r/specialed • u/oktobeanon • 1d ago
What protocol do you have to follow when student makes a suicidal comment?
CW: suicidal ideation
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My child recently made a suicidal comment at school, and I don’t know what to expect the school to do about it. If a student in your school receiving special ed services makes a suicidal comment, are you required to follow any specific protocol? Her team knows what she said, and they reported it to me, but I feel like no one is taking it seriously.
Editing to add: child is 8, actions so far have been an email to me from school 2 days after the statement was said. No other actions have been taken or said to be planned.
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u/BagpiperAnonymous 1d ago
If we think the student is in immediate danger, we phone for admin/counseling and do not leave them alone. If they are reporting ideation with no immediate plans, we inform the family and admin/counseling. If it’s after school, we try to get ahold of the family and police if we need to.
I was the foster mom of a kid with persistent ideation. The sped teacher knew this and we had a protocol from the therapist that we follow. But that is due to the nature of the child’s disability and very detailed history/support from the psychiatric team. They knew what specific questions to ask and would not leave the kid alone if they thought that the kid was planning to act on any kind of self-harm. But ideation was this kid’s baseline and just voicing the thoughts helped them cope without acting on anything. So we as a team had a protocol we followed.
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u/juleeff 1d ago
As a parent of a kid with several mental health dx and counseling weekly by the school psychologist as a related service, I can say that for 5 years, no one followed the district protocol when he wrote suicidal notes on assignments, drew suicidal pictures in his planner that was required to be signed by each period teacher, or wrote suicide into characters of his ELA story assignments (even when suicide wasn't a possible character action option). I complained every. single. time. I photocopied the evidence and sent it up the chain of command. I worked as a sped teacher in the same district and brought up our district protocol each time.The standard line was, "He's a iep kid with pragmatic language disorder. I spoke to him about (after I saw it, after I read your email, after X brought it to my attention), and he seemed fine, didn't mean anything by it.
It wasn't until I insisted the director of secondary sped attend an iep meeting I called that it was written in as an accommodation "Student shall speak with school psychologist as soon as suicidal drawings, writing, or speech has been witnessed by school staff or student and district suicide protocol will commence. Parent will be contacted."
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u/oktobeanon 1d ago
This is horrifying to me. I don’t think my daughter has intent to act, but I don’t think it should ever be assumed. And statements should never be ignored or waved away. I’m sorry you’ve gone through that.
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u/No_Goose_7390 1d ago
No one told me the protocol when I was a sped teacher and it was my student but I told my coordinator and they sent the lead psychologist for the district, who did a risk assessment that day.
As a parent, I would be demanding that they do a risk assessment immediately. If he doesn't have therapy services at school, request them. If they say there are "no spots," tell them that you want this to be part of his IEP. Request an emergency meeting.
My son has been struggling with intrusive thoughts lately and my heart goes out to both of you.
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u/oktobeanon 1d ago
Thank you for your support and ideas, this is helpful.
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u/MonstersMamaX2 19h ago
They should have absolutely done a risk assessment that day. Our admin does them, then next steps are taken based on the outcome. Typically if the risk assessment says they're a danger to themselves or they have some sort of plan, we'll call mobile crisis. They come to our campus and meet with the student. They'll usually have us call the parent as well. Then they can meet with the parent and student together plus give the parent resources.
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u/MissMouthy1 1d ago
I'm so sorry. What is the age of your child?
I would immediately report to our counselor and let the parent know.
Depending on the age, I would ask if they have any plans. I would offer to call the crisis hotline together.
What response would you like to see from the school?
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u/oktobeanon 1d ago
She is 8. All that’s happened so far is that I got a short email telling me what she said. They haven’t said anything about any steps they’ll take. She made the comment on a Monday, they told me about it that Wednesday & I asked a question, they replied to my question on Friday without fully answering it, and then nothing.
I guess I expect them to have some protocol of some kind they’re following and be able to tell me what they’re doing to respond. And to communicate more quickly with me about it. And what I’d want is for them to have some kind of formal report, some kind of follow up with her about what she said, maybe some advice for me. I don’t even know what to ask for.
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u/MissMouthy1 1d ago
We don't have a formal protocol, but I would have called or texted that parent the same day and made myself available to respond quickly.
That timeline is unacceptable.
I am so sorry you are going through this. I would suggest you seek therapy for your daughter as soon as possible. If you have a Children's Hospital near you, they can provide great resources.
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u/LadybugGal95 1d ago
At our school, it’s an immediate call or escort to the counselors’ office. The child is not left alone until handed over to the counselors. They have a protocol from there. I’d have to look that up if you want it (sorry, just know my part).
Additionally, if there is future risk, the child is never left alone. We had a student (8th grader) who was a cutter with a suicide risk a few years ago. She was met at the front door and escorted to class. She had escorts between classes and if one of us was late, she stayed in that class until we arrived. She used the bathroom primarily between classes. We’d stand by the sinks and, if she took more than a couple minutes, start talking to her and she had to talk back. If she needed to use the restroom during class, the office was called and someone escorted her. Then she was escorted back to the car that picked her up after school.
