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Eureka Union trustees approve updated suicide-prevention policy after counselors outline tiered supports
Summary
The Eureka Union School District Board of Trustees voted to adopt revisions to Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5,141.52 on suicide prevention after a district counseling team reviewed prevention, intervention and postvention practices and proposed next steps for staff training, parent outreach and data monitoring.
The Eureka Union School District Board of Trustees on May 5 approved revisions to Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 5,141.52, which govern suicide-prevention instruction, intervention and postvention practices.
District counselors outlined a multi-tiered approach to social-emotional learning and suicide prevention and described how that framework guides classroom lessons, targeted groups and intensive individual support. The counselors also highlighted the district’s use of the Aperture screening tool for TK–6 and Erica’s Lighthouse curriculum for middle-school suicide-prevention lessons.
The counselors said the district organizes supports in three tiers: universal, classroom-level instruction and themes such as Mental Health Awareness Week; targeted group work (attendance supports, grief or social skills groups); and Tier 3 intensive services including Check-In/Check-Out, individual counseling, home visits and coordination with community providers. “If a student is out of school for any amount of time, then we work on having a reentry safety plan for them,” one counselor said during the presentation.
Board members pressed counselors about family communication and data monitoring. Trustee Dahlstrom, who raised concerns about parent notification in safety cases, said: “I would hate to know something and not have it told parents. That to me I just can’t imagine being in that situation.” Counselors described a district process for threat assessment that involves counselors, administrators and external partners where necessary and said they aim to formalize existing practices into a handbook for consistency.
Superintendent and staff said the policy language was updated using model language from the California School Boards Association (CSBA) and to reflect an Assembly bill adopted in 2017 requiring district suicide-prevention plans. The board’s recommended changes add language about consulting community partners, monitoring and reevaluating materials, improving parent education and convening crisis-intervention teams at school sites.
Trustees voted to waive a first reading and adopt the revised policy and administrative regulation. Trustees said the district will report back to the board on implementation and explore strengthened staff development, more explicit parent education and a more formal crisis-intervention team structure at campus levels.
The counseling team also asked for additional board feedback on data reporting and noted that improved monitoring of threat assessments and program outcomes is an area for growth. The board directed staff to continue formalizing procedures and to return with reporting and recommended next steps.
The district will continue to use Erica’s Lighthouse in grades 6–8 and Aperture TK–6 while developing additional staff training and parent resources. The trustees asked staff to include more complete monitoring data in future reviews of the policy.
