RMU for Schools · United States
RMU is a prevention method for middle and high schools. Students answer a short, anonymous questionnaire. The school sees where each grade stands in five areas, and gets ready-to-use lessons to work on it, in advisory or in class.
Prepare.Families sign permission and can read the full questionnaire beforehand. The school's team is trained.
Listen.Once each semester, students answer 20 anonymous questions on their phones. No names, no logins, no accounts. It takes about 15 minutes.
Read.The school sees each grade as a group, across five areas: knowing myself, managing what I feel, seeing others, connecting, and deciding. Never an individual student.
Plan.The grade hears back what it said, and the school sets the semester plan around its priority area.
Support.The team works with the grade using ready-to-use guides and lessons for that area, plus the fixed pieces every grade receives.
Sustain.Each semester ends with a report: what was done, hours delivered, and what changed. It sets up the next listening.
Everything RMU does with a grade fits into one of its five areas, including what Florida requires.
Recognizing what I feel and understanding what's going on with me.
Choosing what I do with what I feel: stopping, calming down, holding steady.
Noticing what's going on with other people and putting myself in their place.
Building relationships of trust, asking for help and working out disagreements.
Thinking before I act, taking care of myself and saying no when something isn't good for me.
Florida requires at least five hours a year of resiliency education in grades 6–12 (Rule 6A-1.094124, F.A.C.). RMU's year plan is designed to cover all eight required topics: about three hours chosen by what each grade said, plus six 25-minute pieces every grade receives.
| Required topic | In RMU |
|---|---|
| 1Resiliency through adversity, including service to the community | Managing what I feel · Getting through a hard timeConnecting · A grade project for others |
| 2Healthy characteristics: | |
| a.Empathy, perseverance, grit, gratitude and responsibility | Area lessonsManaging what I feel · Getting through a hard timeSeeing others · Being there for a friend |
| b.Critical thinking, problem solving and responsible decision-making | Area lessonsDeciding · Making decisions about substances |
| c.Self-awareness and self-management | Area lessons |
| d.Mentorship and citizenship | Connecting · A grade project for others |
| e.Honesty | Connecting · A grade project for others |
| 3Recognizing signs and symptoms of mental health concerns | Knowing myself · Signs that something is off, and who to turn to |
| 4Promoting resiliency and reducing the stigma around mental health | Managing what I feel · Getting through a hard timeKnowing myself · Signs that something is off, and who to turn to |
| 5Supporting a peer, friend or family member through adversity | Seeing others · Being there for a friend, and when to tell an adult |
| 6Prevention of suicide | Connecting · When someone is thinking about suicide · led by the school counselor, with families notified in advance |
| 7Prevention of the abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine and drugs | Deciding · Making decisions about substances |
| 8Awareness of school and community resources, and how to get help | Knowing myself · Who to turn toThe school's resource mapConnecting · When someone is thinking about suicide |
Alignment with Florida's grade-level benchmarks is in progress.
RMU is designed to fit the rules your school already follows. Your district's own policies always come first.
RMU is universal prevention, for every student. It is not a screener and it does not diagnose. It does not identify students at risk, and it does not replace counseling or your school's crisis procedures. It works alongside them.
The questionnaire is anonymous, so RMU cannot tell the school who answered what. That is by design. At the end, every student sees the names of the adults at school they can turn to, and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (available in Spanish). The fixed pieces teach students how to ask for help for themselves or a friend, and the counselor-led piece ends with a slip where any student can ask to talk to an adult.
Before the first listening, your team is trained by the creator of the method.
RMU's training complements, and does not replace, the mental health and suicide prevention trainings that Florida requires or certifies for school staff.
RMU grows out of more than fifteen years of clinical and community work with adolescents, families and institutions. It is built on established prevention practice: universal and skills-based, with no scare tactics, and centered on asking for help. Founding schools in Argentina (2026) and the United States (2027–28) are bringing its first results, and we will share them openly.
RMU is starting with founding schools in Argentina in 2026, and preparing its first U.S. schools for the 2027–28 school year. Right now we are listening to educators: tell us what would make this work in your school.
Fifteen minutes of your experience would help us get this right.
The first year at no cost, with training and support for your team, in exchange for your feedback. No commitment to continue.
RMU is a method by Pía Maestri.