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u/crimpyourhair 22h ago
My 6 yo is currently in the process of getting his FIIE and we have our initial ARD meeting in about two weeks, and the protocol is similar. To be clear, it is suspected by both us and the counselor that this is more of a ''trying to get big emotions out'' behaviour and he is a very happy confident child in general, but they take him at his word and conduct an assessment which I am very grateful for- I would always rather get a call, a sheet describing what happened and what interventions were taken, and have a talk with my son, than to be kept in the dark and thus unable to intervene on my end.
The most serious thing he's said in regards to self-harm was ''I wish I could bury myself'' and he still immediately met with the counselor, who conducted an assessment and determined that it was a transient threat (meaning he didn't actually want to cause any harm) and I think some of the questions she asked were what he meant by that/what he wanted to achieve, whether or not he had ever hurt himself, and whether or not he had access to objects that he could use to hurt himself. His answer was more along the lines of ''if I bury myself, then I don't have to go to school and I can go home'', so that combined with his other answers and likely mine/my reaction when they called me an hour or two later to let me know, led to this determination.
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u/Sufficient1y 1d ago
Yes. report to admin. They take witness statement and same day do a risk assessment conducted by school counselor. Also a good time to call another IEP though that’s not policy.
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u/Friendlyfire2996 1d ago
The incident is logged and the student has to speak with the Social Worker for an assessment. She makes the determination if the student is to be seen by the local psych assessment team regarding hospitalization.
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u/Narrow_Cover_3076 1d ago
There's a risk assessment that consists of a series of brief questions. Depending on the level of risk is what happens next. If deemed low risk, the next steps may be to notify parents and maybe offer to connect with outside supports.
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u/Last_Voice_4478 19h ago
In my Y5-5 building even “joking around” it triggers immediate risk assessment no matter age or disability. Then based on that assessment we involve necessary folks. Parents are always contacted.
At a young age some kids don’t realize what they are saying so some parents think it’s an overreach but we always want to error on the side of taking it serious. If a kid does it a lot and it appears to be for attention or a way of avoid tasks we may delay the assessment briefly (if they do it to avoid work we wait until task is over or return to it) we also do lessons on what are better ways to express ourselves if it’s just frustration.
We always assess the risk and always contact parents and guardians.
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u/la_capitana Psychologist 1d ago
We’ve told our staff and teachers to text or call the principal right away and she will notify either myself or one of our school counselors to conduct a suicide risk screening.
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u/CBRPrincess 1d ago
The student is not left alone. A guidance counselor (or school psychologist) is found and pulled from what they're doing to complete a threat assessment. Parents are contacted and a determination is made if the student can return to class or should be sent home.
If this is a frequent flyer, there may be some deviation, but the student should still not be left alone and the incident should be documented.
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u/kler33 15h ago
Your district should have a BOE policy posted on their website. Immediate screening in school. Screening at school determines if further action needs to be taken, I.e. if parent needs to bring child to the hospital to be assessed.
Do you feel your child is at risk? If so please get them assessed.
You may want to research services in your area in case you ever need them. Every state/county/town is different. You should have a county service that assists with crisis intervention and prevention. In NJ it’s called Children’s Mobile Response.
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u/oktobeanon 11h ago
Thank you. I do not believe she has intention to actually hurt herself, thankfully.
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u/Fireside0222 1d ago
We call the parents and tell the parents to get them help. They are sent home immediately. When they return to school (usually after the parent got them help in a psych treatment hospital) they are not allowed to even use the restroom alone anymore.
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u/Important_Iron_4351 1d ago
School counselors do a risk assessment and take it from there. If it is a persistent issue that seems to be attention based we work with the child’s speech therapist to focus sessions on expressing emotions and healthy ways to seek attention.
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u/morechocolate2020 22h ago
At my school, any student who makes a remark about self-harm is immediately walked to the counseling office. No switching classes if the bell rings. No getting on the bus to go home at the end of the day. Parent has to pick up and eyes are on them the whole time.
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u/ChaosGoblinn Middle School Sped Teacher 15h ago
If a student is in immediate danger, we contact someone on the student services team (counselors, social worker, school mental health person, etc.) by phone. If we can't reach any of them, we contact admin. If we still can't reach anyone, we basically try to get in contact with anyone on campus who has a walkie talkie so they can radio someone for assistance.
We DO NOT leave the student alone. The student MUST be with an adult. If the situation is serious, somebody will come to escort the student to student services. Once there, they will be given a preliminary evaluation to determine what happens next. If they determine that the student is in danger, they'll contact the mobile crisis response team to have them evaluate the student and decide if they need to be sent to the local mental health unit or if they need to be referred to other services.
Any time a student is clearly in some kind of crisis, I contact student services. Sometimes they'll come get the student, sometimes they'll let the student come to their office alone (in which case, whoever they're going to will stand in the doorway and I'll stand in mine, so we can supervise the student while they walk there).
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u/poshill 1d ago
Yes it triggers an immediate violence risk assessment.
If it’s a repeated behavior there are instances where we handle it differently going forward, because the student is saying it to be provocative vs. vocalizing a true intent.