I spent my career at the Education Department’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement. During the Clinton administration, I was appointed at the D.C. desk, modeled after the State Department’s country “desks.” The education secretary created the desk in response to Superintendent Franklin Smith’s request to have a point person to contact as needed. D.C. schools were in free fall.
One of the most important programs the Education Department created was called Together We Can, which brought coordinated social, safety and health services to low-income, mainly Title I schools. Over time, these schools, although not perfect by any means, improved and became more manageable.
After reading Colbert I. King’s July 1 op-ed, “A bleak message to D.C. youths: Your city is not safe,” I thought that a similar approach might be considered for D.C. families in which a child or children have been killed or wounded in gun violence. The effort would be to work with family members to get their views on what help would be most useful to them, and then to try to create and deliver the services and help they have identified. D.C.’s social, health and safety services would gain a deeper understanding of these families and their challenges.
