As difficult as they are to discuss, self-harm and suicidal ideation are highly relevant challenges to the K-12 school system. Not only are they a sign of underlying mental health issues, they’re also an immense danger to student safety. To make matters worse, cases of poor mental health seem to be increasingly common across the United States.
In fact, more than 40% of K-12 students experienced persistent feelings of sadness in the past year, according to a recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey. It’s not unrealistic to expect that a portion of these students may go on to engage in self-harm or suicidal behavior.
As school faculty, you need to be prepared for the possibility that day may come — but what exactly does that mean? In this blog, we’ll guide you through what you need to know about responding to self-harm and suicide in your district.
According to an analysis by FairHealth of over 32 billion health care records, emergency room visits for intentional self-harm have nearly doubled in recent years. Another study suggests that the suicide rate for young adults aged 15-24 has tripled since the 1950s. Today, suicide is the second leading cause of death for teens aged 14-18, according to the CDC.
In other words, self-harm and suicidal behavior are a growing threat to student safety.
Of course, it goes without saying that your district has a moral obligation to identify and prevent these risks. But it’s also important to understand that you have equally significant legal responsibilities when it comes to protecting your students’ mental health.
Many states require school districts to implement formal suicide prevention policies and programs, per the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Others have enforced state-mandated prevention training. You can check your state’s requirements using the National Association of State Boards of Education’s policy database.
However, there are also federal legislations you need to have on your radar. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students with mental health conditions are protected by federal laws, including Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
These laws require K-12 school districts to make decisions about how to respond to students at risk of self-harm based on an assessment of each student’s circumstances rather than on fears or generalizations about mental health. When schools don’t meet these responsibilities, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) can intervene.
The good news is that recent actions by the Biden administration have made it easier for schools to address mental health. Two new Department of Education grants offer nearly $300 million in funding for schools to build a better pipeline of mental health support. The grants aim to help schools overcome staffing shortages by giving them the funds to recruit school-focused mental health professionals.
Additionally, the recent American Rescue Plan allocates $122 billion in funding for K-12 schools to address challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. This money can be used to implement strategies that meet the emotional and mental health needs of students, including through evidence-based intervention programs.
When it comes to risks as dangerous as self-harm or suicide, it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. In other words, you need to be proactively on the lookout for signs of either behavior. That way, you can jump into action as quickly as possible and initiate the proper response.
The problem? Most school districts are limited by their resources. Whether it be a staffing shortage or budget constraints, many don’t have the means to proactively monitor the well-being of thousands of students simultaneously. As if that’s not hard enough, signs of self-harm and suicidal ideation are exceptonally difficult to identify.
That’s where your IT department comes into play. With the right tools at their disposal, IT staff can shine a light on student safety signals. Why? Because believe it or not, students often reflect their mental health in their digital footprint — and that includes your cloud domains.
Over 90% of schools operate in the cloud using either Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Consequently, students are leaving clues about their mental health in their activity, such as using a Google Doc as a diary or discussing their feelings with classmates over email. A cloud monitoring solution like ManagedMethods allows your team to keep an eye on cloud activity for any signs of self-harm or suicidal ideation.
Here’s how it works:
What’s also important is that cloud monitoring tools don’t just identify signs of self–harm or suicide. The same technology can detect toxic behaviors that may lead to poor mental health, such as bullying or cyberbullying.
“We’ve seen an uptick in bullying and other inappropriate behaviors,” said K-12 technology leader Bob Boyd at our recent webinar. “If we didn’t have the technology we have with ManagedMethods, and other partners we use, there is no way that our staff of five could keep up.”
According to fellow technology leader Toni McPherson, implementing this type of technology has made students more comfortable discussing their experiences.
“Our students know about the tools we’re using and they’ve started self-reporting things, like if they’re being bullied or see others being bullied, if they’ve heard about a fight, things like that,” said McPherson. “They know there’s a good chance that we’ve picked up on it and it relieves some of that responsibility from them so they don’t feel like they’ll be labeled a ‘snitch’ by their peers.”
With a cloud monitoring tool, it’s easy to identify safety risks in your cloud domain. But detecting risks is one thing — responding to them is entirely another.
To help you better understand how you should approach cases of potential self-harm or suicide, let’s take a closer look at a few do’s and don’ts:
With ManagedMethods, you can rest assured that your data is in good hands. Our only interest is in helping you protect your students from self-harm, suicide, cyberbullying, and any other toxic behavior that threatens their well-being. When you use our cloud monitoring solution, you can automate risk detection and better respond to safety signals in your cloud environment.