Overview
Referrals gives every teacher, coach, and staff member a fast, structured way to flag a student concern and route it to exactly the right person — counselor, nurse, dean, athletic trainer, and more. Before your staff can start submitting referrals, an admin needs to configure which referral types are available and how much visibility teachers have into referrals made by others.
This article walks through how to set up referral configurations and adjust visibility settings in August Schools.
💡 Referrals is an add-on feature to the August Schools package. If you're interested in adding it to your school's plan, please reach out to us at [email protected] and we'll get you set up!
Use this customizable template to create a resource for your teachers and staff on using Referrals!
Why configure referrals?
Control who refers to whom — decide which staff roles can send referrals to which practitioners
Customize the forms — choose from out-of-the-box templates or build your own
Guide your staff — add optional description text so teachers know when to use each referral type
Protect privacy — set the visibility level that's right for your school community
Part 1: Setting up referral configurations
Where to find it
Go to Settings → Instance settings → Referral configuration.
You'll see two tabs:
Configuration — where you set up referral types and their encounter templates
Visibility — where you control how much teachers can see
Understanding the fields
Each referral configuration has the following fields:
Field | What it does |
Title | An internal label for this referral type (e.g., "Referral to Counselor") |
Person role | Which staff role can submit this referral (e.g., Teachers, Coaches) |
User role | The practitioner who receives the referral (e.g., Nurse, Counselor, Dean) |
Encounter template | The form(s) the staff member will fill out when submitting |
Description (optional) | Help text shown to staff in the portal — use this to guide them on when to use this referral type |
Out-of-the-box templates
August Schools includes ready-to-use referral and shoutout templates to help you get started quickly. You can use these as-is or build your own.
💡 Tip: To create a custom form, go to Forms > Templates and build your form there. Once your form is ready, incorporate it into an Encounter Template — that encounter template is then what you select in the referral configuration.
Note that the teacher will only see the first form in the encounter. Any additional forms you include in the encounter template are available for practitioner use only, so you can add intake or follow-up forms without exposing them to the referring teacher.
Editing an existing referral configuration
Find the referral you want to update in the list.
Click Edit.
Update any fields — add or remove encounter templates, adjust the description, change role access.
Click Confirm to save.
Creating a new referral configuration
Click Add New.
Enter a Title for the referral (e.g., "Referral to Athletic Trainer").
Select the Person Role — who can submit this referral (e.g., Coaches).
Select the User Role — who receives this referral (e.g., Athletic Trainer).
Select the Encounter Template you want staff to fill out. You can add more than one to give staff options at the time of submission.
(Optional) Add a Description to guide staff on when to use this referral.
Click Confirm.
💡 Tip: The description appears in the portal as help text right below the referral button — a great place to give teachers a nudge on exactly when to use it (e.g., "Use this referral if a student is injured on the field").
Part 2: Configuring Visibility
Visibility settings control how much teachers can see when it comes to referrals submitted by other staff for students in their sections.
Go to Settings → Instance Settings → Referral configuration → Visibility to choose your school's setting.
August Schools offers three visibility options:
Option 1: Own referrals only (Default)
Teachers can only see the referrals they personally submitted. This is the most private setting and is the default. Teachers have no visibility into referrals created by other staff, even for students in their own sections.
Best for: Schools that prioritize confidentiality and want a clear separation between who submitted a referral and who can view it.
Option 2: Limited visibility
Teachers can see basic details — referral type and date — for referrals submitted about students in their sections, but cannot see the content of those referrals.
For example, a teacher can see that a colleague referred a student to the Dean on May 18th, but cannot read what the referral says.
Best for: Schools that want teachers to be aware of what's happening with their students without exposing sensitive details.
Option 3: Full visibility
Teachers can see full referral details for any student in their sections — including the date, the submitting staff member, the receiving practitioner, and the full content of the referral.
Best for: Schools that prioritize full transparency and want all faculty to stay fully informed about student support activity.
Best Practices & Tips
Start with "Own referrals only" and increase visibility only if your team has a clear need for it.
Use descriptions — even a sentence of guidance in the description field reduces confusion for your staff.
Already using a Google Form? You can recreate it in August's Form Templates. Reach out to the August team and we'll help you transfer it over.
Encounter templates are flexible — you can always add more forms to a configuration as your needs evolve.