Student Care Team Referral FAQ

Anyone who is concerned about a student's behavior and/or wellbeing should make a referral to the Student Care Team. This includes students, parents, faculty and staff, and other community members. Reporting is the most critical step toward intervention.

To make a referral, complete and submit the online Referral Form. You will be asked for your contact information and a description of the incident, behaviors, observations that prompted the referral.

Public Safety is the first-line contact for urgent matters. Call: 212-772-4444.

You do not have to make this determination - our team will do it for you. We are committed to promoting a culture of support and the most critical step is your referral. Following receipt of a referral, we consider its content, as well as other information we may have received about the student to determine how to proceed. While the content of any single referral may seem benign, multiple referrals about an individual student would raise our concern and may result in our wanting to meet with a student – in succession or over time – might indicate an elevated and/or persistent level of distress that would warrant outreach from the SCT.

If an alternate campus resource is more appropriate, the Student Care Team may attempt to mobilize outreach to the student from another unit (e.g. Advising) or may suggest you refer a student to a particular resource, depending on the resource to which the student should be referred. Generally, behaviors/expressions that warrant a Student Care Team referral are those that are troubling, pose a threat to safety, and/or indicate a significant degree of emotional distress.

The primary purpose of the Student Care Team is proactive early intervention to help students who are in crisis or distress, or demonstrate behavior that is cause for concern. When you refer a student to the Student Care Team, you are supporting our goal to identify and assist students who are struggling. The Student Care Team reviews the information contained in your referral and, after assessing the degree of urgency, will determine the appropriate intervention.

Your referral may result in our initiating contact with the student to offer support, assistance, and referral to other campus resources. When members of the Student Care Team meet or speak with a student, we discuss the reason for the referral and cause for concern, as well as the assistance that is available: we offer support, advice, recommendations, feedback - all designed to address the concern. In most cases, we encourage students to utilize the various support services that are available (e.g. Counseling & Wellness Services, Academic Advising, AccessABILITY). In cases where students display disruptive or inappropriate behaviors which affect the learning environment, the Student Care Team will engage students in a discussion around these behaviors, and how best we can help. 

In other cases, our intervention may be in the form of consultation with the referral source. Not every student referred to the Student Care Team will meet or speak with a member of the Team immediately following a referral. In addition to offering support and assistance to students, the Student Care Team offers consultation and support to the campus community. There are situations in which the Team will encourage the referral source, themselves, to initiate a discussion with the student about their concern and recommend resources to the student directly. The Team offers guidance on how to engage and interact with students, suggestions toward problem-solving and conflict resolution, and classroom management techniques for addressing concerns directly. If the concern continues or elevates despite these efforts, the Student Care Team may determine that outreach by a team member may be beneficial.

Referring your concerns to the Student Care Team ensures a coordinated response, and allows the Team to obtain a broad view of a student's behavior/wellbeing, and identify patterns of concerning behavior that may suggest the need for intervention. Members of the campus community have crucial information about students at risk, or those vulnerable to risk. The Student Care Team serves as the centralized resource to promote a flow of information such that the Team can detect patterns not seen by the individual observer, and mobilize to offer assistance.

We also encourage you to suggest to a student that they visit Counseling & Wellness Services if you are concerned about a student’s wellbeing. Counselors are also available to consult with you if you would like to discuss a student but, other than in emergency situations, Counselors do not “cold-call” or initiate individual outreach to students – it is the Student Care Team that will do so in the setting of an expressed concern. 

The success of the Student Care Team relies heavily on Team composition. It is critical to the operation and function of the Team that membership is multidisciplinary and represents departments/areas from across the college. The multidisciplinary membership supports integrated processes, effective coordination and collaboration, and timely and balanced response. These Team members contribute their expertise to help assess risk, navigate policy and procedures, and offer wraparound support to students in distress, and all operate from a collaborative, preventive, and student-centered perspective. 

The following are examples of behavior/observations appropriate for a Student Care Team referral:

• Extended absence from class by a typically engaged student
• Written work with troubling themes or references
• Verbal or written threats made by a student toward another
• Written or verbal expressions related to suicide/homicide
• Expressions of hopelessness, helplessness, significant depression/anxiety
• Unusual or erratic behavior in class
• Other actions/indicators of distress which cause alarm or call into question the safety of the student or others

Yes. If you are aware of behavior similar to what is outlined above or have witnessed an incident involving a friend or classmate that concerns you, fill out the Referral Form and the Team will follow up with the concern.

The overwhelming majority of referrals to the Student Care Team are not a result of threatening behavior but of concern about a student’s functioning or well-being.

The College has an obligation to prevent disruptive students from interfering with faculty's ability to teach and the students’ right to learn. It is within a faculty member’s/instructor’s right to ask a student to refrain from certain behaviors in the classroom or, when necessary, ask a disruptive student to leave the classroom.

The Student Care Team is available to consult about behavior that poses a disruption in the class or elsewhere in the community and offer assistance and support (e.g., advice on engaging student in a discussion, classroom management techniques, limit-setting), and will advise if the referral is more appropriately directed to the Office of Student Conduct.