Communicating with Parents/Guardians about Beacon

We know your school/district wants to be transparent with its families about the use of online services such as GoGuardian in the classroom. GoGuardian wants to help support your school/district in transparently communicating about how GoGuardian product(s) improve their child’s digital learning environment, how our product(s) work, how our product(s) treat student privacy, and how your school or parents/guardians can customize GoGuardian.  

To facilitate this conversation, you will find resources on this webpage that are intended as templates for schools/districts to use in communicating with their students’ parents/guardians/families about GoGuardian. Because we believe that schools/districts are the experts at understanding their school communities’ policies, norms, relationships, and laws, these template resources should be customized by your schools/districts to align with their particular school’s/district’s community’s needs.

If you are a parent or guardian looking for more information about GoGuardian Beacon, please contact your child’s school/district.  

If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline '1-800-273-TALK (8255)' or text TALK to 741741 at the Crisis Text Line. They’re here for you. If you have an emergency, call 911.

Steps to Communicating with Your Parents/Guardians About GoGuardian:

• Determine which GoGuardian product(s) your school/district uses.

  GoGuardian offers a suite of different product options for schools/districts, so your school’s/district’s communication/letter home to parents/guardians should describe the particular GoGuardian products that your school/district has adopted. For example, GoGuardian offers Admin, Teacher, and Beacon. Our resources below are specific to GoGuardian Beacon, but our Admin and Teacher-specific communication resources can be found here and here.

• Determine which policies or settings your school/district has selected.

  Your school/district has a variety of different settings/policy options to choose from in the GoGuardian products. For example, your school/district can decide whether “in school” and “out of school” settings should be different and can customize settings for different age groups or students through Organizational Unit (OU) based settings.

• Determine whether your school/district should obtain parental/guardian consent or add opt-out language in letter/communication home to parents/guardians about GoGuardian.

  GoGuardian’s sample letter/communication to parents/guardians does not include any consent language (i.e., language asking parents to sign the letter home agreeing to the use of GoGuardian with their child) or opt-out language (i.e., language telling parents/guardians that they can opt their child out of GoGuardian). GoGuardian obtains school-based consent under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (see Question M in the FTC’s Comply with COPPA FAQs if you have questions about school-based consent).

  However, depending on your particular school’s/district’s local laws, policies, and/or community norms, your school/district may either be legally required to, or may want to, require parental consent or opt-out ability explicitly in your school/district’s communication / letter home to parents/guardians about GoGuardian.  If you have questions or want to add such language, please consult your legal and policy team.

Resources for GoGuardian Beacon

Below are resources that your school/district can use in communicating about your school’s/district’s adoption of GoGuardian Beacon:

• Template Letter Home to Parents/Guardians About Adopting Beacon

  Template letter to send home to parents/guardians about what GoGuardian Beacon is and how it works for your school/district to customize. We also have a template of parent/guardian FAQs anticipating commonly asked questions for your school to use.

• Full list of Communication Resources for GoGuardian Beacon

• Important Tips and Resources

  • Preparing Your School’s Beacon Account for Guardian Notifications
    • GoGuardian Beacon includes a Guardian Notification feature that schools/districts can enable after school hours to notify parents/guardians of alerts via email through GoGuardian Beacon. Please reference this Help Center Article on Guardian Notifications for more information about setting up Guardian Notifications.
      
      
    • Remember to review your school’s Beacon dashboard and follow up on alerts that were sent through the Guardian Notification feature to be sure that parents received the notification and are equipped to handle the alert and any next steps.
  • Preparing Your Parents/Guardians
    • Guardian Notifications: If you choose to enable Guardian Notifications (see above), it is important that parents/guardians are prepared to receive Beacon notifications, know how to update your school/district about any changes in contact information and/or educational rights relating to the child, who to follow up with at the school, and available resources if they receive a Beacon notification or otherwise suspect that their child may be at risk of suicide or self-harm. It is important to prepare your parents/guardians before you first enable guardian notifications. It is also recommended that you regularly remind existing parents/guardians of those points above and train new parents/guardians of new or transferred students.
      
      
    • Educating Parents About Suicide Prevention: As you know, educating parents/guardians about suicide prevention (e.g., identifying warning signs, risk factors, protective factors, what questions to ask, and where to find resources) and your school’s/district’s broader suicide prevention program is critical. To get you started, visit these pages for more resources on suicide prevention training for parents/guardians: AFSP’s More Than Sad Training; Model School District Policy for Suicide Prevention (includes a section on Parental Notification and Involvement, and GoGuardian’s Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Resource Page for more resources (scroll to the bottom of the webpage). Please remember to continue to train your parents/guardians as well as to reinforce reminders to those parents/guardians who have already been trained, and help educate new parents/guardians of new or transferred students!