Documentation of Concerns about Abuse or Neglect

Documentation of Concerns about Abuse or Neglect

Storage of Documentation

1. The Student Welfare Report document and all documentation of communication, once completed, should be kept in the confidential counselor shared drive. All documents in this drive are password-protected.

2. When a student leaves ISB, their digital file is moved into the safeguarding archive file. 

3. There should be no indication on cumulative files or any other ‘open access’ records that child protection concern exists for a particular student.  

Procedures for Communicating Safeguarding Issues to Faculty

1. For the immediate response to a report (whether substantiated or not), teachers who made the report should get feedback.  

2. For cases that are substantiated, at times it will be necessary to share varying degrees of information, from quite specific to vague details, based on what the needs are of the student and family. For example, information regarding behavior change, emotional response, or the need to have heightened awareness surrounding certain signs may be shared with teachers. The counselor, principal, psychologist, or school-based response team will determine what amount of information is shared, who will share it, and to whom it is shared.  Confidentiality is vital, but so is the need to protect the child’s safety. The communication plan is documented on the Student Welfare Report.

3. The final part of the communication plan is to think more broadly and long-term about how/whether to alert current and future teachers and schools to sensitive information held by the counselor and/or psychologist. When the counselor, principal, and psychologist or school-based response team agrees on a case by case basis that there is a need to identify a student to teachers (current and future), an ‘alert’ on powerschool will be activated. The counselor will make the change on powerschool. This ‘alert’ (blue heart)  is one that signifies that there is some sort of sensitive information regarding this student--not necessarily a safeguarding issue (this alert could also signify a death in the family, divorce, bullying, self-harm, etc). Teachers will be informed of the broad meaning of this alert and will know to contact the counselor for more information.  The counselor will know how much to share with teachers based on the communication plan on the Student Welfare Report.

4. When a student leaves ISB, the counseling secretary will inform that a student on the withdrawal list has a blue heart designation. The counselor will check whether the student has a red file stored with the school psychologist. If so, the counselor will schedule a meeting with the principal and other relevant personnel to discuss the need to inform the receiving school about the concerns. This decision will be documented on the Student Welfare Report.

Procedures for Counselors and School Psychologists

Counselors:

1. Counselors have access to the counselor shared drive. 

2. Counselors should review the cases in the shared drive in August and as needs arise. 

3. Counselors should cross reference a “blue heart alert” Powerschool report with the contents of the red folder for their caseload at the end of the year to verify that documentation and alerts are accurate and current.

4. Counselors can use the shared drive to share information with the next year’s counselor for a face-to-face handover.

5. When a student with a safeguarding concern leaves ISB, the counselor will meet with a member of the safeguarding committee to decide whether the receiving school needs to be alerted of any ongoing safeguarding concerns and document this decision on the Student Welfare report.

School Psychologists:

1. School Psychologists are responsible for maintaining a current and accurate record in the shared drive for the division(s) they serve.

2. School Psychologists will cross reference a “blue heart alert” Powerschool report with the contents of the red folder for their division at the beginning and end of the year to verify that documentation and alerts are accurate and current. 

3. School Psychologists will brief the safeguarding committee about the status of all relevant child safeguarding cases at the beginning and end of each school year and as the need arises.

How to Activate the Powerschool Alerts

Blue Heart Alert

To activate the Blue Heart Alert:

Once you have opened up a student record,

1. Click on the Information/Other Information button in the left hand menu

2. Use the pull down menu for "See Counselor" to choose "yes"

3. Click submit.

Last updated November 5, 2024 - WR&MH

Click Submit in the lower RIGHT to save. 

How to Run a Blue Heart Alert Report

From the Start Page,

1. Click Reports/System Reports in the left hand menu

2. Click "sqlReports"

3. Scroll down, click "General"

4. Click "See Counselor"

The purpose of the Blue Heart Alert report is to see at a glance which students have this alert activated in your division. You can use this report to:

• double check that you have activated a Blue Heart Alert for any student whose teachers need to be aware that there is counselor involvement with the student

• double check that any students with a student welfare report on file in the school psych's office have a Blue Heart Alert activated

• ensure that you have briefed the receiving counselor about high needs students during handover

• ensure that you have briefed your administrators about any high needs/high profile cases

• consider whether the alert can be removed for any of the students