are potentially very traumatic to the child.
Officers on a day-to-day basis “want to go up and follow up with some of the incidents that happen,” said officer Tracy Carter with the FWPD, “but due to call loads, they’re not able to.”
Through HWC, an officer who encounters a child during a traumatic scene can send the child’s name and age to ESC Region 11, which will then email the administrator of the child’s school and simply say, “Handle [student’s name] with care.”
The school will receive no details of the incident, only a notice that the child has experienced a traumatic event; they can then provide the child with the support they need.
Traumatic events could include being involved in a car accident, witnessing a violent crime, or witnessing the arrest of a loved one. Trauma in children can often cause them to struggle with learning and exhibit behavior resulting in negative interactions with school staff and law enforcement.
“They could start displaying some unusual behavior, violent behavior,” said Danny Garcia, the executive safety and security director for FWISD.
“We may not know where that’s coming from,” he said. “It may, in fact, stem from something they saw, something they were exposed to.”
Preemptive notifications given to the administration can help schools handle these negative interactions more effectively. HWC promotes cooperation between schools and law enforcement aimed at ensuring children receive the help they need to “succeed in school to the best of their ability.”
FWPD said it would work toward expanding the program to other ISDs and private schools in the future.
HWC was created in West Virginia in 2013 in response to the 2009 Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention report on children’s exposure to violence.
“HWC is about helping children succeed regardless of whatever hard place they are in,” said Andrea Darr, director of the West Virginia Center for Children’s justice, which facilitates the program’s expansion.
Fort Worth first encountered the program when it was implemented in San Antonio. In an early 2022 trial run in just the central and eastern sections of the city, there were more than 40 referrals to FWISD staff.
The program appears to be growing, according to ESC Region 11, which said a Houston district has signed on, a fire department has shown interest, and there are upcoming meetings scheduled with additional law enforcement agencies.