Benjamin Logan Elementary Staff Learn About Impacts of Trauma Involving Children

The impact of trauma on learning is the focus of recent Benjamin Logan Elementary training

Ohio Handle With Care is a trauma-informed, cross-systems, collaborative program aimed at ensuring that children who are exposed to adverse events receive appropriate interventions and have opportunities to build resilience through positive relationships with teachers and first responders.

A recent national survey of the incidence and prevalence of children’s exposure to violence and trauma revealed that 60% of American children have been exposed to violence, crime, or abuse. Forty percent were direct victims of two or more violent acts. Prolonged exposure to violence and trauma can seriously undermine children’s ability to focus, behave appropriately, and learn. It often leads to school failure, truancy, suspension or expulsion, dropping out, or involvement in the juvenile justice system.

Model Handle With Care (“HWC”) programs promote safe and supportive homes, schools, and communities that protect children, and help traumatized children heal and thrive. HWC promotes school-community partnerships aimed at ensuring that children who are exposed to trauma in their home, school, or community receive appropriate interventions to help them achieve academically at their highest levels despite whatever traumatic circumstances they may have endured. The ultimate goal of HWC is to help students to succeed in school. Regardless of the source of trauma, the common thread for effective intervention is the school or child care agency. Research now shows that trauma can undermine children’s ability to learn, form relationships, and function appropriately in the classroom. HWC programs support children exposed to trauma and violence through improved communication and collaboration between law enforcement, schools/child care agencies, and mental health providers, and connect families, schools, and communities to mental health services.

Cecilia Yelton, MHDAS Board of Logan and Champaign Counties Director of School and Community-Based Prevention, led Benjamin Logan Elementary teachers and support staff on the training. They discussed the impact of trauma on learning and how to incorporate many interventions to mitigate the negative impact of trauma for identified students. It includes sending students to the clinic to rest (when an HWC has been received and the child is having trouble staying awake or focusing), re-teaching lessons, postponing testing, small group counseling by school counselors, and referrals to counseling, social service, or advocacy programs. Benjamin Logan Elementary is already implementing many ways to “Handle With Care” through school-wide interventions, such as PAX Good Behavior Game, to help create a trauma-sensitive school.

Benjamin Logan Elementary, General Music Teacher, Tyler Young stated, “It can be overwhelming to hear about the difficult things some of our students face in their home lives and do not know how to help them. It was so encouraging to hear about the ways we can collaborate with our county’s first responders to not only support these students after a traumatic event but also help foster positive relationships between them and the emergency personnel who are there to protect and serve them.”

“Handle with Care” provides the school or child care agency with a “heads up” when a child has been identified at the scene of a traumatic event. It could be a domestic violence situation, a death of a family member, a house fire, a car accident, or other possible traumatic events. Police and other first responders are trained to identify children at the scene, find out where they go to school or daycare, and send the school/agency a confidential email that simply says “Handle Johnny with care”. That’s it. No other details.

In addition to providing notice, all first responders also build positive relationships with students by visiting schools regularly. They visit classrooms, stop by for lunch, attend class parties, school assemblies, and simply chat with students to help promote positive relationships and perceptions of officers.

To learn more about the Handle With Care initiative, please visit  www.handlewithcareoh.org, or contact Cecilia Yelton at 937-465-1045.