Navigating Behavioral Health Screenings in Hall County School System: A Parent's Guide to Opting Out of DSG and Other Treatments

The Hall County School System administers mental and behavioral health screenings across elementary, middle, and high schools. These assessments operate on a passive permission model, meaning your child is automatically opted in unless you pro-actively submit a refusal.

The school district uses these screeners to flag students for Tier 2 interventions, specifically the proprietary Dialectical Skills Groups (DSG) program. The school does not have autonomy over your children, their lives, healthcare, or mental health. As a parent, you have full authority over your child's mental health care. Here is exactly what these screeners evaluate, the official school records confirming how they work, and the concrete steps you can take to opt your child out completely.

The Hall County School System keeps claiming this is not therapy, but all the documents we have from Open Record Requests (ORR) have it described as therapy.

Grade-Level Breakdown of Screeners

The school district utilizes different behavioral tracking tools depending on your child's age group. According to records fulfilled by the school's Open Records Request (ORR) coordinator, the system functions as follows:

🏫 Elementary School: SRSS-IE Screener

• Method: Homeroom teachers score students based on daily observation. All items are rated on a four-point Likert-type scale: 0 = never, 1 = occasionally, 2 = sometimes, 3 = frequently.
• Behaviors Rated: The tool tracks both externalizing risks (stealing; lying, cheating, sneaking; behavior problems; peer rejection; low academic achievement; negative attitude; aggressive behavior) and internalizing risks (emotionally flat; shy, withdrawn; sad, depressed; anxious; lonely).
• Alerts: A notice is sent home to parents via communications platforms two weeks prior to the screening window.

🥉 2 Week Notice - REMIND Script PBIS Middle School

• Method: A 25-item behavioral screening questionnaire tracking psychological traits over the last six months or current school year.
• Behaviors Rated: Tracks attributes across five scales: emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behavior.
• Alerts: Parents receive a two-week warning notification. The district notes that these reminders will now route through ParentSquare instead of older apps like Remind.

🎒 Middle School: Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)

🥈 Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire P or T

🎓 High School: 26-27 Behavioral Health Screener

• Method: High schools are officially transitioning away from the SDQ to a digital, high-school-specific behavioral health screener administered directly to students via Google Forms.
• Behaviors Rated: Students self-report how often they have been bothered by specific issues over the past two weeks, including nervousness, uncontrollable worry, trouble relaxing, severe irritability, trouble concentrating, and feelings of depression or hopelessness.
• Critical Questions: The screener explicitly asks students about "thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself in some way" and provides a direct checklist asking if they would like an automatic follow-up meeting with a school counselor.

The Connection to DSG (Tier 2 Therapy)

Screening data functions as a direct funnel to push flagged students into the DSG program. While the school system may refer to these as general student services or resilience coaching, DSG is classified as a Tier 2 therapeutic intervention.

• Structure: It is a 10-week curriculum pulling heavily from modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) frameworks.
• Scheduling: To minimize missing the same class repeatedly, participating students rotate through a different class period each week to attend the 10-week session.
• AUTONOMY: These programs are ran locally by school counselors, social workers, or teachers rather than external medical or psychological entities. Parents should not be forced into a system where enrollment is automatic unless they say "no."

🗂️ DSG Skills Group Permission Form Letter

Step-by-Step Instructions to Opt Out

If you want to ensure your student does not participate in behavioral tracking, data collection, or automatic placement into therapy groups, execute these actions immediately. Do not leave any doubt about where you stand:

1. Update Your Parent Portal
   Log into your Infinite Campus Parent Portal. Locate the Student Services Acknowledgement form within the back-to-school forms section. Explicitly mark your refusal and opt out of behavioral screenings and non-academic surveys. Note that the district sometimes leaves these sections unhighlighted or unlinked, so read the portal text carefully.
2. Monitor School Communications
   Keep a close watch on ParentSquare alerts. The school is required to issue alerts approximately two weeks prior to administering screeners like the SDQ or SRSS-IE. Use this window to re-verify your refusal.
3. Submit a Formal Written Refusal Letter
   Do not rely solely on digital portal checkboxes. Send a physical letter or a direct email to your child's homeroom teacher, school principal, and school counselor. State clearly, plainly, and in writing that your child is completely opted out of all non-academic surveys, behavioral screenings, questionnaires, or mental health evaluations.
4. Demand Written Confirmation
   Explicitly request a written reply or email confirmation from the school administration stating that your opt-out status has been successfully updated and noted in your child’s permanent file. Get it in writing so you have an official record.

Printable Parent Opt-Out Letter Template

Copy, paste, and customize the text below to send to your child's school administration:

[Date]

To: [Principal Name] and [School Counselor Name]
[Name of School]
Hall County School District

RE: Explicit Opt-Out of All Non-Academic Screenings, Surveys, and Evaluations

Dear Administration,

As the parent/legal guardian of [Student Full Name], currently enrolled in grade [Grade Level], I am writing to formally establish my directives regarding my child's participation in school-administered screenings. 

Pursuant to my parental rights and authority over my child’s healthcare and mental health, I hereby explicitly OPT OUT of, and withhold consent for, my child’s participation in any and all non-academic behavioral health screeners, mental health surveys, questionnaires, or evaluations administered by the school district or individual school staff. 

This directive specifically applies to, but is not limited to:
- The Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS-IE) evaluation or scoring by teachers.
- The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ / SDQ-IE).
- High School digital Behavioral Health Screeners (including Google Form screeners).
- Any evaluations used to identify or funnel students into Tier 2 interventions, such as Dialectical Skills Groups (DSG).

Please ensure that my child is not presented with these screeners, is not evaluated via behavioral tracking matrices by instructional staff, and is not pulled from academic time for these purposes. Please place a copy of this formal written refusal into my child's permanent file. 

Kindly respond to this letter via email at your earliest convenience to confirm that this opt-out directive has been successfully received, acknowledged, and implemented for the current school year.

Thank you for your cooperation and respect for my family's privacy and parental authority.

Sincerely,

[Parent/Guardian Signature]
[Parent/Guardian Printed Name]
[Phone Number]
[Email Address]

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