Working With Referrals

How to receive, triage, link, coordinate, and follow up on inbound and outbound student referrals.

Inbound and outbound referrals

Type	Purpose	Example
Inbound	Requests support from the school or district. It may arrive through a public form or be entered by staff.	A teacher reports a pattern of absences and asks the student-support team to review it.
Outbound	Coordinates a connection from the school to an external or community provider.	The attendance team connects the family with a community resource center for transportation support.

A referral starts coordination; it does not replace a case or goal.

Use a case for a structured intervention and a goal for the measurable student outcome. Referrals preserve how support was requested and where the student was connected.

The referral lifecycle

1. ReceivePublic or staff intake creates an inbound referral.

2. VerifyReview the concern, urgency, contact details, and school.

3. LinkConfirm the correct student record.

4. CoordinateTriage internally or create an outbound connection.

5. Follow upRecord provider response, outcome, and closure.

Public inbound intake: attendance example

In this example, teacher Jordan Lee refers Marcus Patel after a repeated pattern of morning absences. The district’s public staff form collects the information in three stages.

Step 1: Identify the student and referrer

Enter enough student information for the support team to find the correct record. Depending on district settings, the form asks for the student’s name, Student ID, grade, and school. Complete the referrer fields required by district policy so staff can clarify the concern.

If the submitter doesn’t know the student’s school and the district allows it, they can choose I’m not sure / not listed. The form never confirms whether a Student ID matches a student; staff confirm the match after the referral arrives.

Public staff referral form with student and referrer information — The example identifies Marcus Patel and provides Jordan Lee’s staff contact information.

Step 2: Describe the concern

Select the main concern and relevant indicators, then add duration, frequency, urgency, observations, and strengths. Describe observable patterns rather than diagnosing the student.

Public referral form describing an attendance concern — The referral documents a repeated attendance pattern, its frequency, moderate urgency, and student strengths.

Step 3: Add context and acknowledge the form

Record interventions already attempted, caregiver awareness, and other context. Review the privacy or consent acknowledgment before submitting.

Public referral review step with interventions and acknowledgment — Prior efforts help the receiving team avoid repeating work.

Referral submission confirmation page — Confirmation means the referral was received, not that a particular service was approved.

Do not use a referral form for immediate emergencies.

Follow the district’s emergency or crisis procedure whenever there is an immediate threat to safety. A crisis indicator can flag a submission for review, but it does not summon emergency help.

Review and prioritize the inbound queue

Open Referrals to see pending, in-progress, high-priority, and completed work. Search by student or referrer, filter by school, concern, status, or priority, and use the export when an authorized operational report is needed.

Referral queue with a pending attendance referral — The queue provides the starting point for intake review and workload monitoring.

Open the referral and confirm its source, concern, urgency, student details, and submitter contact information.
Address immediate safety concerns using district procedure.
Confirm the school and identify the appropriate referral owner. If you are taking ownership, choose Assign to me.
Link the correct student record before creating connected work.
Update status and leave a concise triage note.

Inbound referral detail for an attendance concern — The detail page preserves the submitted concern and provides the controls needed for triage.

Assign a referral to yourself

When a referral you can view has no assignee, the Assignment card on its details page shows Assign to me. This works for referrals submitted through public forms too; their submitted content stays read-only. If someone else claims the referral first, SocialNote tells you it has already been assigned.

Unassigned inbound referral Assignment card with the Assign to me button — Assign to me appears only while the referral has no owner and gives the current staff member responsibility for follow-up.

To release a referral you own, choose Unassign me. Only the current assignee can unassign themselves this way. Both actions are recorded in the referral’s audit history.

Unassigning can remove your access.

If you can only see a referral because it is assigned to you, such as one at a school outside your access, unassigning yourself removes it from your view and returns you to the Referrals list.

New-referral notification emails don’t include the student’s name or other details. Sign in from the email’s link to review and assign the referral.

Confirm and link the student

A public referral begins with submitted student details; it is not automatically attached to a SocialNote student record. SocialNote presents likely matches based on details such as school, name, student ID, grade, and contact information.

Suggested student match for Marcus Patel with match reasons — Review both the suggested match and its reasons before choosing Link Student.

A strong suggestion still requires human confirmation.

Compare the school, full name, grade, and any available identifiers. Never link a student on name similarity alone. If no suggestion is reliable, use manual search or leave the referral unlinked until identity is confirmed.

