The Counseling Department at Delano High School would like to introduce you to our process and protocols for connecting with students and families online. What follows are the benefits and limits associated with virtual counseling.

As we all know, this is an unprecedented situation. Using technology to discuss personal and private matters is not the same as doing so face-to-face. We want to address any questions or concerns that you want to discuss, but there are limitations and exceptions to keep in mind.

First, while we will be doing everything we can on our end to keep our discussions confidential, there is always the possibility that someone else might overhear the conversation. In the worst-case scenario, someone might “hack” into the counseling session. While we don’t think this will occur, it is always a possibility. What is more likely to occur is that someone else may overhear the conversation. The most common way that this can happen is by someone leaving a door open or the area you are in is not soundproof enough to prevent voices from being heard by others around. For this reason, it is very important that you do everything possible to ensure that wherever you use your computer or phone is as “safe” as possible. Given the confidential nature of the conversations that may take place neither the staff member, nor student/family is permitted to video or audio record the counseling session.

Second, all the other basic rules of safety apply online as it does in person. As always, if anyone says something that leads the staff member to believe that the student is going to hurt her/himself, then that information must be shared with other responsible adults and administration to ensure that harm does not occur. This is called mandated reporting and all members of our student support team are mandated reporters.

We want to do everything we can to make certain that everyone understands the limits of our conversation virtually and we are as safe as possible during this time of social distancing.