GoGuardian Beacon Letter Template and FAQs to Beacon Users

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

GOGUARDIAN CREATED THIS SAMPLE/TEMPLATE 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 Core services as part of our school’s broader suicide prevention program. You are receiving this because you will have access to the Beacon dashboard and will be viewing alerts that come through. 

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 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 Beacon user, you can expect to see alerts populate your Beacon dashboard. [insert action users must take when they receive alerts/suicide prevention plan].

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?

Student Name: Name and email address of the student who generated the alert.

2. Date: The date and time that the alert was generated.

3. Frequency of Alerts: The total number of recent alerts that this student has generated.

4. New Alert: New and unread alerts are distinguished by a dark outline and light blue highlighting.

5. Actions Taken For This Alert: List of actions taken that have been recorded by counselors within the alert details page.

6. Primary Guardian: Primary parent or guardian contact information. Open the alert for more contact info.

7. Predicted Phase: Predicted phase is a description of online behavior as defined and predicted by Beacon.

How can I clear/take action on an alert?

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

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. 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]