How Educators can Support the Emotional Health of Their Students During School Closures

Dear Educators,

We’re thinking of you.

While it’s nice to be able to sleep in a bit and have some time off, we know that most of you are feeling anxious about cramming your lesson plans for the rest of the school year into a take-home packet, completing a gigantic pile of IEPs, and worrying about how your students are doing at home and whether or not they’re going to get the meals they need each day.

We feel you. We have the same concerns.

We know that “home” is not the safest environment for every student, and with the lack of regular emotional support that students are used to getting from you and your colleagues, kids and teens are going to need some extra help during this time. Even within the safest homes, kids and teens are still going to be feeling anxious and uncertain, so more than ever, it’s essential for them to check-in with their emotions, bodies and needs.

Closegap enables students to go through a fun, daily mental health check-in where they log their emotions, somatic sensations, physical needs and much more. This information gets funneled into a dashboard that you can access in real time and use to intervene.

Closegap is the #1 distance learning tool for mental health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, you can have your students do daily check-ins at home and you’ll have all the handy information you need in your dashboard to support your students from afar.

This is what we suggest:

1. Assign a Closegap check-in every morning and every afternoon. We’d suggest 9am and 2:30pm.
2. Check your dashboard regularly. If you see a student is struggling, reach out and offer some support. If you see a student hasn’t been eating, they may need to be reminded of where to go to get meals in their community.
3. Track the check-ins of your highest need kiddos and teens, and if they’re “in the red” or have logged negative emotions for 3 or more check-ins in a row, reach out. They may need you :)
4. And finally, do a check-in yourself! Prioritize your own emotional wellbeing. If you’re in need of a new wellness app, we love Simple Habit.

As always, we have so much respect and love for you and the work you do day in and day out, and we’re here for you ❤

Learn more about Closegap here.