Student Success Playbook: Early Alert

An early alert and intervention pipeline helps your team identify, route, and address early signs of academic or personal difficulty before they become barriers to your students' success.

Use this process to move from reactive problem-solving to coordinated, data-informed support. As your primary users, faculty, advisors, student success staff, and student affairs staff provide observations and insights that lead to timely outreach.

The outcome is a consistent, transparent process for capturing concerns, starting interventions, and tracking improvement.

A successful early alert system depends on these principles:

• Clarity: Define what qualifies as an alert and who takes action.

• Simplicity: Make it easy for faculty and staff to raise a concern.

• Accountability: Assign clear ownership for each alert.

• Timeliness: Set clear response and follow-up expectations.

• Transparency: Communicate outcomes to the appropriate people.

• Assessment: Review effectiveness regularly and improve the process over time.

The early alert flow follows the following pattern:

1. Student interaction

2. Form/Early alert submitted

3. Staff evaluation and intervention

4. Action taken

Step 1: Defining scope and criteria

Define the types of alerts your institution will recognize and who can submit them.

Typical alert categories include:

• Academic: Low grades, missed classes, or incomplete assignments

• Behavioral: Lack of participation, disengagement, or classroom concerns

• Personal or financial: Housing instability, food insecurity, or aid complications

• Wellness: Emotional distress, adjustment difficulties, or safety concerns

Define these expectations before you launch the process:

• Which users can raise alerts

• When and how users should submit alerts

• How your team prioritizes or triages alerts

• Which recurring indicators might be addressed before they become alerts, such as attendance patterns, missed assignments, low engagement, or unresolved resource needs

Use these criteria to support both intervention and prevention. When you identify common triggers, also consider what proactive outreach, resources, or process changes could reduce the need for an alert later.

▶️ Action item: Start by creating an early alert form

Step 2: Creating a simple submission method

Encourage consistent use by reducing friction in the submission process.

An effective early alert form should collect:

• Student name and relevant course or term information

• Type and urgency of concern

• Brief notes with context or examples

• Optional follow-up preference, such as "Notify me when resolved"

Keep the process intuitive and accessible to all faculty and staff.

▶️ Action item: Help submitters by automating form communications

Step 3: Establishing routing and ownership

After someone raises a concern, route the alert to the appropriate office or individual based on the nature of the concern.

Examples of routing logic:

Each alert should include:

• A designated owner

• A response timeframe, such as 24-48 hours

• Documentation of outreach and next steps

These expectations support accountability and create a consistent student experience.

▶️ Action item: Route alerts by creating rules or assignment lists

Step 4: Conducting outreach

The first outreach to a student sets the tone for support and trust.

Use these outreach practices:

• Respond within 24-48 hours of the alert submission.

• Use compassionate, non-punitive language.

• Offer concrete resources and next steps.

• Encourage two-way communication.

Example message:

Hi [First Name], your professor noticed you may be having a tough time in class. Let's connect to talk through any challenges and explore ways we can support you.

▶️ Action item: Support outreach by learning how to use Deliver for Student Success communications, automate form communications, and schedule appointments

Step 5: Closing the loop

After outreach and intervention, close the communication loop:

• Notify the original submitter that the concern has been addressed.

• Record the resolution and any ongoing follow-up.

• Document the case for institutional learning and reporting.

Faculty engagement increases when contributors can see that their input leads to visible action.

Step 6: Reviewing and refining

At the end of each academic term, review how well the early alert process worked.

Review these data points:

• Total number of alerts submitted

• Average response time

• Intervention completion rates

• Department participation

• Student persistence or GPA trends after intervention

• Common triggers that could be addressed earlier through advising, tutoring, communication, or other preventative support

Use this information to refine alert categories, improve routing, update communication templates, and identify ways to prevent recurring issues before they require formal alerts.

▶️ Action item: Consider expanding your process by creating an early alert workflow

Recommendations

A well-defined early alert and intervention pipeline creates a consistent, campus-wide approach to student care.

• Train faculty and staff on how and when to submit alerts.

• Acknowledge contributors who actively participate in the process.

• Promote equitable interventions across demographics and departments.

• Track communications to prevent duplicate outreach.

• Share success stories that demonstrate measurable impact.

• Review preventative opportunities so your team can reduce recurring alert triggers over time.

Ready to build an early alert process? Here's what you need

• Creating a Form

• Automated Form Communications

• Rules Overview

• Queries Overview

• Deliver Overview for Student Success

• Assignment Lists

• Appointment Scheduling

• Creating Workflows

• Tasks (optional)