Recording Personal Safety Lessons

Personal Safety Lessons (PSL) are the K–12 lessons the diocese requires parishes and schools to teach each program year. Vianney records them in Safe Environment → Personal Safety Lessons, and the records feed your Spring Audit.

Counts only — no children's names

Nothing here identifies a child. A record is a group or class, a date, and three numbers: how many were enrolled, how many attended, how many opted out. That is the whole shape of the data, and it is intentional.

What your diocese requires

The requirement, the threshold and the approved curricula all come from the diocese, not from Vianney, and appear in the banner at the top of the page. Every diocese sets its own; nothing about this is hard-coded.

For the Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis in 2026–27, the banner reads:

• Combined absences and opt-outs must stay at or below 10% of enrollment for the program year.
• At least one session per program year — two or more encouraged.
• Make-up lessons for students who were absent.
• Offer the materials to opt-out families, and keep the signed form or the email on file.
• Attendance records feed the Spring Audit.

The approved curricula for 2026–27

Per Archbishop Hebda's promulgation letter, reviewed annually. Grade bands are in the names:

• Circle of Grace (K–12)
• KidSmartz (K–5) / NetSmartz (6–12) — NCMEC
• Not Me! Super Hero Kids / Safe Sons & Daughters (K–12)
• VIRTUS Teaching Safety — Empowering God's Children (K–12)

When you open a program year, these are the choices in the Curriculum dropdown. There is an Other option for a curriculum your diocese has approved that is not on the list.

Supplemental vendors and websites

Below the banner is a collapsed list of supplemental vendors and websites — Childhelp Speak Up Be Safe, Darkness to Light, Kidpower, Stop It Now!, the NCMEC and FBI resources, and others.

The rule attached to that list is the important part: use them in addition to an approved curriculum, never instead of one. They are reference material to enrich a lesson, not a substitute for the program the diocese approved.

And before any of it is used, parish or school leadership evaluates the material for age-appropriateness and consistency with Catholic teaching. That judgment is a human one and Vianney does not make it for you.

Opening a program year

• 1. Go to Safe Environment → Personal Safety Lessons.
• 2. Under Open program year, enter the year — 2026-2027.
• 3. Choose Parish or School. A parish that runs both keeps two separate years, because they are audited separately.
• 4. Pick the curriculum from the approved list, or choose Other and type it.
• 5. Add a note if it helps, then Open program year.

Recording a lesson

Inside a year, each row is one group or class:

• Group / class — "Grade 3," "Confirmation I," "Wednesday evening." Required.
• Date of the lesson.
• Enrolled, Attended, Opted out.
• Notes — where a make-up session belongs: "two absent 10/14, made up 10/28."

Vianney computes the missed rate for you: enrolled, less attended, less opted out, as a percentage. It will not accept more attended than enrolled.

Each year shows its own totals and a missed-rate chip that turns from green to red when the year goes over the diocesan threshold — so you find out in October, not at audit time in April.

Who can do what

• Recording and editing a lesson needs verifier level or above in Safe Environment.
• Deleting a record is the coordinator's. The confirmation is explicit that only aggregate counts are being removed — no names are involved either way.
• Export CSV is available to the coordinator and to an auditor, which is how the year goes to the diocese.

Tips

• Record the lesson the week you teach it. Reconstructing three classes in April is how a good year turns into a red chip.
• Log the make-up in the notes rather than editing the attended count later, so the story of the year still reads correctly.
• Keep the opt-out family's signed form or email — the diocese asks for it, and Vianney only counts it.
• Catechist and volunteer clearance is a separate thing entirely: see Safe Environment for catechists and volunteers.