Welcome to the NCYS Community Learning Center

You do not need to be a clinician to save a life. You need to notice, to ask, and to stay. This training teaches the sentence an adult actually has to say, and the written plan that follows it.

What the data say

Among US high school students in 2023: 40% felt persistently sad or hopeless, 20% seriously considered attempting suicide, 16% made a plan, and 9% attempted. In a classroom of 25, roughly five have seriously considered suicide this year. Source: CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2023.

Warning signs to act on

• What they say — "I want to disappear," "everyone would be better off," talk of being a burden or trapped. Indirect statements count.
• What they do — giving away belongings, saying goodbye, searching for methods, withdrawing, sudden risk-taking, changes in sleep or eating.
• How they seem — hopelessness, shame, agitation, rage — or sudden calm after a period of despair.
• Act now if there is a plan, a chosen time, access to means, or a recent attempt. Do not leave the young person alone.

Four myths that stop adults from asking

• "I might put the idea in their head." — Asking directly does not create risk. It lowers distress, and it is often the first honest conversation the youth has had.
• "They are just seeking attention." — Most people who die by suicide gave some warning. Talking about it is the warning.
• "If someone is determined, nothing can stop them." — Crises are usually brief and highly ambivalent. Time, distance from means, and one caring adult change outcomes.
• "They seem better, so it has passed." — Sudden calm can follow a decision. Improvement is a reason to stay close.

How to ask

Use one of these. Do not invent a gentler version in the moment, and do not fill the silence — count to five.

• "Are you thinking about suicide?"
• "Sometimes when someone is carrying this much, they think about ending their life. Is that happening for you?"
• If yes: "Thank you for telling me. Do you have a plan? Have you thought about when? Do you have what you would need?"

Once they say yes

• Do — stay; thank them; ask about plan, time and means; let them say why before you offer reasons to live; say clearly what you will do next and who you will tell.
• Don't — promise secrecy, argue or list their blessings, minimize, react with shock, leave them alone, or stop at handing over a phone number.
• Instead of promising secrecy: "I can't keep this to myself, and here is exactly who I will tell."

Reduce access to lethal means

The single most effective thing a family can do in the next hour. Firearms stored locked and unloaded with ammunition separate, or out of the home for a few weeks. Medication in a lockbox, extra disposed of at a pharmacy take-back. Name who does it, where the key goes, and when you will confirm it was done.

The six-step safety plan

1. The youth's own warning signs, in their words.
2. What they can do alone — music, a shower, drawing, walking the dog.
3. People and places that distract — names, not categories.
4. Named people to ask for help, with numbers, in the order the youth chooses.
5. Professionals and 988, written in.
6. Making the space safe — what is locked, by whom, by when. This step belongs to the adults.

Build it with the youth, never for them. Test it out loud before you leave — "it's 11 p.m. Sunday and step three isn't answering; what happens next?" — and set a review date. A safety plan is not a no-suicide contract; never ask a youth to promise not to die.

Afterward

• Make contact within 24–48 hours, and again within a week. Brief caring contact is itself an intervention.
• The days after a hospital discharge or placement change are the highest-risk period. Confirm the follow-up appointment actually happened.
• Document facts and the youth's own words in quotation marks — never "attention-seeking" or "not serious."
• Debrief for yourself. 988 is for helpers too.

The standard is suspicion, not proof — and the screener, not you, decides what happens next. This training covers the duty, the indicators, the call, and the record.

The national picture

In FY 2023, child protective agencies nationally received an estimated 4.4 million referrals; 546,159 children were determined to be victims. Neglect alone accounted for 64% of victims — physical abuse only 10.6% and sexual abuse only 7.5%. An estimated 2,000 children died of abuse or neglect. Source: HHS, Child Maltreatment 2023.

The duty

• Report immediately, and never later than 24 hours from the moment you have reasonable cause to believe a child has been abused or neglected. The clock starts when you form the suspicion.
• The duty is personal. Telling your supervisor does not discharge it. Internal notification is required in addition to — never instead of — the external report.
• Good-faith reports are protected by civil and criminal immunity. In Georgia, knowingly and willfully failing to report is a misdemeanor (O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5).
• You are not the investigator. Do not interview the child, gather evidence, confront anyone, or wait for the caregiver's side of the story.

