Tool development study demonstrates high feasibility of an audit checklist for educational institutions, suggesting improved compliance with institutional mental health guidelines.
Key Points
To develop and pretest an objective, structured audit checklist for assessing mental health support systems in educational institutions based on mandated standards.
Reviewed Supreme Court of India and international mental health guidelines to identify core domains and formulate measurable, document-verified indicators.
Iteratively refined checklist items through consultations with stakeholders, including school principals, program officers, and mental health professionals.
Pretested item clarity, interpretability, and administrative feasibility using cognitive interviewing in educational institutions (n = 10).
Identified 13 core domains and 2 context-specific domains to establish standardized scoring criteria and document-based verification methods.
Cognitive pretesting across educational institutions (n = 10) demonstrated that checklist items were well understood, acceptable, and feasible for real-world administration.