Coordinated Response Framework
A structured approach to strengthen early intervention, cross-system coordination, and measurable community outcomes for children and families in Tulsa.
This framework is designed around prevention, support, accountability, ethical implementation, and measurable progress. It is not surveillance or punitive intervention. It connects seven major systems to coordinated response actions, follow-up timelines, SMART goals, progress indicators, and long-term outcome measures. Each system framework below identifies trigger indicators, responsible systems, coordinated response actions, and measurable outcomes.
Guiding Principles
Foundation for Every Decision
The foundation of every decision, intervention, and measurement within this framework.
Prevention Before Crisis
The goal is to identify concerning patterns before children and families enter repeated crisis-system involvement.
Shared Responsibility
Child well-being outcomes are influenced by education, healthcare, mental health, family stability, public safety, economic conditions, and community support systems.
Measurable Accountability
Systems should not only document concerns. Systems should also measure whether interventions improve outcomes over time.
Ethical & Trauma-Informed Coordination
Responses should prioritize family stabilization, child safety, dignity, privacy protections, and least-restrictive intervention whenever possible.
Longitudinal Improvement
The pilot seeks to measure sustained stabilization rather than temporary crisis interruption alone.
System Frameworks
Seven Systems of Response
For each system, the framework includes trigger indicators, responsible systems, coordinated response actions, SMART goals, progress indicators, and long-term outcome measures.
1. Education System
The education system identifies early warning patterns through attendance, academic performance, behavioral referrals, and school stability. Coordinated response connects school administration, counselors, attendance teams, family support specialists, behavioral support staff, and community partners.
- Chronic absenteeism (exceeding 10% of instructional days)
- Frequent school mobility
- Sudden academic decline
- Repeated behavioral referrals and escalating disciplinary incidents
- Social withdrawal or emotional dysregulation
- Repeated nurse visits
- 3+ consecutive unexplained absences
- Multiple instability indicators identified simultaneously
- Family outreach initiated within 72 hours
- Attendance barrier assessment completed
- Academic stabilization review conducted
- Transportation and housing concerns screened
- Behavioral support needs reviewed
- Referral options discussed with caregivers
SMART Goal: Reduce chronic absenteeism from 18% missed instructional time to below 8% within 90 days through coordinated school-family intervention. Progress indicators include attendance improvement, academic stabilization, reduced behavioral incidents, increased caregiver engagement, and reduced school mobility. Long-term outcomes include graduation readiness, literacy progression, school connectedness, reduced dropout risk, and career readiness participation.
2. Child Welfare System
The child welfare system tracks repeat hotline referrals, safety concerns, and family instability patterns. Coordinated response connects child welfare professionals, family preservation teams, domestic violence advocates, school support staff, behavioral health providers, and community stabilization resources.
- Repeat hotline referrals
- Multiple screened-in reports
- Frequent school instability
- Repeated unexplained injuries
- Domestic violence exposure concerns
- Caregiver impairment concerns
- Unsafe environmental concerns
- Multiple referrals within a defined timeframe
- Concerns escalate across systems
- Patterns indicate increasing instability or safety risk
- Safety assessment review
- Family stabilization planning
- Domestic violence resource review
- Service coordination meeting
- Referral pathway activation
- Follow-up scheduling
SMART Goal: Reduce repeat screened-in referrals within 12 months through coordinated stabilization planning and increased family engagement. Progress indicators include reduced repeat referrals, increased service engagement, housing stabilization, school attendance improvement, and reduced emergency removals. Long-term outcomes include family stabilization, reduced foster care entry, reduced repeat maltreatment concerns, and increased safety consistency.
3. Law Enforcement
Law enforcement tracks repeat domestic violence calls, youth violence exposure, runaway reports, and juvenile crisis involvement. Coordinated response connects law enforcement, domestic violence response teams, school support personnel, child welfare professionals, and community behavioral health providers.
- Repeat domestic violence calls
- Youth violence exposure
- Frequent runaway reports
- Juvenile crisis involvement
- Repeated community disturbance calls involving minors
- Repeat calls within a defined timeframe
- Children repeatedly present during incidents
- Multiple agencies identify overlapping instability indicators
- Trauma-informed safety response
- Child exposure documentation review
- Referral to stabilization resources
- Domestic violence advocate connection
- Crisis de-escalation support
- Coordinated follow-up communication
SMART Goal: Reduce repeat law enforcement crisis calls involving children within 6 months through coordinated intervention and stabilization support. Progress indicators include reduced repeat calls, increased safety planning participation, improved school stability, and reduced juvenile crisis escalation. Long-term outcomes include reduced violence exposure, improved family safety, reduced juvenile justice involvement, and improved community stability.
4. Judicial System
The judicial system plays a unique role in connecting families to stabilizing services at critical decision points. The framework emphasizes building referral pathways that keep families connected to support rather than cycling through repeated court involvement. Coordinated response connects courts, guardian ad litem programs, family support coordinators, behavioral health systems, and community mediation resources.
