Training-gated
This and Module 5.3 are one meeting, in two halves. 5.3 is finding out what is going on. This is building the plan. Same student, same thirty minutes, no break in between.
How long
Thirty minutes is usually enough. Longer if they are engaged, shorter if they are shutting down.
Ending early with four honest answers beats grinding out a complete form. A plan with four real things in it gets used. A plan a student endured does not.
How to run it
Type it with them, not at them. Turn the screen so they can see it. You are having a conversation with a form open, not doing data entry with a student present.
Their words, not yours. If a student says "I go sit in my car and scream," that is what goes in the plan. Not "uses vocal release for emotional regulation."
Warning signs first, while the answer is loaded. You have just spent twenty minutes talking about exactly this.
Ask about what they tick. The checkboxes are a starting point, not the plan.
One name is enough for the person they would go to when it is overwhelming. It can be a friend.
A specific follow-up. A person's name, a day, a time. Not "sometime next week."
Four ways it goes wrong
Rushing to the form. A planner who opens the form in the first two minutes has turned a conversation into a task.
Translating. Their phrasing is the point. Clinical language is not an upgrade.
Reassuring too early. "It's going to be okay" in minute three tells the student you would like this to be over.
Filling silence. The thing a student says after eight seconds of quiet is usually the thing worth hearing.
Critical Reflection. Think about the last hard conversation you had with a student. What made you want to move it along? Time, discomfort, or not knowing what to say next? All three are normal. Knowing which one is yours is what lets you notice it happening.
Before you pick up the next student
- Care coordination row filled in. Now, not at the end of the day. See Module 9.1.
- Debrief completed. Two minutes.
- Anything urgent escalated rather than held until the close-out.
