The Frances Xavier Warde School takes very seriously our commitment to provide our students and faculty a safe learning environment. Our concern extends from ensuring a secure physical space, to an emotionally safe environment.

To that end, FXW thoroughly evaluates the backgrounds of our employees and regular volunteers, including:

1. Initial and annual national criminal background checks for all employees and regular volunteers
2. Fingerprint-based, criminal-history record checks with the Illinois State Police and the FBI for all new employees
3. Annual processing of all employees through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ State Central Register, a child abuse/neglect tracking system (CANTS), which includes all reports of suspected child abuse or neglect, as well as the outcome of the investigation of these reports
4. We require orientation and ongoing training for our employees and volunteers through VIRTUS, the National Catholic Retention Group’s program that thoroughly addresses the issues of boundaries between adults and students. 

MANDATED REPORTERS

All employees of FXW are “mandated reporters” as outlined in the State of Illinois’ Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act, 325 ILCS 5/1, et seq. If an FXW employee has reasonable cause to believe a student, known to them in his/her professional and official capacity, may be an abused or neglected child, s/he shall immediately report or cause a report to be made to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services by contacting the Child Abuse Hotline at 800-25-ABUSE.

STANDARDS FOR FACULTY AND STAFF INTERACTION WITH STUDENTS

FXW’s “Standards for Faculty/Staff Interaction with Students” outlines appropriate and inappropriate interaction with students under the categories of general conduct, physical contact, discipline, communications, off-campus interactions, overnight trips, relations with former students and enforcement of the standards. All FXW employees are required to sign an agreement indicating that they have read this document and are in compliance with all of its provisions.

988 MENTAL HEALTH HOTLINE IS LIVE

988 connects callers to a network of trained counselors. The 988 lifeline will connect people to the existing network of more than 200 local crisis call centers around the country. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s 10-digit number — 1-800-273-8255 — will remain active, but calls will be routed to 988. 

Students who call or text the number will be connected to a trained counselor at a crisis center closest to them. If a local crisis center is too busy to respond right away, the call gets routed to one of 16 backup centers around the country. 

Safe2Help Illinois | Helpline 

The Safe2Help program is a confidential help line. Reporters will be encouraged to provide their name and contact information, but it isn’t a requirement. Information received by Safe2Help is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reporting rules and can only be accessed under limited conditions by a court order.