Individual Student Support
Supporting Our PWCS Students 2020-2021
Considerations
- How will students refer themselves for individual services?
- How will staff members and parents/guardians refer students for individual services?
As a best practice, try to notify families before or after remote student interactions. An exception would be if there is a concern about abuse or neglect.
Parent/guardian permission should be obtained if you will be doing repeated individual support sessions with students. Notify families of the schedule and participation links for the sessions, and the importance of/limits to confidentiality should be discussed. Display the official PWCS informed consent/confidentiality statement slide at the beginning of the interaction.
When scheduling a remote individual student support session, it is a best practice to have a parent, guardian, or caregiver make their presence known at least at the beginning of the session if the student is in grades K-8.
What if a (ES/MS) student wants to talk about a concern confidentially (possible concern at home), how do you communicate with that student if they don’t want their parent involved in the conversation, i.e. email?
- Please consult your colleagues and use your professional judgment. While it is a best practice to have a K-8 parent/guardian present at the beginning of a student support session, you may have to make an exception if there is a concern at home. Consider having a fellow school-based mental health professional join you for the support session as a professional safeguard (although this is not required).
Email Check-Ins
You may want to send out a mass email to students and families to check in with them. You may also want to send more targeted check in emails to students and families who might be in need of support, as evidenced by data or needs assessment results.
Video Conferencing
It is a best practice to have a parent, guardian, or caregiver present at the beginning of the video conference for students in grades K-8 (within line of sight during the meeting). Again, this is not the ideal situation, and there may be some exceptions, but it ensures that you and the student are not put in a compromising situation. You may want to also consider just using the audio feature for both parties involved, instead of the video.
What if my technology fails during individual support sessions?
- If you lose internet connection during individual support sessions, you can use an anonymized phone connection as back-up option.
Zoom may also be used for you and your school-based mental health team to record a collective message that can then be sent to students and families via professional email or professional social media.