The small things that make a day work.
Lock the link at the end of each school day
Not optional, and it is the operational rule schools most often miss.
A screening link left open overnight means a student can complete it at 11pm, at home, alone, with no one available to respond. A student who discloses suicidal ideation at 11pm to a form that nobody reads until 7:30am has been failed by the system that asked.
✓ Take Action. Decide who closes the link, at what time, every day. Put a name and a time on the work plan. Then decide who opens it in the morning, because a locked link at 9:14 is its own kind of bad day.
Rescreens
A rescreen is allowed and a rescreen never lowers the response below what the first screen triggered. See Module 5.4.
The room
Private. Door closes. Not the front office, where a student's classmates walk past. Not a room with a window onto a corridor. Not a room somebody else will need at 10:30. Booked for the week, not the block. See Module 6.7.
Phones
Tell students they may want their phone for the safety plan, to put numbers in and to check contact details. If your school uses pouches, they can be unlocked at the front office with no penalty, and a student should be told that explicitly rather than left to assume they are in trouble.
The sticky note
Name and pronouns, handed from runner to planner. It exists so the first thing a planner says is the student's name, said correctly.
The end-of-day debrief
Fifteen minutes, and it is not care coordination. Three questions: what was hard today, is anyone carrying something they want to hand off, who needs something before tomorrow. See Module 12.4.
