Referrals give every teacher, coach, and staff member a fast, structured way to flag a student concern and route it to exactly the right person. When the out-of-the-box options don't quite fit how your team works, you can build a custom template: your own form, your own follow-up steps, and your own routing.
This article walks Sysadmins and Managers through the full custom referral setup, from building the form all the way to publishing it for staff.
Why use a custom template?
Ask exactly what you need: build the form around your team's intake questions instead of a generic set.
Guide the response: pre-load follow-up notes so the practitioner has a clear next-step workflow the moment a referral lands.
Show only what matters: staff see just the intake form, while your internal follow-up steps stay behind the scenes.
Keep everything consistent: edits to the template flow through to every active note and encounter using it.
Part 1: Build the referral form
The referral form is an encounter template that surfaces to the portal. This is what your staff will actually fill out.
Go to Forms and Templates.
Use the filter funnel to check whether a referral template already exists for your instance. If there's an existing template that fits (for example, a Counselor Referral), you can reuse it. Otherwise, click New Template at the top.
Give your template a name.
Set the visibility. We recommend setting it to all users with the role so everyone who needs it can see this template.
Click Add Question, then choose an Answer Type. You can use yes/no questions, drop-downs, free text fields, and more.
Click Save to add each question to the form. Repeat until you've included every field you want on the referral.
đĄ Tip: The student's name, grade level, and date of birth are recorded automatically with every referral, so there's no need to ask for them. Start with the content of the referral instead.
đĄ Tip: To include instructions on the form, add a text block answer type and type your guidance directly into it.
Make a field required
If a question must be answered before the referral can be submitted, mark it as required when you add or edit it.
Add conditional logic
You can show a field only when a previous answer calls for it.
On the question you want to show conditionally, click Add Conditions.
Select the field the condition depends on (for example, a yes/no question asking whether any steps have been taken with the student so far).
Set the answer that triggers it. In this example, if the staff member answers Yes, a Please share the steps free text field appears so they can add detail.
Part 2: Create the note template
Because this is a custom encounter, you'll build a note template next and then attach your form to it.
On the left-hand side of the page, click Encounters and Templates.
Create a new note template.
Enter a Title. This is what the user sees, and it's what gets assigned to the encounter once it's created. You can set a different title here if you'd like the encounter to be called something else.
Choose which role the note surfaces to (for example, the Counselor role). If a referral template will be used across your whole student support team, you can create it for multiple teams at once.
Open the note and, under Forms, add the referral form you built in Part 1 as the default form for this template.
Part 3: Build the encounter template
Now turn that note into an encounter, and layer in any follow-up steps your team takes after a referral arrives.
Under Encounters and Templates, click Create Encounter Template.
Use the same template and default title.
Uncheck any roles that don't apply and keep the role that owns this referral (for example, Counselor), then click Confirm.
Click Add Default Note and search for the note you created in Part 2. Your encounter now contains that note.
Add follow-up steps (optional)
In referrals, the user only ever sees the first note. If your team follows the same process each time a referral comes in, you can add more default notes as follow-up steps. These are not visible to the person completing the referral.
For example, after a referral comes in you might add:
A faculty consult to reach out to the student's teacher
A quick note to record a direct meeting with the student
A guardian consult for the parent or guardian conversation
All of these are pre-built and ready, but only the first note shows to the person submitting the referral.
Offer additional available notes (optional)
If you want notes that can be added but aren't required, edit the template and add them as available notes. These might include an assessment such as the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, other note types, or anything else you'd like to offer the person actioning the referral after it's submitted.
đĄ Tip: Editing a template translates to every active note and encounter already using it, so you can refine as you go.
Preview your work
Because this is a new encounter, refresh your browser first. Your new referral encounter will appear at the bottom of your list. Opening it, you'll see it starts with the referral form, with your follow-up steps (such as the faculty consult, quick note, and guardian consult) listed on the left.
To make changes later, edit the encounter on the Templates page, or edit the form itself under Forms and Templates.
When you're done previewing, archive the test encounter before moving on.
Part 4: Configure the referral
With the encounter built, the last step is to publish it as a referral option.
Go to Settings â Referral Configuration.
Click Add New.
Enter a Title. This displays to you as a user and to teachers and faculty in the portal (for example, "Counseling Referral").
Set the Person Roles. These come from your SIS and control who can submit the referral. Remove any roles that shouldn't have access (for example, coaches), or leave them all selected.
Set the User Role. This is who receives the referral once it's completed (for example, Counselor).
Choose the Encounter Template you built for this custom referral.
(Optional) Add a Description. This displays to the person completing the referral.
Click Confirm.
Your new referral now appears at the bottom of the list. To change anything later, slide the bar over and click Edit.
Part 5: What staff see in the Faculty Portal
Once published, here's the experience for the teacher or staff member submitting a referral:
In the August Schools portal, they click Create Referral and see your referral listed, along with any others created for their teams. Your referral description shows here as instructions.
They click Create Referral and search for the student they want to refer.
Under Reason for Referral, they see the options you set up. You can list multiple options here if you want to offer choices by referral type or response.
They complete the custom form you built and submit.
Part 6: Accept referrals and set visibility
Accepting a referral
Users with the configured role will find a Referrals widget on their board. It shows who referred the student, how long ago, and which template was selected. Clicking Accept opens the encounter and marks it as accepted.
The person who submitted the referral can see their past referrals and each one's current status (for example, waiting or accepted).
Controlling visibility
To change how much detail teachers and staff can see, go to Settings â Referral Configuration and open the Visibility tab.
Option | What staff can see |
Own referrals only (Standard) | Only the referrals they submitted themselves |
Basic details | Basic information for all students they're associated with |
Full details | Full details for all referrals |
â ď¸ Note: Visibility applies to every team using referrals, not just your team's referrals. Choose the level that fits your whole school community.
Best practices & tips
Skip the demographics: student name, grade, and date of birth are captured automatically, so use your form for the content of the referral instead.
Pre-load your follow-up steps: adding default notes for consults and check-ins turns each referral into a ready-made workflow for the practitioner.
Start with "Own referrals only": increase visibility only if your team has a clear need for it, and remember it affects all teams.
Edit in place: changes to a template flow through to active notes and encounters, so you can refine your referral over time.
If you have questions or run into anything, reach out to us using the question mark in the upper right-hand corner.