Flag on the play! Flag on the play! - Understanding Student Flags

One of our most utilized features on Building Dreams is our Flags feature. A “Flag” is a documentation of a concerning circumstance with a student. For example, if a teacher sees a 3rd grade student come to school with bruises on their arms, they can throw a Flag in Building Dreams to alert the school support team– like a school counselor, a social worker, or a dean.

Building Dreams serves as a digital infrastructure to automatically activate a team of resources to wrap a student in support to ensure their safety. The Flags feature doesn’t just stop with school adults! At Fight for Life Foundation, we believe that students serve as a critical role in the school’s culture and climate. By equipping students with tools that they feel safe using, like Flags, they can be a key component in proactive individual and school safety.

Students can throw Flags for themselves and their peers. By signing into their Building Dreams account, they can feel empowered to protect themselves and their classmates by sharing concerns with school adults.

Since the start of the 2023-2024 school year, there have been 248 Flags thrown in Building Dreams. The top Flags thrown include: No regard for values, norms, and rules (58 Flags), Verbal abuse (27 Flags), Physical abuse (26 Flags), and Displays withdrawn/depressed posture (24 Flags).

If children don’t feel safe at school and/or at home, it is nearly impossible to learn. If we want to attack academic achievement and attendance, we must address safety and basic needs. Empowering all school community members, including our students, to be a part of safety fosters an environment where learning can occur.