Crisis Response Support Team

Overview

The Crisis Response Support Team (CRST) offers support to Utah Local Education Agencies (LEAs) during various crises, including student or staff deaths, traumatic events, or mental health emergencies. We provide resources, tools, consultation, and direct response support to assist Utah school districts in crisis prevention, preparedness, intervention, response, and recovery. Our assistance is customized to the specific needs and requests of each LEA.

How we can Help:

The CRST can provide on-site crisis response support by:

Assisting LEAs in identifying their needs.
Guiding the LEA lead through the response process.
Offering practical help, such as covering classrooms or duties for teachers (in partnership with familiar staff members).
Responding to media inquiries using safe messaging guidelines.

Additionally, we offer digital resources, answer questions, and provide technical support. Professional learning sessions on crisis response are also available upon request.

The CRST complements, rather than replaces, an LEA's existing response protocols, ensuring best practices, rules, and laws are followed during and after a crisis event.

What We DO:

Provide professional learning to LEAs on crisis response.
Offer support for crisis responses at LEAs when requested.
Assist LEAs with duties during a crisis response, as requested.
Conduct debriefs and follow-ups after each crisis to identify areas for improvement in the LEA/school's crisis response.
Provide ongoing support to LEAs to help staff after a crisis.
Offer materials and training for schools to facilitate grief support groups for secondary students.

What We Do Not Do:

We are not emergency responders. In an emergency, please contact 911.
We are not the team to call in an active threat situation. If there is an active threat, call 911 and follow law enforcement directions.
We are not clinical social workers. We cannot provide clinical support to LEAs but can connect you with providers who do.
We do not respond to individuals in crisis. For individual crises, please contact 988 or SafeUT.
We are not the USBE complaint hotline. For complaints, please contact (801) 538-7813 or email audit@schools.utah.gov.

Contact Us:

For immediate assistance during a school or community crisis, please call 801-538-7650.

For resources, consultation, and non-immediate needs, you can email us at usbecrisissupport@schools.utah.gov.

Healing Our Schools After a Loss Toolkit

The Healing Our Schools After a Loss Toolkit assists Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in implementing a coordinated response to the death of a student, staff, or community member. The toolkit includes information and resources to help the school community cope and reduce further risk.

Highlights within the toolkit include:

Information regarding memorialization, milestones, and anniversaries of the event
A comprehensive day to day checklist for response
Templates for releasing notification letters to students, parents, and fellow educators

This toolkit has an accompanying Canvas course that will be available soon.