- Repeated family court involvement
- High-conflict custody concerns
- Repeat protective order filings
- Juvenile justice recurrence
- Failure to connect families to stabilizing services
- Referral pathway review
- Family stabilization resource connection
- Trauma-informed screening consideration
- Cross-system communication review
- Follow-up monitoring timeline
SMART Goal: Increase successful family stabilization referrals connected through judicial pathways within 12 months. Progress indicators include reduced repeat court filings, increased service participation, reduced placement instability, and improved compliance with support plans. Long-term outcomes include reduced family system cycling, increased stabilization outcomes, and reduced youth justice involvement.
5. Healthcare System
Healthcare systems are often the first to observe patterns in children's physical well-being. Coordinating between pediatric providers, school nurses, and community health workers strengthens preventive care and reduces avoidable emergency utilization. Coordinated response connects pediatric healthcare providers, hospital social workers, community health workers, school nurses, and behavioral health providers.
- Frequent ER utilization
- Injury patterns
- Missed pediatric appointments
- Failure to thrive concerns
- Repeated stress-related symptoms
- Chronic untreated medical concerns
- Care coordination review
- Referral pathway activation
- Follow-up scheduling
- Family support assessment
- Preventive care education
SMART Goal: Increase preventive healthcare follow-up compliance within 6 months among identified high-risk pediatric populations. Progress indicators include appointment attendance, reduced avoidable ER visits, improved medication adherence, and increased preventive care participation. Long-term outcomes include improved pediatric health stability, reduced chronic crisis utilization, and increased developmental support access.
6. Mental Health System
Mental health crisis recurrence often signals gaps in follow-up care, not just severity of need. Coordinated response between behavioral health providers, school counselors, crisis response teams, healthcare systems, and family support coordinators reduces repeat crisis escalation.
- Repeated crisis interventions
- Suicidal ideation concerns
- Severe emotional dysregulation
- School mental health referrals
- Behavioral escalation patterns
- Mental health screening
- Crisis stabilization planning
- Family support engagement
- Follow-up care coordination
- School support communication
SMART Goal: Reduce repeat behavioral health crisis interventions within 12 months through coordinated follow-up and stabilization planning. Progress indicators include counseling engagement, reduced crisis recurrence, improved school attendance, and stabilized behavioral functioning. Long-term outcomes include improved emotional regulation, reduced psychiatric crisis escalation, and increased long-term treatment engagement.
7. Public Health System
Public health responses operate at the community level, identifying geographic and population-level trends that inform where prevention resources should be concentrated. This framework connects community-level data to cross-sector intervention planning. Coordinated response connects Tulsa Health Department, public health researchers, schools, healthcare systems, community organizations, and local government partners.
- Geographic clustering of instability indicators
- High rates of violence exposure
- Housing instability concentration
- Community behavioral health trends
- Repeated preventable crisis-system utilization
- Community trend analysis
- Prevention resource targeting
- Cross-sector intervention planning
- Public awareness initiatives
- Community-based stabilization partnerships
SMART Goal: Reduce concentrated community instability indicators within targeted geographic areas through coordinated prevention initiatives over 24 months. Progress indicators include reduced violence exposure trends, improved school attendance rates, reduced crisis-system burden, and increased community resource utilization. Long-term outcomes include improved community stability, reduced preventable crisis involvement, and increased neighborhood resilience.
Tulsa has the opportunity to build a more coordinated, prevention-oriented model that strengthens child safety, educational outcomes, family stability, workforce readiness, and long-term community well-being. The Tulsa Child Well-Being Pilot is designed to help begin that work through measurable coordination, ethical implementation, and shared accountability across systems.
Measurement & Implementation Safeguards
The pilot should consistently ask: Was intervention initiated? How quickly did systems respond? Did coordination occur? Did indicators improve? Was stabilization sustained? Were repeat crisis events reduced? Which interventions showed measurable improvement?
Cross-system measurables span four domains: Child & Family Stability (school attendance improvement, reduced mobility, reduced emergency removals, reduced repeat hotline reports, increased caregiver engagement), Community Stability (reduced repeat law enforcement calls, reduced juvenile justice involvement, reduced crisis-system utilization, increased community support engagement), Education Outcomes (improved literacy benchmarks, reduced disciplinary incidents, increased graduation readiness, improved school connectedness), and Health & Behavioral Health (reduced ER overutilization, increased preventive care compliance, reduced behavioral health crisis recurrence, increased counseling participation).
Implementation safeguards include privacy protections, legal compliance review, ethical governance standards, trauma-informed implementation, human oversight and review, clear intervention limitations, and community transparency. This framework IS an early support infrastructure, a prevention-oriented coordination model, and a measurable community stabilization initiative. This framework is NOT predictive policing, punitive surveillance, automated family scoring, or a replacement for professional judgment.