Threat Assessment and Suicide Risk Screening

See how a standardized system for behavioral threat assessment and suicide risk screening can help your district protect and support students.

Download the Threat Assessment Guide

School Safety:
What District and Campus Leaders Need to Know

Behavioral threats and warning signs call for a clear process that tells your team how to evaluate the concern, how to respond, and what support the student needs next.

Strong school safety systems standardize that response with consistent behavioral threat assessment, consistent suicide risk screening, and a clear path from evaluation to support.

Whether you're building a behavioral threat assessment process, rolling out suicide risk screening, or strengthening your district's school safety software and protocols, the resources below will help your team connect the pieces.

Gathering information from the student, staff, and available records

Weighing context and intent — not just the words used

Classifying the concern as transient (not serious) or substantive (indicating real intent to harm)

Determining next steps, from no action needed to immediate safety planning

Threat Assessment Mythbuster

Myth: Zero tolerance policies keep schools safer.

Reality: Research shows zero tolerance approaches fail to distinguish serious threats from impulsive behavior and erode the trust that leads students to report concerns in the first place. Zero-tolerance policies apply the same consequence regardless of context or intent. Threat assessment does the opposite — it uses a structured protocol to understand context and intent so the response fits the situation

The Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG), developed by Dr. Dewey Cornell, give teams a validated five-step model for making that distinction and responding in a way that's proportionate to what's actually happening.

Why your threat assessment team should be multidisciplinary: No single role has the full picture of a student's behavior, history, and needs.

An effective team typically includes:

A school administrator
A school mental health professional (counselor, psychologist, or social worker)
A school resource officer or law enforcement liaison, where available
Other staff who know the student well

Webinar

MTSS Mini Summit 2026: Behavior Across K–12

📆 Jun 3, 12:00 ET

Educators from across the country came together to explore practical strategies for strengthening behavior ...

Watch now

Article

3 Things School Safety Teams Need to Be Effective

Learn three practical strategies for building effective school safety teams, from multidisciplinary collaboration to coordinated follow...

Read the article

Webinar

District Panel: Building Systems to Support Student and School Safety

📆 March 25, 1:00 ET

District leaders shared practical strategies for strengthening suicide risk and behavioral threat assessme...

See it in action

Suicide risk screening is a structured process for evaluating a student's risk of suicide when a concern has surfaced — through a disclosure, a referral, a behavioral change, or a pattern staff have noticed. It's typically administered by a school mental health professional or trained staff member in response to that concern, not as a blanket questionnaire given to every student.

Screening asks a focused, consistent set of questions to gauge how serious that risk is. It isn't a diagnosis, and its value is in giving staff a reliable, structured way to respond to a concern that's already been raised.

The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) is the most widely used tool for this work in schools — a brief, structured set of questions about ideation, plan, intent, and prior attempts, administered by a school mental health professional or trained staff member.

Behavioral Threat Assessment & Suicide Risk Screening

Evaluate specific concerns using structured protocols —such as the CSTAG and C-SSRS + SAFE-T — to determine the seriousness of a concern and the right immediate response.

MTSS & Behavior Supports

Provide the ongoing academic, behavioral, and social-emotional infrastructure — Tier 1 expectations, Tier 2 groups, Tier 3 individualized plans — that address the needs a threat or risk concern often reveals.

Webinar

From Compliance to Connection: What True School Safety Really Means

📆 April 29, 1:00 ET

In partnership with Sandy Hook Promise, this webinar explores how safety is strengthened when schools move...

Watch now

Behavioral Threat Assessment Integrating CSTAG into MTSS

Article

Assessing Threats and Preventing Danger in Schools: A Multi-Tiered Process

Learn how behavioral threat assessment and the CSTAG framework help schools identify concerns early, strengthen MTSS, and create safer ...

Read the article

Webinar

Integrating Behavioral Threat Assessment into Your System of Supports

School safety starts with discernment and prevention—the ability to identify concerning behaviors, prevent escalation, and respond with...

Watch now

Standardized Documentation

Every school follows the same threat assessment documentation and workflow, using consistent protocols instead of a patchwork of paper files and one-off systems.

