What is a student mental health check-in?

Creating safe digital spaces for expression vs. routine surveys and why our approach to this data collection matters

When I first created Closegap’s digital platform for student mental health check-ins, I got a lot of pushback — but not from teachers! At the beginning of 2019, people thought teachers would hate a daily check-in program, that it would add one more thing to their ever-growing to-do list, and that it would take away from classroom time or be an inconvenience. At the same time, forward-thinking educators were already creating google surveys for their students to complete every morning, while others were taking a simpler approach with physical charts on which students could stick a post-it note to indicate how they were feeling. Teachers were already trying to meet students where they are, to understand their unique challenges in order to best teach and support them. Conversations around mental health in classrooms were gaining steam… and then a global pandemic happened.

Fast forward to 2022: Daily check-ins have grown in popularity among K-12 schools as the pandemic opened our collective eyes to the dire mental health issues that our youth face today.

Traditional “surveys” had already been around, meant to measure a student’s mental health at a point in time and traditionally administered a couple of times a year — and somehow that’s supposed to give educators enough information to support students on a daily basis throughout the school year? Fast forward to 2022: Daily check-ins have grown in popularity among K-12 schools as the pandemic opened our collective eyes to the dire mental health issues that our youth face today. Instead of students answering questions within a quarterly survey, they express their emotions and share their needs within a fun, daily check-in with the knowledge that they’ll be followed up with by a trusted adult should they share a need or concern.

Over 3 Million check-ins have been completed on Closegap’s platform across thousands of schools in all 50 states and within 25 countries worldwide. We’ve received countless pieces of feedback on why Closegap’s check-in is such a game-changer for students and schools. We’re trying something different — not moving fast and breaking things, but taking a softer approach to safe digital spaces for self-discovery in a way that scales easily at a school district’s preferred pace. Kinda incredible, huh?

So what exactly is a mental health check-in?

A check-in is not a survey. We’re not trying to simply capture data to be analyzed by someone later; we’re trying to create a safe digital space where students feel comfortable sharing. You can’t give students (especially high schoolers) a long list of lame questions they don’t want to answer and expect to get back actionable information. If you want students to feel comfortable sharing earnest, sometimes difficult emotions — the real stuff — you’ve got to create the right sort of space for that to occur.

We’re bridging the gap between students who want help and teachers who want to provide it. It’s just never been this easy before.

The experience matters. A mental health check-in must be engaging, developmentally appropriate, and a space that belongs to the student. Students have to want to be there, and it takes more than a sheet of paper with some boxes to tick to get them interested. With Closegap’s check-ins, students report trouble at home, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and eating disorders — which educators and administrators are then able to provide appropriate support for. We’re bridging the gap between students who want help and teachers who want to provide it. It’s just never been this easy before. We believe students report these things because we’ve created a safe, supportive environment for them to do so.

The Ethos That Drives Closegap

What are we paying unique attention to with a digital check-in platform that a simple survey isn’t able to?

• Meeting students where they’re at — Creating an engaging digital space means utilizing design and language that is natural. I first created Closegap’s check-in system with the intention of giving students something they don’t all get: a good morning, a glad you’re here, a welcome to school. It was important to me to make sure that the check-in experience was nurturing, right from the start. That ethos has always been the most important and distinct part of the Closegap check-in.
• Keeping an eye on the time — Class time is limited! A daily mental health check-in should be the minimum viable experience that students complete so that (a) their educators can support their unique needs throughout the day and (b) they get the opportunity for a moment of reflection and self-regulation. It should be thorough enough to capture sufficient information so that support can be offered, but not so long that it takes away from precious classroom time.
• Following-up is a must — If you’re going to ask (or require) students to share — and they will — there must be an adult on the other end ready to offer support. It’s dangerous to dangle the promise of intervention. Support systems were baked into Closegap from day one. If a student requests to speak with an adult or communicates uncomfortable emotions, they need (and deserve) a follow-up. Check-ins can’t merely be about “collecting data”, they should be a way to get closer to students.
• Using technology for connection — We can do amazing things with technology, but some things are best left to 1:1 human interaction. Closegap increases student-teacher engagement on a personal level; for a student facing a challenging day, simply checking in and completing a self-guided, evidence-based activity might be enough for them to feel better. For other students, a check-in creates an opportunity to connect with a teacher, a school counselor, or a school psychologist. No technology will be able to fill that important human role, but it can certainly bridge the gap. Knowing that a trusted adult can step in when you need them changes the school experience. It becomes more empathetic and more personal. And many kids need that.
• Check-ins should lead to intervention — Intervening with individual students after uncomfortable check-ins is paramount. Likewise, check-ins should also enable staff to intervene on class, grade, school, and district levels. If a classroom consistently checks in with low energy at the start of the school day, a teacher can introduce a short physical activity to kick off the day. If students are reporting consistent worry, systemic changes can be put in place. A school in New York found that a majority of their students were struggling with food insecurity after implementing Closegap. They set up a food pantry to improve their students’ access to food. Another Closegap school in the midwest found most of their students struggling with sleep so they implemented a successful schoolwide sleep hygiene competition!

That’s the beauty of daily mental-health check-ins. You can uncover the specific needs of your students and address them effectively, efficiently, and successfully. It’s 2022 — let’s move past the “twice a year” paper survey and embrace smarter, easier systems for improving mental health in our K-12 schools. We owe it to students — and educators — to make life a little bit easier every day.

If you’re passionate about K-12 education and student mental health, check out what we’re up to at Closegap.org!