Three Franklin County school districts are in the process of enacting the Handle with Care initiative, facilitated by the Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin, to bridge communication between educators and law enforcement personnel.
According to Carol Conragan, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center, the Gill-Montague Regional School District, Franklin County Technical School and the Greenfield School Department are becoming Handle with Care districts. Conragan explained the initiative will better allow police to communicate to educators if a student was involved in some sort of difficult or traumatic event while off campus that involved law enforcement, and the student may need extra support while at school. This initiative is available to districts at no cost.
“If the child is exhausted, crying, angry, doesn’t have their homework, [is] non-responsive to chatting or just seems really withdrawn, the teacher — rather than disciplining that child, which they might do — understands that the child needs compassion right now,” Conragan explained about the effect of a Handle with Care notification. “It allows the school to understand that something happened for that child, and to treat them with compassion and care over the next several days.”
For Gill-Montague and Franklin Tech, they are partnered with the Montague Police Department and Gill Police Department via a memorandum of understanding. The Gill-Montague Handle with Care initiative is set to go live on Sept. 8, while initial training for staff at Franklin Tech will take place next week.
The Greenfield School Department is also in the process of becoming a Handle with Care district and will partner with the Greenfield Police Department, Conragan said. Staff at Greenfield’s public schools will start training next week, and the program is expected to go live on Sept. 8.
Handle with Care is a nationally recognized program that is implemented at schools, but can also be used in other childcare facilities, according to its Massachusetts website. The first Massachusetts Handle with Care initiative started in 2008 through a pilot program at Brockton Public Schools, and data from 2011 through 2014 found that the program was very beneficial for students, with an 80% decrease in suspension-worthy issues, and a 43% decrease in principal’s office referrals.
In Franklin County, the initiative is already active at the Frontier Regional School District as of March, and at the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School District in Orange as part of the Handle with Care Collaborative of the North Central and North Quabbin regions, established in 2019.
The Northwestern District Attorney’s Office also partners with Handle with Care, and following the success of the initiative facilitated by Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County, Conragan said District Attorney David Sullivan was interested in bringing the program to Franklin County.
Conragan shared that both Gill-Montague interim Superintendent Tari Thomas and Franklin Tech Superintendent Ryan Rege were eager to get the program established at their districts, with support from Gill Police Chief Christopher Redmond and Montague Police Chief Jason Haskins.
In July, Thomas debuted the program to the Gill-Montague School Committee, sharing her excitement about it. She said she’s used the program before at a previous school district and noticed the difference it made in students who would benefit from it.
“I care about our kids a lot … so I volunteered immediately to get involved,” Haskins said about the Montague Police Department getting involved with the program.
Conragan explained that the information shared by law enforcement is designed to help identify the student, or students, involved, along with the notification for the school to handle the student with care. She said that by law enforcement not sharing specific details about what the student may be going through, it alleviates potential embarrassment or pressure from students to explain what is wrong to their teachers.
For police departments, Conragan said officers will carry a card with a QR code that they can use to fill out information about the child that is then sent to the school district. This information is then transferred to the point of contact for the school and then shared with anyone who will need the information to support the student.
Conragan said the program has several outside benefits, beyond just notifying teachers of a student in need of support. It creates a stronger line of communication between schools and police departments, and educates teachers and caregivers on the resources the Children’s Advocacy Center has to offer.
“It’s super important for teachers and other leaders of youth-serving organizations to know that we’re here,” Conragan said.
While Gill-Montague, Franklin Tech and Greenfield join the fold of districts implementing the initiative this fall, Conragan said the hope is for this program to be rolled out across all schools in the county over the next six months.
