Be selective about Users added to GoGuardian Beacon. Before you add someone to GoGuardian Beacon, you should ask yourself, "is this person a proper recipient who should receive access to information related to student suicide and self-harm?" Consult your school's suicide prevention policy and policy team to see who the appropriate recipients would be. Most commonly, mental health officials receive information related to student mental health. Conversely, teachers typically do not receive information related to student mental health for students in the school through Beacon.   

For schools with Beacon 24/7: please be very thoughtful about who is added to the 24/7 escalation list that the Safety Support Specialists will be calling and notifying when an active planning alert is generated. These school administrators and staff should be part of the school’s suicide prevention protocol and policy team. If 3rd party individuals are contracted by the school / district for student mental health services (such as crisis centers or SROs) please be sure that contracts with those entities meet your school’s privacy standards (including but not limited to  FERPA), have received the proper training on your district’s approach to discipline, multi-tiered system of support, the Beacon tool and have the appropriate access levels. Best practices include running practice drills or hypothetical situations as part of training to ensure all staff on the escalation list are prepared to receive an incoming Safety Support Specialist call. 

Be mindful of access levels. Super Counselor permissions are for those school officials with the technical knowledge and authority to see and edit information for the school, including self-harm and suicide-related information. For more information on access levels, click here.

 

Ensure all added Users are aware of your school's crisis/emergency protocol. All users should be informed and trained about suicide prevention in general, your school’s suicide prevention and/or emergency protocol, and how and when each user should respond to Beacon notifications. It is a best practice to conduct training on these topics before adding new users to Beacon, as well as to conduct ongoing training throughout the school year. Everyone can use a refresher!

 

Keep Settings and User Roles Updated. Staff and their roles can change. Remember to disable Users and/or change access levels as appropriate.