***This is the fourth blog post in a continuing series detailing the launch of a new district EBD center housed inside a traditional high school.

Yep. I just quoted The Matrix. Because–Lord knows–engaging in this line of work will, most surely, open your eyes to all sorts of alternate realities. We may be at school, but it’s a whole other universe than the traditional school program.

Because I work with a population of young people who require a high level of supervision and may require quick access to other information, I’m borderline-obsessive about my supervision matrix. As I’ve gained more experience working with this population, I’ve added more and more small, helpful details to this lifesaving document in order to keep as much necessary information organized and accessible for all members of the team.

Most schools post a master schedule of some sort that details classes, teachers, and room numbers by hour. This is a student-centered, highly-detailed version of that master schedule.

Here’s a list of information included on my supervision matrix:

1. The building schedule with the times of each class period and lunch.
2. The names of each student and their student ID numbers.
3. The name of the case manager for each student.
4. The name of the class, setting (special education, co-taught, or gen-ed) for each class, the room number for each class, the phone extension for each class, the teacher for each class, and the assigned behavior support staff for each class
5. Family contact information for each student: parent/guardian names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses
6. Outside agency information for each student (therapists, case workers, etc.–make sure you get appropriate communication releases signed!): name of agency worker, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses
7. Special instructions for each kid–a VERY short description of the most essential information about that student.
8. A photo of each student
9. Transportation information for each student, such as whether he/she walks, rides a bus, or is driven to school, whether the student can enter the building on his/her own or needs an escort, and (this is important!) BUS NUMBERS where applicable.
10. Students’ locker numbers and combinations. I don’t routinely go snooping through lockers. I like to have the information at the ready in case a student has to leave the building and we need to get his/her things gathered quickly, such as when a student is leaving school for a psychiatric evaluation.
11. Times when students take medication at the Nurse’s office.

It may seem like a LOT of information, but when situations escalate quickly, having things summarized succinctly and clearly makes the difference between stumbling around wasting time and handling things smoothly.

Each member of our team (paraprofessionals, teachers, counselors, social workers, administrators, SRO) is provided with access to the supervision matrix. I like to share a digital copy via Google docs, so everyone can have the most up-to-date information available at all times–plans can change quickly, and sometimes daily, with the kids, and photocopies are inefficient.

While creating something like this is a substantial time investment, it’ll buy you a lot of peace-of-mind when complicated situations arise with your students.