Enough to report

• A child tells you something happened — or another child tells you about them.
• An injury whose explanation does not fit the injury, the child's age, or their development.
• A pattern over weeks that concerns you, even if no single incident would.
• A concern you cannot rule out and cannot stop thinking about.

Indicators

• Physical abuse — bruises on the torso, ears, neck or cheeks; marks shaped like an object; injuries at different stages of healing; injury in a child too young to be mobile; a story that changes between tellings.
• Neglect — persistent hunger, untreated medical or dental needs, no safe sleeping space, a young child left alone, chronic school absence. Poverty alone is not neglect: report, and refer the family for concrete help at the same time.
• Sexual abuse and exploitation — sexual knowledge beyond the child's age, sudden fear of a person or place, running away, unexplained money or gifts, a controlling older "boyfriend," new secrecy about a phone. Physical signs are usually absent.
• Emotional abuse — constant belittling, terrorizing, scapegoating one child, threats of abandonment. Reportable in its own right.

When a child starts to tell you

• Say — "I believe you." "Thank you for telling me." "This is not your fault." "I can't keep this to myself, because my job is to keep you safe."
• Ask only open prompts — "Tell me more about that." Never who, why, or leading questions; they can compromise the case.
• Never promise secrecy, have the child repeat the story for other staff, react with shock, or tip off the family.

Making the report

1. If the child is in immediate danger or needs care, call 911 first.
2. Write down what you saw and heard, in the child's words, with date and time.
3. Notify your supervisor and the designated official — in parallel with the external report.
4. Call the state hotline or use the portal. Georgia: 1-855-422-4453.
5. Record the date, time, intake worker or reference number, and what you were told about next steps.
6. File in the child's record and stay in your ongoing role with the child.

Report what you know. Missing information is never a reason to delay.

Documentation that holds up

• Write: "Child stated, 'My mom's boyfriend hit me with a belt on Saturday.' Observed three linear bruises on the left upper arm. Called intake at 3:15 p.m.; reference #____."
• Never write: "clearly abused," "manipulative," "mom is neglectful," "handled internally."
• If anyone tells you not to report: make the report anyway, document who told you not to with date and time, and escalate. No one can relieve you of a legal duty, and retaliation for good-faith reporting is prohibited.
• In ORR-funded programs, a Notification of Concern within 24 hours does not satisfy state reporting. When both apply, do both.

A young person in crisis is not giving you a hard time. They are having a hard time, with the skills they have. Most of what works happens before the crisis and after it.

Start with the right question

Not "how do I stop this behavior," but "what does this young person need right now that they cannot ask for in words?" Common answers: safety, predictability, control over something, connection, rest or food, and a way out that does not cost them their dignity.

• Above the window — shouting, pacing, throwing, running. Needs safety, fewer people, less noise, fewer words.
• Below the window — silent, still, staring past you, will not move. Often mistaken for defiance. Needs patience, a lower voice, fewer questions — not more pressure.
• Reasoning and consequences require the part of the brain that is offline during escalation. Teach at baseline, never at the peak.

Prevention is the intervention

• Relationship in the bank: non-demand time on ordinary days is what gets spent on hard ones.
• Predictability: known routines, advance notice, countdowns before transitions.
• Environment: noise, crowding, heat and hunger raise everyone's baseline. A quiet corner offered before a crisis, not as a punishment during one.
• Real control: genuine choices all day. A youth with control over small things fights less for control over big ones.
• Individual early signs, written down and shared at handover — goes quiet, jiggles a leg, puts a hood up.

Regulate yourself first

Your volume, pace and posture set the ceiling for theirs. Exhale longer than you inhale, drop your shoulders, unclench your hands, slow your speech. Know your own hook — being defied, laughed at, or called a name. Tagging out is a sign of competence: "I'm going to get Marcus."

Body and voice

• Space — at least an arm's length, further as arousal rises. Never corner a youth or block the only exit.
• Stance — angled rather than squared up, hands open and visible, at or below their eye level where it is safe.
• Voice — lower your volume below theirs, slow down, drop your pitch, and leave three to five seconds of silence.
• Audience — move the other young people out, not the escalated one.

What to say — and what not to

• Say — "I can see you're really angry." "I'm not going anywhere." "You don't have to talk; I'll sit here." "What do you need right now?" "I got that wrong — let me try again."
• Avoid — "Calm down." "You're being ridiculous." "Why are you doing this?" "I'm not going to tell you again." Threats you cannot keep, sarcasm, and debating who started it.

