Social & Emotional

Fastbridge: SAEBRS 

When: Annually in Fall, Winter, Spring

Grades: K-3

Hawthorn School District 73 focuses on the growth and learning of the whole child. This includes programming that supports students’ social and emotional development, in alignment with the Social and Emotional Learning Standards outlined by the State of Illinois. 

 Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children develop awareness and management of their emotions, set and achieve important personal and academic goals, use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships, and demonstrate decision making and responsible behaviors to achieve school and life success. In order to address the SEL standards, our elementary schools have adopted curricular, instructional, and assessment tools designed to support our students’ social-emotional development. 

 The foundational resource we use to support students’ mastery of SEL standards is Second Step. Second Step is a social and emotional learning program that includes units of study focused on empathy, emotional management, friendship skills, and problem solving. In addition to this curricular resource,  District 73 implements Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). 

 Hawthorn School District also administers a social and emotional screening tool each fall, winter, and spring. The Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener for Students (SAEBRS) is an efficient tool that educators use to help assess risk for social, emotional, and behavioral concerns. In the fourth and fifth grades, students complete the mySAEBRS screener, a 20 item rating scale that asks students to reflect upon their social, academic, and emotional behaviors. In kindergarten - third grade, teachers use the SAEBRS observation tool to screen students. Data gathered from mySAEBRS and SAEBRS is used in conjunction with teacher, parent, and student referrals to identify students in need of additional social, emotional, or behavioral support. A member of your child’s educational team will reach out to you with any questions or concerns about your child’s results. You are also welcome to contact your child’s teacher or building administrator for access to your child’s report.

Our school district is committed to providing our students with every opportunity to succeed, and there is strong research indicating that supporting students’ social and emotional development improves their readiness to learn, classroom behavior, and overall academic performance. If you have any questions regarding our social and emotional curriculum, please contact us. If you have questions about your child’s social-emotional needs, or would like to secure additional support for your child, please connect with your building principal.

Fastbridge: MySAEBRS

When: Annually in Fall, Winter, Spring

Grades: 4-8

Hawthorn School District 73 focuses on the growth and learning of the whole child. This includes programming that supports students’ social and emotional development, in alignment with the Social and Emotional Learning Standards outlined by the State of Illinois. 

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which children develop awareness and management of their emotions, set and achieve important personal and academic goals, use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships, and demonstrate decision making and responsible behaviors to achieve school and life success. At the middle school level, we embed the SEL standards within our units of instruction and facilitate an advisory course using Wayfinder that supports students’ social and emotional development. In addition to advisory, District 73 implements Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). 

Hawthorn School District also administers a social and emotional screening tool in the fall, winter, and spring. The purpose of this screening tool is to identify students’ social or emotional needs so that we may work together to proactively meet these needs. The Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener for Students (mySAEBRS) is a 20 item rating scale that asks students to reflect upon their social, academic, and emotional behaviors. Data gathered from this screener is used in conjunction with teacher, parent, and student referrals to identify students in need of additional support. A member of your child’s educational team will reach out to you with any questions or concerns about your child’s results. You are also welcome to contact your child’s advisory teacher or building administrator for access to your child’s report.

Our school district is committed to providing our students with every opportunity to succeed, and there is strong research indicating that supporting students’ social and emotional development improves their readiness to learn, classroom behavior, and overall academic performance. If you have any questions regarding the middle school advisory program, or would like to secure additional support for your child, please connect with the social worker and/or principal at your child’s school. 

Erin’s Law

When: Winter

Grades: Preschool - 8

Preschool – Grade 5 (Childhood Victories / Be Seen & Heard®)

• We partner with Childhood Victories to deliver the curriculum in developmentally appropriate, engaging formats. 
• Topics include: distinguishing safe vs. unsafe touch; recognizing unsafe secrets; how to say “no”; telling trusted adults when something doesn’t feel right; body safety rules; understanding boundary violations.

Grades 6–8 

The health curriculum in middle school builds on the foundation from earlier grades to address more advanced topics such as:
• Recognizing various forms of abuse, harassment, and boundary violations
• Identifying grooming behaviors
• Differences between abuse and harassment
• Bystander skills and how to help a friend
• Consent, respect, and healthy relationships
• Digital/online safety, peer-to-peer violence, reporting strategies

Elyssa’s Mission: Signs of Suicide (SOS)

When: Annually in November

Grades: 6-8

The adolescent years are marked by a roller-coaster ride of emotions – difficult for students, their parents and educators. It is easy to misinterpret depression as “normal” adolescent moodiness; however, depression (among the most common of mental illnesses) appears to be occurring at a much earlier age. Depression – which is treatable – is a leading risk factor for suicide. In addition, self-injury has become a growing problem among youth.

 The program aims to increase help-seeking behaviors among students concerned about themselves or a friend. Listed on SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices, the SOS program showed a reduction in self-reported suicide attempts by 40-64% in randomized control studies (Aseltine et al., 2007 & Schilling et al., 2016).

 Our goals in participating in this program are straightforward:

• To help our students understand that depression is a treatable illness
• To explain that suicide is a preventable tragedy that often occurs as a result of untreated depression
• To provide students with the training on how to identify serious depression and potential suicidality in themselves or a friend
• To impress upon youth that they can help themselves or a friend by taking the simple step of talking to a responsible adult about their concerns
• To help students know whom in the school they can turn to for help, if they need it

The SOS program is brought to us by Elyssa’s Mission, a nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention. Elyssa’s Mission is the only organization in the state of Illinois to fund, distribute and implement SOS. To get more information on suicide prevention, visit their website at www.elyssasmission.org. Make sure to view their online Parent Presentation at https://elyssasmission.org/for-parents/ for specific information on warning signs and how to keep your child safe.   We also encourage you to visit www.sossignsofsuicide.org/parent for information on warning signs for youth suicide, useful resources, and some of the key messages students will learn. 

 As part of the program, facilitators will show SOS video clips and lead students in discussion. Students will then complete a brief depression screener as well as fill out a Response Card indicating whether or not they would like to speak to an adult about themselves or a friend. The depression screening tool addresses thoughts and feelings which a parent may be unaware their child is having. This tool does not provide a diagnosis of depression, but rather alerts school staff to those students requiring further investigation. School mental health staff or a qualified community mental health partner will be available to meet with designated students; school staff will subsequently notify parents/guardians regarding any needed next steps.

Illinois Youth Survey (IYS)

When: Spring of even-numbered years (May 20, 2026)
Grade: 8

The Illinois Youth Survey (IYS) is a voluntary, anonymous self-report survey administered to 8th-grade students every two years.

Purpose and use:

• It gathers data on topics such as substance use, mental health, school climate, bullying, safety, family connections, and health behaviors.
• These data are used at the local and state levels to inform prevention programming, support services, resource allocation, and strategic planning.
• Schools receive an aggregate (group-level) report roughly 4–6 weeks after survey administration.

• The survey is anonymous: no names, student IDs, or identifying data are collected
• Individual results are not shared with staff, students, or outside entities — only aggregate data are released to the school and district.

Website

Parent/Guardian Opt-Out Letter

Parent/Guardian Opt-Out Letter - Spanish

Opt-Out Website