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Crisis

How to document a crisis response, coordinate specialized follow-through, and maintain a clear record from the initial incident through resolution.

What a crisis record is for

A crisis log is the durable record of a student crisis response. It captures what happened, who responded, the team's risk determination, actions taken, notifications, follow-up, and whether the situation is resolved.

Record	Question it answers	Example
Crisis log	What happened, and how did the team respond?	Behavioral or emotional crisis on July 26
Specialized assessment	What type-specific assessment or reporting work was completed?	Suicide risk assessment or threat assessment
Notification	Who was contacted, when, how, and with what result?	Parent reached by phone
Safety plan	What warning signs, coping strategies, contacts, and environmental safeguards were agreed upon?	Active safety plan, version 2
Ongoing update	What changed after the initial response?	Three-day follow-up completed

Before documenting

SocialNote organizes documentation; it does not determine risk, replace professional judgment, or replace district, legal, clinical, or mandated-reporting requirements. Staff should use the tools and assessment processes approved by their district and within their role and training.

Finding crisis history

1. Open Students and select the student.
2. Choose Crisis in the student's left navigation.
3. Review the history before creating a new record. Existing incidents, open follow-ups, and re-entry work may affect the current response.

The Crisis History workspace

The workspace combines a student-level history with operational follow-up. It shows:

Area	What it helps you monitor
Summary cards	Total incidents, resolved and unresolved counts, and time since the last incident.
Follow-up strip	Open and overdue crisis tasks, active re-entry work, and open monitoring.
Search and filters	Find records by text, crisis type, risk level, or resolution status.
History table	Date, crisis type, risk, outcome, status, primary responder, and indicators for notifications, referrals, or overdue tasks.
Row actions	Review, print, edit, add specialized assessments, manage the safety plan, or record notifications.

Creating a crisis log

From Crisis History, open Crisis Actions and choose Create New Crisis Log. Work from the facts known at the time; you can add updates and revise the record as the response develops.

1. Basics

Field	How to use it
Service Date *	The date the crisis response occurred.
Incident Time	When the incident began or was identified.
Primary Staff	The person responsible for the crisis record and follow-through. Leaving “Current user” selected assigns you.
Intervention Started / Ended	The actual response window, when known.
Student Location	Where the student was during the response.
Referral Source	Who brought the concern forward; use details to add useful context.
Crisis Type *	The category that best matches the response. This selection controls which specialized fields appear.

2. Response Team

List everyone who participated, including each person's professional role and whether they were the primary responder, supporting, consulted, or notified. The primary staff member is included automatically; add other responders as needed.

3. Risk & Protective Factors

Record the team's clinical risk determination, the approved assessment instrument used, relevant risk factors, protective factors, and a concise summary. Risk choices are Low, Moderate, High, and Imminent.

4. Interventions

Summarize the actions actually taken. Use the checkboxes to identify whether a crisis intervention occurred, the crisis team was deployed, confidentiality limits were discussed, or consent and assent were obtained. Record emergency-service involvement accurately—even when the response was None.

5. Outcome & Follow-Up

Choose the current outcome, add the next follow-up date, and document re-entry or hospitalization information when it applies. Mark Resolved only when the response no longer requires active crisis follow-through; a record can be saved as unresolved and updated later.

6. Continuity and records

If the student has an active case or a recent service log, the Continuity section lets you connect it to this crisis record. The Compliance & Records section captures classification, FERPA restriction, reportability, retention, incident reporting, total time, and other district-defined record details.

How crisis type changes the form

Crisis type	Additional workflow
Suicidal Ideation	Prompts suicide-risk assessment, caregiver notification, means-safety, and safety-planning work. After saving, a dedicated Suicide Risk Assessment action is available.
Self-Harm	Uses the same specialized suicide-risk assessment and safety-planning tools while preserving self-harm as the incident type.
Threat to Others	Adds a threat-assessment section for the behavior, preliminary determination, target or access details, team response, protective actions, supervision, intervention, and monitoring.
Abuse or Neglect Disclosure	Adds fields for the referral or report destination and details. Use Notifications to record the required external report and its outcome.
Behavioral or Emotional Crisis	Uses the core crisis workflow for team response, risk and protective factors, interventions, outcome, and follow-up.

Worked example: behavioral or emotional crisis

Service Date

July 26, 2026

Incident Time

9:15 AM

Student Location

Student support office

Referral Source

Teacher

Referral Source Details

Teacher requested support after the student became overwhelmed during class.