A limit that works

One sentence. Say what to do, not what to stop — "feet on the floor" beats "stop kicking." Offer two options you can both live with. State the natural consequence once, calmly. Then stop talking for five to ten seconds; repeating the limit turns it into an argument. Follow through exactly, without adding punishment for the delay.

When safety is at risk

• Ask first: is anyone in danger right now, or am I in a power struggle? If it is a power struggle, step back and slow down.
• Call for a second staff member early, at the first signs of escalation — not at the peak.
• Prohibited in every circumstance: any restraint that restricts breathing, prone restraint, seclusion as punishment, corporal punishment, withholding food, water, sleep or family contact, and threats or humiliation.

Afterward

• Repair before you correct. Wait until the youth is regulated — often hours later — then reconnect with something ordinary before problem-solving.
• Own your part: "I raised my voice, and that wasn't fair to you." Adults who repair teach repair.
• Debrief the team within 24 hours, starting with what went well. A debrief that becomes a performance review produces underreporting within weeks.
• Document facts, times and quotes — never motives or labels.

These are children first — resourceful, often carrying a great deal, and rebuilding a family they may barely know. Release is the beginning of the adjustment, not the end of it.

Post-release services at a glance

• Level One — brief virtual check-ins at roughly 7, 14 and 30 days after release: safety, school enrollment, awareness of court dates.
• Level Two — case management with monthly in-person visits for about six months. Initial contact within 2 business days; first in-person visit within 14 business days; in-person contact at least every 90 days.
• Level Three — intensive engagement, weekly in-person visits for roughly 45–60 days, then potentially monthly. First visit within 7 business days.
• Closure — at the child's 18th birthday, or on grant of lawful status, voluntary departure, or a removal order.

Per the ORR Unaccompanied Children Bureau Policy Guide, Section 6. Confirm against the current guide before delivering.

How we show up

• Never use a child as the interpreter for their own case — and never a sibling, neighbor, or the sponsor's employer. Identify the preferred language at first contact, including indigenous languages such as Mam, K'iche' or Q'eqchi', and record it.
• Do not collect the trauma history. Notice functioning, offer stability, and connect the child with a clinician who can go there safely. Repeated retelling to untrained adults causes harm without benefit.
• Ask how this family does things — meals, sleep, discipline, who decides — instead of assuming a country is a culture. Faith, food, music and language are protective resources.
• Distress often shows in the body first: stomachaches, headaches, sleep problems, hypervigilance, falling grades, withdrawal.

The first ninety days

• School — every child has the right to enroll in public school regardless of immigration status, and schools may not require immigration documents or a Social Security number. Enroll promptly and request an English learner assessment.
• Health — a medical home, immunizations, dental and vision, and follow-up on anything identified in care.
• Legal — connect to counsel early; make sure the family knows the court date and the obligation to update their address. Share information; never give legal advice.
• Belonging — sport, music, faith community, a mentor. Connection outside the household is protective and is the first thing dropped when the schedule is full.
• Work and money — older youth often need to work and may be sending money home. Discuss school obligations, child labor limits, and any debt owed for the journey.
• A referral is not a service until you have confirmed the family reached it. Record the confirmation.

Reunification after years apart

• The first weeks are usually a honeymoon — relief and best behavior on both sides. Do not close a case during it.
• Then comes the reckoning: grief and anger at years missed, a parent who feels like a stranger, a child who does not obey. This is normal, and it is when families most need us.
• Prepare both sides in advance: "Most families find weeks four to twelve harder than the first ones. That is normal, and we will still be here."
• Discuss discipline early and without judgment: US law prohibits physical punishment that causes harm. Offer alternatives that fit the family's values.
• Say plainly at the first visit: "I am not here to take your child. Here is exactly what I am required to report."

Safety and reporting

• Watch for trafficking and labor exploitation: unexplained money, a controlling older partner, night or hazardous work, wages handed to someone else, repeated running, or work to repay a debt.
• Submit a Notification of Concern within 24 hours for trafficking, abuse, a child who has disappeared, criminal activity, fraud, or a disrupted placement.
• State mandated reporting applies in addition. When both apply, do both, and record the time of each. Immigration status never changes the duty.