What gets signed
A Memorandum of Understanding between the district and SAFER. What each party does, for how long.
A Data Protection Agreement. How student data is handled, stored, accessed and deleted.
✓ Take Action. Note the expiry on both, in the work plan, in writing. Agreements of this kind commonly run several years, which is long enough that nobody remembers, and the person who signed may not be there.
What belongs in the MOU that is usually left out
The named follow-up owner. A person, by name, not a role. See Module 9.3. If it is not in the agreement, it is an intention rather than a commitment, and the whole follow-up model rests on it.
Who owns the data and where it lives. Tied to Module 1.2.
What happens at the end of the term. Does the data transfer, get deleted, or stay with the district? Decide it in year one rather than in year seven.
What happens if the trained staff leave. The realistic case, not the exception. Year two with nobody trained is the most common way a screening program quietly stops.
Who the consulting clinician is, by name, and how they are reached on a screening day. See Module 5.5.
Questions to ask before signing anything
- Who at the district has the authority to sign this, and have they read it?
- Does the district's existing data policy conflict with anything here?
- Has the district's counsel seen it, and if not, do they need to?
- What does a district do if it wants to stop?
The last one is the one people flinch at, and it is the one worth asking. If a district wants to go independently, that's fine. That's the goal. An agreement that makes leaving difficult is an agreement that says the opposite.
