As a site leader you are responsible for all actions. Anyone at your school can read these guidelines. If we say ‘you’ or ‘your’, we mean the school’s site leader. Any actions must be delegated and guided by the site leader.

Any school can use the guidelines. This includes high school, primary school and preschool.

You are responsible for how your school responds to a student’s sudden death. Although these guidelines are open for anyone to use, it’s your role to manage the response. You will work with:

• your school’s emergency response team
• the SWISS team or Be You – headspace
• Employee Psychologicy Services 08 8226 0744 – for Government schools.

Your school’s emergency response team must review these guidelines as soon as they hear about a student’s death.

Some schools might have different names for the team that responds to a student’s death. It might be:

• an emergency response team
• a critical incident team
• the leadership team.

You must read all of these guidelines and in order.

If you read this a few days after a student’s death, you need to check the whole timeline. Do not use only one part. For example, if you find out after the school holidays, check everything from immediate to later.

Do not use the term ‘suicide’

You should not refer to a student’s death as a suicide. Use the 'sudden death’. This includes when you communicate with your school and the community.

Although the cause of death might seem obvious, in a reportable case only the Coroner can determine how someone died. This happens after the Coroner completes their investigation.