SAFE DE will be online when the academic year begins in late August. According to a news release last week on delaware.gov, the app includes functions for anonymous reporting and crisis texting to a continually staffed help center, plus mental-health education and other resources. This gives students the ability to voice concerns in a timely manner without having to self-identify.
“In an emergency, the timeliness of help is critical,” Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Holodick said in a public statement. “I’m excited this platform will make it easier and faster to access wellness resources and reach immediate support in a crisis.”
SAFE DE is part of an ongoing Comprehensive School Safety Program (CSSP) to update school safety plans across the state, which includes 19 districts and 140,000 public and charter school students. The program includes training sessions that help school personnel respond to bomb threats, violent intruders, severe weather emergencies, mental health awareness and behavioral threat assessments, building-infrastructure assessments, and family reunification measures during and after a crisis, according to the news release.
The CSSP also includes a case management system that stores and tracks “critical information” on every student during their K-12 journey to assure that they get care and services that may be needed.
“The safety and well-being of Delaware residents, especially our students, is our No. 1 priority,” Nathaniel McQueen Jr., state secretary for Safety and Homeland Security, said in a public statement. “This technology, which is linked to subject-matter experts, ensures our students have the best resources available when it is needed most. We encourage our students, parents and educators to utilize these resources.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the suicide rate for young people between the ages of 10-24 increased 52 percent between 2000 and 2021 and is the second leading cause of death for that age group. Additionally, a May 2023 report from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the U.S. Secret Service on improving school safety urges bystanders to report concerns, and it calls on schools to “create a positive climate where reporting is valued and respected.”
Partners in Delaware’s initiative include STOPit Solutions, which built the SAFE DE app, and Public Consulting Group, a public-sector consulting firm that assists schools with case management and threat-assessment solutions.
SAFE DE is a customized version of STOPit Solutions’ HELPme tool. The company’s website notes that 50 percent of middle school students and 56 percent of high school students who have used the technology pointed to feeling depressed, stressed or anxious as their No. 1 obstacle to learning. The website said 8,000 schools or workplaces use HELPme or one of STOPit’s other anonymous reporting systems, resulting in more than 200,000 interventions, both life-threatening and non-life-threatening. Last year, STOPit was one of several such apps being used by Texas school districts in lieu of the state’s own faltering iWatchTexas system.
“Students come to school with much more than the capacity to learn,” the website says. “Their backpacks are full of challenges we can’t see. We need to normalize asking for help.”
