Choosing the Right Tool to Manage Student Wellbeing and Safety

January 17, 2024
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Creating safe and supportive learning environments means schools need to maximize every tool they have available—and also recognize when they need to add to their toolset.

The mental health crisis impacting students is a challenge that has escalated beyond the usual tools. Many districts stitch together a process that involves their student information system (SIS), email, pen-and-paper notes, hallway conversations, and spreadsheets. But this creates information silos and gaps in managing student wellbeing. Schools need a dedicated system designed for this critical purpose.

“With hard copies, there’s always the issue of where do we keep this sensitive information? With StudentSafe, we can assign the specific access rights that people have. It’s both secure and readily available to the approved personnel.” Liz Margolis, Executive Director – School Safety & District Operations at Ann Arbor Public School District, MI

A school’s SIS is a robust tool designed to collect, manage, and analyze student achievement. From grade reports and class schedules to discipline actions and graduation rates, it’s all in there. With vast reporting and analytic capabilities across academic and administrative functions, the SIS is an integral component of the operation of the school.

With such a powerful tool, it can be tempting to see if it can help with other facets of school operations.

Tracking discipline actions—including suspensions and expulsions—in an SIS can help schools see trends across various student cohorts and perhaps put corrective measures in place. However, if the goal is to reduce discipline referrals as a whole and support students before discipline is required, then a student information system is no longer the tool for the job.

Using the Right Tool for the Job

Students who have discipline referrals end up missing critical instructional minutes and often experience declining academic scores. If support and interventions are provided before the behavior escalates to a discipline referral, the student has a greater opportunity to succeed academically.

Many students display low-level concerning behaviors which may be a signal for help. To help change the trajectory of student discipline, it is essential that staff log student behaviors that are not alarming, but merely concerning. Most staff are tuned into these behaviors but often lack an effective and secure place to log them.

Equally important is a centralized system where a counselor can see the concerns entered about a particular student.

For example, a teacher has entered a concern about a student no longer completing homework assignments, and a lunch monitor has entered a concern about that same student indicating they seem to be withdrawing from friends.

Now the counselor can have a proactive conversation with the student and family to better understand the underlying cause of the behavior—and offer appropriate support.

The result: A situation that, left unchecked, may have resulted in behavior warranting a discipline referral is now resolved positively with the student receiving the support they needed.

Failing to connect these dots early delays intervention supports—and as a result, students can head further down a path of violence to others or themselves.

Protect Student Wellbeing with Raptor StudentSafe

“We know kids who get to that threat assessment level don’t tend to just vault all the way up there. That’s why we wanted StudentSafe. There are precursory things that happen in their life that script out some of that path. We really have a long-term vision and goal for StudentSafe: to support student wellbeing with data so we can intercede with interventions and support services with our goal being to prevent a child from ever exhibiting behaviors that result in a threat assessment.” Mike Matthews, Director of Operations at Fairview Park City Schools

Preventing school violence, creating safe learning environments and helping students thrive is a big job. The road to success requires proactive measures and tools that can help staff collect and connect the dots well before student behavior requires discipline. It is just as important to maximize our tools as it is to use the right tool.

Student Information Systems	StudentSafe™
Data Management: Collects and manages student data including grade reports, class schedules, and personal information.	Behavioral Monitoring: Allows staff to catalog subtle, concerning behaviors of students.
Performance Analysis: Analyzes student achievement and tracks academic progress.	Threat and Risk Assessments: Facilitates assessments of threats to harm oneself or others.
Discipline Tracking: Records discipline actions such as suspensions and expulsions.	Wellbeing Management: Provides a centralized system for managing student wellbeing cases.
Trend Analysis: Helps schools identify trends across student cohorts to implement corrective measures.	Proactive Interventions: Aids in early detection and intervention before behaviors escalate to discipline issues.
Administrative Support: Assists in various administrative tasks and reporting requirements of a school.	Holistic Student View: Offers a comprehensive view of a student’s wellbeing—beyond academic performance.
Official Student Record: Contains documentation related to students’ formal record.	Proactive—and Private—Student Support: StudentSafe promotes logging low-level concerns about student behavior to identify early opportunities for intervention. Most of this information does not need to be on a student’s official record, so staff sharing these early concerns needn’t worry about impacting formal student records.
Static Documentation: Student information systems store data related to incident reports and discipline outcomes—documents that do not frequently change or require extensive collaboration.	Dynamic, Collaborative Documentation: StudentSafe is designed to be a collaborative safety management platform. With alerting and notifications built in, StudentSafe supports school staff as they manage student wellbeing.

Advantages of StudentSafe Over an SIS for Student Wellbeing

Early Intervention: While an SIS tracks discipline after the fact, StudentSafe enables proactive identification and support for students showing early signs of distress.
Centralized Behavioral Log: StudentSafe offers a secure, centralized platform for logging and monitoring low-level concerning behaviors, which an SIS might not track.
Holistic Approach: StudentSafe focuses on the overall wellbeing of students, including those who may not display obvious disciplinary issues but are in need of support.
Preventing Escalation: By providing timely interventions, StudentSafe helps prevent situations from escalating into discipline referrals, thereby maintaining students’ academic engagement.
Inclusive Monitoring: StudentSafe captures a broader range of student behaviors, including those of students who are academically successful but may be struggling with mental health issues, which an SIS might overlook.
Separate from Official Records: StudentSafe is not part of students’ official records—which means staff may be more inclined to share low-level concerns. And it also means a student in crisis does not also have to worry about their formal record displaying their struggle down the road.

Raptor StudentSafe aids schools in managing student wellbeing.

The software enables staff to:

Catalog behavioral concerns,
Conduct assessments of threats to harm themselves and others, and
Effectively manage student wellbeing cases and safety plans.

By providing a centralized, holistic view of students who may need support, StudentSafe empowers informed decision-making for their best interests. StudentSafe helps prevent the need for discipline referrals, mitigates risks of violence, and helps create a learning environment where students thrive.

To learn more about how Raptor StudentSafe can help you support your students, schedule a free demo.