GoGuardian Beacon Letter Template and FAQs to Escalation List Counselors

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION – PLEASE REMOVE BEFORE SENDING TO COUNSELORS**

GOGUARDIAN CREATED THIS SAMPLE/TEMPLATE COUNSELOR LETTER THAT YOUR SCHOOL MAY WISH TO USE AS THE BASIS FOR CREATING ITS OWN SCHOOL-APPROVED LETTER.  

*DIRECTIONS FOR USE*  

GOGUARDIAN PROVIDES THIS TEMPLATE FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT WARRANT THAT IT SATISFIES ANY APPLICABLE FEDERAL, STATE, OR DISTRICT REQUIREMENT. GOGUARDIAN CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR FOR ANY LEGAL OR OTHER RISKS BASED ON SENDING THIS TEMPLATE OR ANY VARIATION THEREOF. YOU REMAIN SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING ALL COMMUNICATIONS WITH PARENTS COMPLY WITH APPLICABLE LAWS, STANDARDS, AND POLICIES.

If you have any questions about how to use this sample letter, please contact us at goguardianbeacon@goguardian.com.

___________________________________

Dear [insert name],

This school year, [insert name of school/district] has adopted GoGuardian Beacon 24/7 services as part of our school’s broader suicide prevention program. You are receiving this because you have been added as a counselor as part of the Beacon 24/7 program to receive alerts that have been escalated by GoGuardian's Safety Support team.

What is GoGuardian Beacon?

GoGuardian Beacon helps notify [insert name of school/district]’s counselors and/or other school support staff if the system detects that a child searches, creates, views, or interacts with online content that could be related to suicide or self-harm. Because of this, GoGuardian Beacon helps [insert name of school/district] detect and intervene when a child may be at risk of suicide or self-harm.

GoGuardian partnered with school suicide prevention efforts in developing, designing, and supporting its GoGuardian Beacon product, including the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (a nationally-recognized not-for-profit organization dedicated to suicide prevention), and the American Association of Suicidology.

It is important to know that neither [insert name of school/district] nor GoGuardian Beacon can possibly detect every situation when a child is suicidal.

What to expect?

As a member of the Escalation List, you can expect to receive phone calls from GoGuardian's Safety Support Specialists, whose roles include reviewing Active Planning alerts to verify the need to escalate to school staff for a student's safety. 

On the phone call with a Safety Support Specialist, you will be required to confirm responsibility for the alert as well as review the alert on your Beacon dashboard and mark any actions taken.

Save the Beacon 24/7 number to your contacts.

We recommend that everyone save the Beacon 24/7 phone number, (855) 921-2124, to your contacts as “Beacon 24/7 Escalation”.

Remember that this number is for outbound calls only, and currently does not accept incoming calls.

Why are alerts being generated?

Escalated Active Planning alerts are student-triggered events that the GoGuardian Safety Support team has reviewed and determined the need for urgent and immediate action. Therefore, these alerts should be reviewed within GoGuardian Beacon and action should be taken as soon as possible.

What are all of the alert phases?

Active Planning - Online behavior and/or content visited or generated by a student that may demonstrate the student is actively planning their suicide such as looking up methodologies, suicide notes, etc.

Suicide Ideation - Online behavior and/or content visited or generated by a student that could indicate that a student is forming or expressing thoughts about suicide, including thoughts about their own suicide.

Self Harm - Online behavior and/or content visited or generated by a student that may demonstrate a student’s desire to harm themselves without trying to end their life.

Help and Support - Online behavior and/or content visited or generated by a student that may demonstrate the student is looking for help and support resources for themselves or a peer such as hotline numbers, American Foundation Suicide Prevention documents, support forums, etc.

Suicide Research - Online behavior and/or content visited or generated by a student that may demonstrate the student is looking up statistics and information about suicide, as one may do for a class assignment versus exhibiting signs of suicide ideation.


What will an alert look like?

If you are familiar with reviewing alerts in Beacon Core, alerts that have been reviewed by the Beacon 24/7 Safety Support Team will look similar but will include a Status Bar showing the progress of our Safety Support Team's review.

Beacon 24/7 Progress Status Bar

Alert Review: An alert has been reviewed or is currently under review by the Safety Support Team.

Decision: During this stage, the Safety Support Team has verified or is currently verifying if the alert relates to the Active Planning phase

Action: If the Safety Support team has verified that the alert should be addressed immediately, escalation protocol will be initiated, and we will begin calling the members of your Escalation List, based on scheduled coverage. Alerts that have been chosen to be re-categorized will display "No Escalation".

Completion: This signifies that the Safety Support Team's review of the alert has completed. A specific result badge is assigned when we have either: a) successfully reached an Escalation List contact, b) unsuccessfully reached an escalation contact or c) determined that the alert should be re-categorized as a more appropriate phase.

Please review this GoGuardian article to learn more about the Anatomy of Beacon 24/7 Alerts.

How can I clear/take action on an alert?

On the Beacon dashboard, Beacon 24/7 alerts that need to be reviewed will have a green, blue, or red notification box below them stating that these particular alerts need attention immediately. 

There are three options for reviewing alerts:

Option 1: Click on the icon next to the predicted phase and select whether or not the predicted phase was correct.

Option 2: Toggle any actions taken which were related to this alert, including but not limited to, an in-person conversation, if a guardian was contacted, or if a response protocol was initiated.

 Option 3: Select a risk level for this specific alert

Please visit this how-to guide to review a step-by-step process of how you will clear alerts on your Beacon dashboard. 

Note: Beacon users will still need to toggle all necessary "Actions Taken for This Alert" in order to properly resolve the alert. Toggling actions taken will also remove the blue outline around the alert card.

On that note, it is important to review the links provided for more information about Beacon 24/7 and your role in managing escalated student. The Beacon Help Center also has a number of articles available for review. Let us know if you have any questions.

Warmly,

_______________________________________________________

[Insert name of school administrator (e.g., principal)]

[Insert name of school/district]