Student Crisis Assessment & Response Protocol
Rapid trauma-informed crisis assessment and escalation decision support for school counselors
What You Can Do
You can rapidly assess students presenting with suicidal ideation, self-harm urges, acute anxiety, trauma responses, or behavioral crisis using a trauma-informed framework. The skill provides real-time decision support for determining appropriate intervention level—whether to implement monitoring, contact parents, or activate emergency services—while maintaining documentation that meets legal and safety compliance standards.
Features
Quickly classify crisis severity (imminent, high, moderate, low) using evidence-based indicators of intent, plan, and access to means
Access trauma-informed verbal and environmental strategies tailored to different crisis presentations (suicidal ideation, dissociation, behavioral dysregulation)
Clear pathways for determining when to involve parents, school administration, emergency services, or psychiatric hospitalization
Structured guidance for communicating crisis concerns to families, including what to disclose and safety planning discussion prompts
Legal-compliant crisis note templates that protect both student and counselor while creating accurate clinical records
Guidance for collaboratively developing concrete safety plans with students that identify triggers, coping strategies, and emergency contacts
Post-crisis care pathways including check-in scheduling, referral coordination, and return-to-baseline monitoring
Example Output
Crisis Assessment Output Example:
Student presents: Expressing suicidal thoughts, has a specific plan (pills at home), recent relationship loss.
Risk Level: HIGH (Imminent concern)
- Intent present ✓
- Plan present ✓
- Access to means confirmed ✓
Recommended Actions:
- Remain with student, establish safety (remove from bathroom/isolated areas)
- Use grounding technique: "5-4-3-2-1" sensory awareness exercise
- Contact parent immediately: "Your child disclosed concerning thoughts. We need to discuss safety planning and next steps today."
- Coordinate emergency mental health evaluation same-day
- Document crisis interaction with specific statements, risk factors, and interventions provided
De-escalation Example:
Student in acute panic attack, hyperventilating, expressing "I can't breathe, something's wrong."
Protocol Applied:
- Slow, calm voice; validate physical sensations
- Teach box breathing: "Breathe in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4"
- Reframe: "Your body is safe. This feeling will pass."
- Reduce stimuli: dim lights, quiet space, familiar adult present
- Follow up within 24 hours to normalize experience
What's Included
- Complete SKILL.md protocol file with crisis assessment framework:
- Risk stratification scoring rubric (imminent/high/moderate/low classifications):
- De-escalation technique reference guide with scripts for common presentations:
- Parent notification email and phone conversation templates:
- Crisis documentation template meeting FERPA and negligence standards:
- Safety planning worksheet for collaborative goal-setting:
- Escalation decision flowchart (PDF-ready for printing):
Who It's For
- School counselors managing acute student mental health crises
- School psychologists conducting rapid risk assessment and triage
- Student support specialists responding to behavioral emergencies
- School administrators overseeing crisis protocols and staff training
- Social workers in K-12 settings coordinating emergency mental health response
Best For
- Assessing students expressing suicidal ideation or self-harm urges
- De-escalating acute anxiety attacks, panic, or behavioral dysregulation
- Determining appropriate level of care (in-school monitoring vs. emergency services)
- Communicating crisis situations to parents with clear, non-alarming language
- Documenting crisis interactions for compliance and liability protection
- Developing safety plans that students will actually use
You might also like
You can take high-level course objectives and generate a complete curriculum architecture that includes module sequences based on cognitive complexity, formative and summative assessment strategies aligned to learning targets, pacing guides calibrated to actual instructional time, and documentation of standards alignment. The output is structured for immediate use in classroom management systems and collaborative planning platforms, eliminating the need to build curriculum architecture from scratch.
You can audit existing or emerging instructional units to identify misalignments between learning objectives, classroom activities, and assessments. This skill ensures that cognitive demand matches the objective's Bloom's level, activities target the intended learning outcome, and assessments measure what was taught at the appropriate rigor. Use it to prevent common design flaws like low-cognitive activities paired with high-rigor objectives or summative assessments that test recall when analysis is required.
You can conduct evidence-based suicide risk assessments, distinguish between crisis-level and manageable concerns, document clinical observations with precise language that withstands legal scrutiny, and determine when to escalate to parents, emergency services, or law enforcement. The framework guides you through standardized triage protocols that integrate therapeutic rapport with clinical rigor, ensuring you follow mandatory reporting obligations while maintaining ethical care coordination.
Design complete differentiated lesson materials in minutes instead of hours. You provide your topic, learning objective, and student assessment data, and Claude generates three distinct content versions (below grade level, on grade level, advanced), scaffolded readings with adjusted vocabulary and complexity, tiered assignments with differentiated success criteria, and targeted intervention strategies for struggling learners. Every material maintains academic rigor while meeting students where they actually are.
You can conduct comprehensive student assessments that integrate academic performance, extracurricular involvement, financial constraints, and career aspirations into coherent college pathway recommendations. This skill generates differentiated guidance for diverse student profiles—from first-generation students to high achievers—complete with realistic timelines, decision matrices, and actionable next steps that reduce decision paralysis and ensure students consider schools aligned with their authentic goals.
You can design comprehensive vocabulary lessons that systematically scaffold learning from receptive understanding to productive language use across all proficiency levels in your elementary ELL classroom. The skill generates visual supports (word cards, illustrations, realia lists), contextual examples that anchor words in meaningful situations, and differentiated practice activities where Entering-level students recognize and respond to vocabulary while Bridging-level students use words in extended language production. This reduces your planning time while ensuring every student in your mixed-proficiency classroom has access to the same content at their appropriate cognitive and linguistic level.
You can conduct comprehensive audits of K-12 curriculum units, courses, and grade-level progressions by analyzing them against state standards, district learning objectives, and summative assessment frameworks. Claude identifies specific alignment gaps where standards aren't covered, redundancies where skills are taught multiple times unnecessarily, pacing mismatches between instruction and assessment windows, and standards coverage issues that explain assessment underperformance. You'll receive detailed, data-driven audit reports that prioritize curriculum revision work and document compliance evidence for accreditation.
You can systematically evaluate acute student crises—including suicidal ideation, homicidal threats, self-harm, and trauma—in real-time, determine appropriate intervention levels (counseling support, parental notification, psychiatric referral, or hospitalization), and generate legally defensible documentation that protects both the student and your school. This skill reduces decision fatigue by providing a standardized protocol that ensures no critical safety factors are missed while maintaining therapeutic rapport.