Board hears plan to shift student social-emotional survey to FastBridge SABER, with pilots and privacy safeguards

Kristen Brownell, lead elementary school counselor, told the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District Board of Education on March 10 that the district will replace the Panorama social‑emotional surveys with the SABER instrument, hosted inside the district’s FastBridge platform.

Brownell said the change will make the survey shorter and more developmentally appropriate — 20 items for student self‑assessment — and will let teachers and counselors view survey results alongside reading and math data already in FastBridge. She described plans to pilot mySABER this spring at Walker (third grade), West Milwaukee (seventh grade) and West Allis Central (10th grade) and to use the results to target interventions and refine the district’s multi‑layered system of student supports (EMLSS).

The move, Brownell said, follows staff and teacher feedback that Panorama’s two surveys (described in the meeting as a 42‑question SEL skills survey and a 14‑question well‑being survey) were lengthy, contained vocabulary that confused younger students and were hosted on a separate platform that created extra login work and uneven use across buildings. “Panorama had strengths, but buildings were inconsistent in how they used the data,” Brownell said. “SABER is concise, FastBridge‑based and gives us a teacher perspective as well as a student perspective.”

Why it matters: district leaders said the change is intended to make SEL screening more practical and actionable at the classroom level so counselors can shift from universal lessons to more targeted small‑group or 1:1 interventions when the data indicate need.

Board members pressed for details about family notification, privacy and existing data. Board member Carr asked who would see the reports and how families would be informed, noting the sensitivity of the information. Brownell and district staff said access will be limited to staff who directly work with the student — the school counselor, principal and the classroom teacher — and that reports will be communicated to families in the same fashion the district uses for academic screening results in FastBridge.

Carr also raised HIPAA and confidentiality concerns; staff replied student SEL survey data are treated like other district education records and will be managed within FastBridge access controls. Board member Kaiser asked whether the teacher portion of SABER would be mandatory; staff said teacher ratings would be used selectively for students identified for targeted supports rather than for the entire student population.

Several board members asked about continuity with prior Panorama data. Brownell and other staff said the district retains last year’s Panorama results only where buildings exported or saved them; Panorama’s platform does not provide a direct automated crosswalk into SABER. District staff acknowledged that historical Panorama data are not fully available centrally and said they will use last year’s exports where possible while beginning fresh data collection in FastBridge.

District staff said they will provide consistent guidance to schools on how to review SABER results (a standardized data‑dive protocol), will communicate with families before the pilot, and will produce an intervention menu that links specific survey results to recommended next steps. The board did not take an action vote on the change at the meeting.

The presentation also summarized the district’s updated approach to classroom SEL: Second Step will continue as the universal curriculum, now delivered digitally and by classroom teachers to increase immediacy and carryover, while SABER will inform targeted and intensive supports.