Crisis Type

Behavioral or Emotional Crisis

Overall Risk Level

Moderate

Protective Factors

Social Support Present; Future Orientation

Risk Factor Notes

Student identified trusted adults at school and at home. No immediate safety threat was identified.

Interventions

Moved to a quiet setting, completed a brief risk screening, practiced grounding strategies, and coordinated a supported return to class.

Outcome

Resolved at School

Follow-Up Date

July 29, 2026

Follow-Up Summary

Check in with the student and teacher after three school days to confirm that the support plan is working.

Total Time Spent

0.75 hours

Review and specialized records

After saving, open the crisis row to review the complete record. The review page brings together:

• the crisis type, risk, outcome, status, timing, responder, and intervention summary;
• response-team members and risk/protective factors;
• threat or suicide assessment results when they apply;
• the active safety plan and earlier plan versions;
• notifications, follow-up tasks, ongoing updates, and the audit timeline; and
• record classification, FERPA restriction, reportability, retention, and incident-reporting details.

Specialized actions

Action	When to use it
Suicide Risk Assessment	Available for suicidal-ideation and self-harm records. Document the approved instrument or protocol, risk summary, protective factors, and actions taken.
Create / Revise Safety Plan	Record warning signs, coping strategies, support contacts, crisis resources, environmental safeguards, acknowledgment, and revisions.
Threat Assessment	Available for threat-to-others records. Document the threat review, supervision, protective actions, intervention, consultation, and monitoring plan.
Abuse/Neglect workflow	Available for abuse-or-neglect records. Document the report or referral and related required notifications.
Notifications	Record the recipient, method, time, purpose, outcome, and notes for family, administrators, crisis team, agencies, law enforcement, hospital, or other required contacts.
Print Crisis Record	Create a print-friendly version for an authorized purpose. Handle it under district privacy and records policy.

Ongoing updates and resolution

Use Ongoing Updates instead of repeatedly rewriting the original narrative. Choose an update type—Follow-up, Risk Reassessment, Re-entry, Outcome Update, Family Contact, Safety Monitoring, or General—and add a dated summary.

1. Open the crisis record.
2. Scroll to Ongoing Updates.
3. Select the update type and write what changed, what was observed, and the next action.
4. If the response is now complete, select Mark crisis as resolved before adding the update.

Automatic follow-up tasks

SocialNote can create or update system tasks from structured crisis fields:

Task	What triggers it
Crisis follow-up check-in	A Follow-Up Date. For high or imminent risk, the system uses the next day when no date is provided.
Crisis re-entry meeting	A re-entry meeting or plan date, unless Re-entry Status is Not Needed.
Threat supervision and consultation review	A substantive, serious substantive, or imminent threat determination.
Victim protection notification review	A substantive threat record where victim protection is needed.
Crisis record retention review	A Retention Until date.

The primary staff member receives these tasks. Updating the structured dates updates the task; removing a trigger cancels the corresponding system task. Resolving the crisis completes the standard crisis check-in and re-entry tasks.

Who can do what

User	Access
District administrator	Can create, edit, review, print, and add specialized crisis records for students in accessible schools.
Organization administrator	Can manage crisis records for students within the organization and schools they can access.
Social worker	Can create and manage crisis records for students in assigned or accessible schools.
Counselor	Can create and manage crisis records for students in assigned or accessible schools.
Psychologist	Can create and manage crisis records for students in assigned or accessible schools.
Other professional roles	May review crisis history for students they can access, but cannot create or edit crisis records unless their account has one of the management roles above.

Field reference

Section	What belongs there
Basics	Date and time, responder, location, referral source, and crisis type.
Response Team	Participants, professional roles, and participation type.
Risk & Protective Factors	Clinical risk determination, approved instrument, risk indicators, protective factors, and supporting notes.
Threat Assessment	Threat type and content, preliminary determination, access, targets, team response, supervision, victim protection, intervention, consultation, and monitoring.
Abuse/Neglect Workflow	External report or referral type and destination details.
Interventions	Response actions, consent or assent, emergency services, and law-enforcement notes.
Outcome & Follow-Up	Current outcome, follow-up, resolution, hospitalization, and re-entry information.
Continuity	Optional links to an active case or recent service log for the same student.
Compliance & Records	Classification, FERPA restriction, reportability, retention, incident report, time, notifications, equity flag, and trauma-informed approach.