The school counselor route
A school counselor sees your child in a setting you do not, can often start support without a referral or a cost, and can quietly tell teachers that something is going on so a difficult month is not treated as misbehavior. One email starts it. This is the most underused option available to a worried parent.
If you need help now
Call 911 if someone is unresponsive or badly hurt. Call or text 988 for thoughts of suicide or self harm. Both are free and open all day and night. All crisis resources
What to put in the email
Short is better. What you have noticed, roughly when it started, and a question: have you seen anything at school.
You are not asking for a diagnosis or a plan. You are asking someone who sees your child for six hours a day to look.
What happens next
Practice varies by district. Commonly the counselor will talk to your child, sometimes without saying that you got in touch, and will come back to you with what they saw.
Ask what they can offer directly, what needs a referral, and what they are obliged to pass on. That last question is worth asking early rather than discovering later.
If your child does not want the school involved
This is a real objection and worth taking seriously rather than overriding. Being discussed by adults is one of the things adolescents find hardest.
A middle route that often works: tell them you are going to email, tell them roughly what you will say, and let them add or remove something from it.
Three different kinds of help
These are separate on purpose. A parent looking for clinical help should never arrive in a legal intake queue by accident.
Getting help
A family doctor first, the school counselor second, a therapist third. The first two are faster and cheaper, and both can refer you onward.
Finding helpWe do not provide treatment and take no payment from anyone who does.
The lawsuits
How the claims work, what has to be shown, and why the deadlines are different for a child. This comes second to getting your child care, and that is not a formality.
How the lawsuits workContacting us does not create an attorney client relationship, and what you send is not confidential or privileged.
Reporting and resources
Reporting an image or an adult, what a school can actually do, and the organizations worth your time.
ResourcesNobody pays to be listed and listing is not endorsement.