Consistent Decision-Making

Structured protocols like CSTAG and C-SSRS + SAFE-T reduce the variability that comes from relying on individual judgment alone.

Collaboration

Clear, permission-based access lets multidisciplinary teams collaborate on a case without compromising confidentiality.

Districtwide Accountability

A centralized case record and follow-up task tracking, so nothing falls through the cracks.

Location

Phoenix Elementary School District #1, AZ

I can monitor things on an ongoing basis

"Before Canopy, things were a hot mess. We were originally using pen and paper, and a hodgepodge of different strategies and outdated documents that weren't evidence-based. Now, we're all trained in the CSTAG protocol, and our teams love having the decision tree pop up in Canopy to guide them through evaluations.

From a district perspective, what's most helpful is I can monitor things on an ongoing basis — new or open cases, task follow-up, and trends. Canopy just releases some of our cognitive load so we can really meet the needs of our students."

Dawn Baumgartner

Coordinator of Social Services & Wellness

Not necessarily. The goal is to assess the seriousness of the threat, understand what's driving a student's behavior, and respond appropriately. Research has found that using the CSTAG is associated with fewer suspensions and expulsions and more students receiving appropriate behavioral support.

Requirements vary by state. A growing number — including Virginia, Florida, Texas, and North Carolina — mandate threat assessment teams, and several others require formal suicide prevention and intervention policies. Check your state's specific requirements, since timelines and scope differ.

A transient or low-risk concern often leads to a Tier 2 response, such as a check-in/check-out plan. A substantive or high-risk concern triggers immediate safety planning, family notification, and often a Tier 3 re-entry plan once the student returns to school.

The SAFE-T framework — which incorporates the C-SSRS's structured questions — guides the team through identifying risk and protective factors and determining whether the student can be supported at school or needs external mental health or crisis services. Either way, follow-up support and progress monitoring continue well past the initial evaluation.

Success Story

How Beaumont ISD Improved Alternative School Collaboration with Branching Minds

"Bringing all departments together through Branching Minds showed how each role fits into supporting students and why everyone’s expertise matters."

Products / Features Used

MTSS Core Platform

How Beaumont ISD Improved Alternative School Collaboration with Branching Minds

Success Story

How “Know Every Student” Became a Reality at Springs Charter Schools

"Once we could see the whole child in one place, we could finally identify what students really needed."

Products / Features Used

MTSS Core Platform Early Warning System (EWS) Leadership Dashboard and Board Reporting Canopy Case Management

Springs Charter Schools using MTSS to centralize student data and reduce suspensions with Branching Minds

Success Story

How CCSD 59 Flipped Its Triangle and Transformed Student Support

"The systemic change had a huge impact on morale, teacher confidence, confidence in what they’re doing, our collaborative practices as a team, and how we support students."

Products / Features Used

MTSS Core Platform Leadership Dashboard and Board Reporting

Community Consolidated School District 59 and Branching Minds

Location

Teton County School District, WY

All of that data into a single, secure place

Canopy is well built in terms of steps - walking administrators through the process of doing suicide and behavioral threat assessments, so we are gathering all of that data into a single, secure place, where it can be referenced by those that need it in the future.

Stephen Prange

Director of Data, Assessment, and Mathematics

Threat Assessment and Suicide Risk Screening

School Safety:
What District and Campus Leaders Need to Know

On this page you'll find:

Build a Safer, More Connected MTSS Framework

What Is Behavioral Threat Assessment?

🛡️ Behavioral threat assessment is a structured process for evaluating a report or expression of concern involving potential violence, and determining what response — if any — is warranted.

Build a Stronger Behavioral Threat Assessment Process

Threat Assessment Mythbuster

The Role of CSTAG

Featured Resources

MTSS Mini Summit 2026: Behavior Across K–12

3 Things School Safety Teams Need to Be Effective

District Panel: Building Systems to Support Student and School Safety

Featured Podcast

What Is Suicide Risk Screening?

How Threat Assessment and Suicide Risk Screening Fit Into MTSS