Student Supervision and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
You may be asking yourself, “How do these two things connect?” The answer is they don’t really, but the parallel I want to draw is student supervision is the most basic, and therefore important, need for a well crafted school safety plan. Throughout the next couple of months, I’m going to highlight some of the most basic and important systems and procedures related to student supervision. I’ll highlight some best practices and discuss some ways you can gather important information from stakeholders to ensure the systems and procedures your school sets up actually work.
This week we’ll start with updating student’s emergency contacts.
Updating Emergency Contacts
Rationale: The beginning of the school year is a great time to update student emergency contact records. Situations and relationships change over the summer, and unfortunately, parents or guardians may fail to inform the school about these changes. They will most certainly let you know when a mistake is made though!
Here are a few ways to update these contacts:
1. Hard Copy Update Form – Email or send a hard copy update form home. If sending a form home, consider printing the form on a specific (bright!) color of paper. After transferring the information into your schools student information system (SIS), keep a hard copy of the form, or scan it to the student’s file, for proof of updates during any sort of dispute that may occur later.
2. Soft Copy Update Form – Use Google or your SIS to complete the update electronically.
3. Teacher/Support Staff Phone Call – A positive/check-in phone call home from a student’s teacher or support staff personnel is a great way to start the year. Using the call to update emergency contact information adds some substance and purpose to the call. This type of proactive approach can really make the teacher and school look good! Remember to have a system for collecting the updates if choosing this route.
4. Back to School Event – Most back to school events include some “logistical’ checklist items. Add this to the list, and consider making a game (scavenger hunt) of students and their parents/guardians accomplishing all the items you want them to accomplish on the checklist
Connecting This to Your School’s Student Sign-Out Procedure
In next week’s blog, I’ll connect why having updated emergency contacts is so important to having an air-tight student sign-out procedure.
Look forward to seeing you back here then!
About the Author
Chad Miller spent six years in public education. During those six years, he was fortunate to get a wide breadth of experience. He taught for two years, was an Assistant Principal for two years, and finally a Principal for the last two years. In his second year as a teacher, Chad was voted “Teacher of the Year” at Indianapolis Metropolitan High School.
Chad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Middle-Secondary Education from Butler University, a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Marian University, and Masters of Education in School Leadership from Columbia University.
After the 2014-2015 academic year, Chad decided to pursue his entrepreneurial spirit and open a branch of his family’s growing independent insurance agency in Indianapolis, Indiana. Chad remains passionate about education, and enjoys when he can combine his former career with his risk management and insurance career.
Miller Insurance Group and Keystone Insurers Group are the endorsed employee medical and non-medical benefits and property and casualty insurance provider for the Network for Quality Education.
Chad can be reached at (317) 869-9180 or chad@insuringschools.com.