Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is SchoolTipline?
2. What is the purpose of SchoolTipline?
3. Why does my school need SchoolTipline?
4. What types of things can I report?
5. Why should I report?
6. Can a report be traced back to me?
7. Who gets the reports?
8. How quickly will the school receive my report?
9. Can I follow up to see what is being done about my report?
10. If there are follow up questions from my school, what happens?
11. Am I required to remain anonymous?
12. How is this anonymous?
13. What about false/frivolous reports or report bullying?
What is SchoolTipline?
SchoolTipline is a third party service that specializes in facilitating the anonymous disclosure of information regarding activities or behavior within the school as well as how students or parents feel about their school. This confidential, anonymous system provides a way to report concerns and problems over the Internet.
What is the purpose of SchoolTipline?
SchoolTipline.com was created to break the code or culture of silence that exists in schools. It facilitates the sharing of safety information between students, parents, administrators, staff, counselors, and safety officers. Students often fail to report because they don’t feel anonymous and because they don’t know where or how to report. SchoolTipline.com is a system that makes students feel safe and comfortable reporting issues and allows administrators to respond quickly and effectively.
Why does my school need SchoolTipline.com?
SchoolTipline.com gives students a safe and anonymous way to report to their school. Administrators can also easily use the system to track reports and incidents. SchoolTipline.com is a powerful tool for students, administrators, and parents to gather important information from surveys, online reports, and text messages and thus prevent and resolve school safety issues.
What types of things can I report?
Reports on SchoolTipline.com can be about anything from bullying to drugs to sexual harassment, discrimination, verbal harassment, threats, vandalism or other non emergency but dangerous behavior. To see which reports your school would like to receive, visit your school’s website. Once on that website, click on “Submit a Report” and read through the following page of information. Once you have read the privacy policy and agreed to the terms of use, the system will take you to the first page to submit a report. Click on the drop-down box for the Report Type, and it will show you the types of events and problems you can report to your school.
Why should I report?
By submitting a report, you help administrators to become more aware of incidents happening in your school. They can’t fix problems if they don’t know about them. By reporting, you make your school a better and safer place to be.
Can a report be traced back to me?
No. By sending information through either the Web site or the hotline, your identity and anonymity is protected unless you choose to share your personal information.
Who gets the reports?
Reports are only received by school administrators and specified school personnel. If you are reporting over the Web, you can choose who you want to receive your report. These people are called report managers, and they can be school counselors, administrators or teachers. Account managers can see all reports.
How quickly will the school receive my report?
Once a report has been submitted through the Web site, the school administrators or designated school staff will receive an e-mail notification immediately.
Can I follow up to see what is being done about my report?
Go to www.SchoolTipline.com and click on the “Follow Up” tab, and proceed by typing in the Report ID you received when you submitted your report. If it is a more urgent matter, please follow up within 24-48 hrs of making the report.
If there are follow-up questions from my school, what happens?
The follow-up responses will be handled in the same confidential and anonymous manner as the first report submission. SchoolTipline acts as an independent third party and will not reveal your personal identity unless you choose to allow it. See our Terms and Conditions for more information.
How is this anonymous?
We are an independent third party that takes great efforts to maintain anonymity if the reporter chooses to be anonymous. When reporting over the Web, we recommend you leave your e-mail address with our SchoolTipline system. Doing so will allow us to send messages directly to your inbox and notify you of report status and follow up questions. If you don’t leave your e-mail address, you will will have to use the assigned Case ID to follow up manually at SchoolTipline.com.
To keep you anonymous during SMS reporting, our system screens out your phone number when you send messages to school administrators. To ensure anonymity, we recommend not sending any identifying information in your reports. Also remember that if the the system is misused or you report illegal or life-threatening emergencies, your report will be investigated and you will lose the privilege of anonymity.
Am I required to remain anonymous?
When submitting a report, you can select to remain anonymous or not. You can choose to remain completely anonymous or you can choose to disclose your name to your school. We see that parents typically leave their name and students choose to remain anonymous about 80 percent of the time.
What about false/frivolous reports or report bullying?
SchoolTipline takes great measure with cutting edge technology to eliminate and prevent frivolous reporting. We’ve put several checks in place to deter false reporting and if it was to happen, being a trusted third party, we can maintain anonymity while blocking reporters who may or may have sent a frivolous report. Here are a few of the measure we have in place:
If a school had an issue with this they could upgrade to login reporting from open reporting. This allows schooltipline to know the student ID’s and names. While SchoolTipline does not release reporters names for non emergency frivolous reporting we can block those users from the system.
Before reporting reporters agree not to report emergencies or false reports.
SchoolTipline reserves the right to trace IP addresses, block, delete user accounts or look up the users ID if there is abuse or if the tip is life threatening.
SchoolTipline works as an ice breaker that fosters open communication and builds trust with students. When a report comes in school officials follow up and ask for details. Example - school administrator says “Can you give me more details before I talk to the student?” or “I can give this student a warning and keep an eye on the situation or you can come forward and I can give him a suspension. Let me know if we can talk about this in person?”
Even with the open reporting system school administrators have said “false or frivolous reporting” has not been a problem. (contact for references)
Back to the top >>
Back to the top >>