Frederick County Public Schools is partnering with a program that helps students whose parents are in prison or jail.

The Children of Incarcerated Parents Program, also known as COIPP, will host activities and provide support for FCPS students and families.

The program director says 90,000 children in Maryland experience struggles related to the incarceration of a parent.

“We also know that when a parent goes to jail, financially the family is usually hit pretty hard. The child socially is feeling personally disgraced, academically children begin to struggle because they’re worried, they’re worried about that parent who is away,” said Shari Ostrow Scher, the founder and director of COIPP.

Scher also stressed that it takes a village to help these children, and they’re always looking for volunteers to help out.