Florida School Toolkit for K-12 Educators to Prevent Suicide

The Florida School Toolkit for K–12 Educators to Prevent Suicide (Florida S.T.E.P.S.) carefully follows the best practices model for suicide prevention released in 2019 by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), the American School Counselor Association (ASCA), and the Trevor Foundation. Scott Poland, Ed.D., served as a key advisor in the making of the model, which can be found on the AFSP website and at afsp.org /model-school-policy-on-suicide-prevention. Additionally, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the best practices model and components of a comprehensive suicide prevention program are prevention, intervention, and postvention. Accordingly, Florida S.T.E.P.S. provides guidance on all three components.

Where Florida S.T.E.P.S. differs, however, is with its unique focus on Florida schools. With more than 300,000 students (Common Core of Data, 2019), Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools ranks as the nation’s fourth-largest school district. Other school districts in Florida, such as Union County School District, have fewer than 2,500 students. Combined, Florida boasts 74 public school districts and approximately 2,700 private schools. Florida S.T.E.P.S. is designed to assist all Florida K–12 schools, both public and private, in suicide prevention, and includes both national and Florida-related statistics and related legislation.

The Florida S.T.E.P.S. framework establishes the driving principles and guidelines of a comprehensive suicide prevention program addressing prevention, intervention, and postvention.