No. Local school districts may elect to continue to operate their existing tip line. However, we encourage districts to consider the cost to operate the service and understand that participation in Safe2Help is free and provides 24/7 accessibility.
There is no cost to the school district to participate in the program and receive reports from the Safe2Help program.
No. The objective of the Safe2Help program is to support schools and school districts in determining what mental health services they believe best to respond to each report. If requested, the Safe2Help program can assist reporters and schools in identifying mental health services available within their community, county or region of the state. Direct intervention with the student is the responsibility of the district.
No. The Safe2Help program will forward confidential tips received from students, parents, school officials, and the community to the local law enforcement and/or schools whether or not they elect to formally participate in the program.
The Safe2Help program is a confidential tip line. Reporters will be encouraged to provide their name and contact information, but it isn’t a requirement. Information received by Safe2Help is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reporting rules and can only be accessed under limited conditions by a court order.
The school district will be asked to provide contact information for individuals at each school or district. Each school district differs in size but, it is recommended that each district provide contact information for 5 individuals for each school building. These individuals will be called end-users. The end-users can be district or school contacts. School end-users to be considered is an individual from local law enforcement and the other four from within the school or community. The school can include an individual(s)from their behavioral threat assessment team in case the information would need to be shared and handled within that team. A local police department can also be an end-user.
The school/district will enter the district main point of contact information into an online geoform. Required information includes district name, address and, phone number and the name, title, address, email, and office phone number for the district main point of contact. End-users can be updated as often as needed by the district main point of contact.
Once submitted the district main point of contact will receive an email with directions and an excel spreadsheet to register end-users. This will lead to each end-user receiving an email with their login information.
End-users are the contact points within the school, district, and law enforcement. End-users will be responsible for addressing the reports that are received from Safe2Help Illinois. These individuals also will be responsible for submitting general follow-up information on how the Safe2Help Illinois report was handled at their school. End-users will go through a brief training so they understand how to view and enter follow-up information into the Safe2Help software.
Contact the Safe2Help team and we can work together to help identify end-users or come up with additional options. Schools can add more than five end-users if desired.
Schools can list an individual(s) from their Behavioral Threat Assessment Team as an end-user. This could be helpful in case the information would best be shared and handled within the Behavioral Threat Assessment Team. If you are interested in forming a Behavioral Threat Assessment Teams, there is free training in the state of Illinois. For more information, call 309-298-2646 or email schoolsafety@iletsbei.com.