What Schools Must Do...

--Establish a suicide prevention task force. It should include school counselors and psychologists, public health officials, law enforcement officials, local government, and the judiciary. The task force's goals should not stop with "awareness" activities. It must expand community knowledge about modern prevention programs and identify barriers to change.

--Teach "lethality assessment" techniques to all school mental health professionals. Asking the right questions will allow them to distinguish the moderately depressed students from those at imminent risk of suicide.

--Adopt written staff protocols regarding notification of parents and contacting referring agencies. Protocols should outline follow-up support options and stress the importance of staff teamwork.

--At least yearly, brief the board of education on modern prevention and early detection practices. These should include recent advances in depression screening for children. Distribute written briefings to school staff.

Scott Poland is a contributing writer for District Administration and prevention division director for the American Association of Suicidology. David Chartrand's upcoming book Angels in the Park examines how school and public health officials handled an epidemic of youth suicides in one Midwestern community.

http://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Download/934?filename=CKC(LOCAL).pdf

Never implemented or adopted at Kerens ISD (SAFETY PROGRAM/RISK MANAGEMENT CKC LOCAL EMERGENCY PLANS)

SAP- Emergency Health Services - Emergency Health Procedures

Proactive compliant schools offer

PSYCHIATRIC REFERRAL http://www.laredoisd.org/ourcommunity/agreements/misca.pdf

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