Linking enables the referral to appear in the student’s referral history and allows staff to connect related cases and outbound referrals.

When a referral has no school

If the submitter chose I’m not sure / not listed, linking the student gives the referral that student’s school. Staff at that school can then see it, and it appears in school-filtered lists and reports. The link note records “School set from the linked student’s school.”

Referral communication log with the note “Linked the referral to a student. School set from the linked student’s school.” — When a referral submitted without a school is linked, the link note records that the school came from the linked student.

Linking a different student moves the referral to the new student’s school.
Removing the link clears the school again.
A school chosen by the submitter never changes when you link a student.

Update status and preserve communication

Choose the status that reflects the current state of work and add a note explaining the decision or next action. In this example, the attendance referral moves from Pending Review to In Review.

Inbound referral status update set to In Review with a triage note — A useful triage note states what was reviewed and what happens next.

Referral communication and status history after triage — Notes and status history create an audit trail of the team’s response.

Use “Visible to referrer” deliberately.

Select it only when the note is appropriate for referrer-facing communication. It marks visibility; staff should follow district practice for whether and how an update is actually delivered.

Use the student’s referral history

After linking, open the student and choose Referrals. Inbound requests and outbound connections appear together, giving the team a clearer picture of how support entered the system and where the student was connected.

Student referral history for Marcus Patel — The student view prevents referral work from becoming isolated from the rest of the support record.

Create an outbound referral

Create an outbound referral when the school is coordinating support with an outside provider. Choose the category that best describes the destination: mental health, community agency, child protective services, health services, court or juvenile justice, or other.

1. Identify the destination

Enter the agency, contact person, phone, email, and any directions the receiving team will need. In the worked example, Marcus is referred to the Springfield Family Resource Center for transportation assistance.

Outbound referral destination fields for a community resource center — Use specific provider details so another authorized staff member can continue coordination if needed.

2. Connect related work and plan follow-up

Link the originating inbound referral and, when applicable, the student’s case. Set the priority, provider response, referred date, follow-up date, and initial note.

Outbound referral linked to an inbound referral and attendance case with follow-up planned — Linking the inbound referral and case preserves why the external connection was made.

Use the follow-up date as an operational commitment.

When a follow-up date is set, SocialNote creates a task for the referral owner. Choose a date the owner can realistically monitor.

Follow up, record the response, and complete

The saved outbound referral shows its destination, status, related records, follow-up date, communication log, and history.

Saved outbound referral detail with a follow-up due date — The outbound record is the shared source for provider coordination.

Automatically generated outbound referral follow-up task — A follow-up due date creates an open task assigned to the referral owner.

After contacting the provider, update the provider response and status, record an outcome summary, and add a communication note. If the student connected successfully, choose Connected; SocialNote records the connection date when appropriate.

Outbound referral update set to completed and connected with an outcome note — The follow-up update records the provider response and practical result.

Completed outbound referral with outcome and history — The completed record preserves the destination, outcome, communication, and status history.

Resolve the follow-up task when the referral is complete.

Clearing the referral’s follow-up date cancels its system-generated open task. Do this only when no further follow-up is expected; otherwise set the next meaningful date.

Inbound status reference

Status	Use it when
Pending Review	The referral has arrived but substantive review has not begun.
In Review	Staff are verifying details, urgency, ownership, or student identity.
Accepted	The request has been accepted for coordinated support.
In Progress	Services, outreach, or intervention work is underway.
Declined	The request will not proceed; document the reason and appropriate alternative.
Completed	The referral’s intended coordination work is finished.
Closed	No further action is expected for another documented reason.
Transferred	Responsibility has moved to another appropriate team or process.

Use status consistently across the district. A note should explain any decision that another staff member could not understand from the status alone.

Good referral practice

Review the queue on a defined schedule and maintain backup coverage.
Use observable, relevant facts and avoid unnecessary sensitive detail.
Verify the student before linking or creating connected work.
Assign a clear owner and record the next action.
Link related inbound referrals, outbound referrals, and cases instead of duplicating their narratives.
Use follow-up dates to drive action, then update them when circumstances change.
Close the loop with an outcome summary, even when the provider could not connect.

For district administrators

See Configuring Referrals to control audiences, public form content, routing, and notifications.