The why behind the mood. Reasons in Insights

Pulse has always shown how many students are struggling. It now shows why. without ever pointing at a student.

What changed

• A reason on the check-in. When a student picks the "wobbling" face on their weekly check-in, First Six asks one gentle, optional follow-up. what's weighing on you most right now?. with six choices drawn from the retention research (belonging, academics, money, expectations, wellbeing, or something else). It's skippable, appears at most once a week, and doubles as a nudge toward the right support. See the weekly check-in.
• "What's weighing on students" in Insights. The Pulse report now shows the cohort-total reason breakdown, so a wellbeing team can finally answer "what makes our students struggle" with their own cohort's data. See what's weighing on students.
• "The shape of the six weeks". A per-week timeline lays the same concerns across the arc. Belonging early, money around census, academics once marks land . so staff can see when each one peaks and plan ahead of it. See the shape of the six weeks.

Both new views are aggregate-only with the same five-student small-cell suppression enforced in the database, and the reason signal has no individual drill-down anywhere in the console. It is the strictest-guarded part of the check-in. It remains a leading indicator of how a cohort is travelling, not a measure of retention: First Six sees no enrolment, grades, or withdrawals.