K-12 School Staff

Thank you for choosing SOS Signs of Suicide for K-12 School Staff to teach adults about suicide prevention. 

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Access Instructions
Educate School Staff
Reporting
Best Practices

Accessing the Course

To access SOS for K-12 School Staff, you’ll need to send your staff the redemption code that was emailed to you upon purchase. We suggest sharing this with them through the following instructions:

Login Instructions for New Staff:

  • Set up an account by visiting learn.sossignsofsuicide.org and clicking “Create Account”.
  • When prompted, enter the redemption code provided in your activation email.
  • View the dashboard and select the SOS for K-12 School Staff training.

Login Instructions for Anyone who Completed the Training Last Year: 

  • Login to your account by visiting learn.sossignsofsuicide.org.
  • If needed, use the “Reset your password” feature.
  • View the dashboard and select the SOS for K-12 School Staff training

Educate School Staff

Use the resources below to support suicide prevention training for your faculty and staff.

Reporting

Please note that there is no back-end administrative access for this training. Implementers are registered to receive an email report of all training users and course completions once a week in a .csv file. If you prefer to receive these reports less frequently, please email sostech@riversidecc.org and we’ll update your settings. 

Best Practices

High quality suicide prevention training prepares teachers and staff to recognize signs of suicide risk, respond appropriately, and connect students to support. We’ve compiled the following best practices to help you deliver training that is effective and sustainable across your school community.

  • Provide support during and after training for any staff member who is impacted by learning about this challenging topic. Open a virtual and/or physical space with school-based mental health staff for participants to drop in as needed.
  • Include this training in scheduled professional development days to ensure staff can participate without added time commitments.
  • Create buffer time in the schedule so staff can move at their own pace. While the training is designed to take one hour, staff may want to take breaks, review content, or seek support while considering this difficult subject.
  • Make training mandatory for all school staff. Every adult in your school is well positioned to notice warning signs and support a student in need. Implementers receive a weekly report of training completions, while individual staff receive a certificate of completion. 
  • Schedule annual training to keep skills sharp and maintain staff readiness. This training was recently updated to include new content, keeping it fresh for annual participants.
  • Encourage leadership participation and endorsement to model commitment and emphasize the importance of suicide prevention as a shared responsibility. Sample emails and website language are included for leadership to send to staff promoting the training as a priority for each school. 
  • Provide clear protocols, referral pathways, and post-training support so staff know how to respond when a student is at risk. Include your school’s suicide prevention crisis protocol (customizable sample), the SOS for K-12 School Staff handout, and local resources for participants to reference throughout the school year.
  • Align training with state and district policies to meet legal requirements and take advantage of potential funding or resources. SOS for K-12 School Staff’s one-hour module can be combined with local training or school-level guidance to meet longer training requirements.
  • Consider completing the module in groups or during a live training session. With built-in feedback at every decision point, SOS for K-12 Schools Staff allows facilitators to project the training and complete it as a group. No train-the-trainer is necessary for this adaptation – just share your screen and work through the content together.
  • Provide SOS Signs of Suicide for Middle and High School Students classroom education so the entire school community can work together to recognize the signs, engage in caring conversations, and connect students to the help they need. Learn more.