Chad For whoever signs off and whoever pays
Booking and paperwork
What your office needs to say yes.
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PDF · 2 pages
Principal approval packet
Two pages to send up the chain: the talks, the cost, how schools usually pay for it and a paragraph you can paste straight into your district request.
What’s inside
- What you’re approving: 40 to 55 minutes, grades 9 to 12, student Q&A included
- The three talks and what students leave with
- Who Chad is, and that he isn’t a therapist and doesn’t present himself as one
- Cost: the Idaho introductory rate, the California and Western rate, and the travel rules
- Insurance, W-9 and background checks
- Page 2: the day’s timeline, what the school provides, how schools pay for it, and a paragraph to paste into your district request
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PDF · 1 page
Speaker one-sheet
Chad, the three talks and the four records on one page. The one to attach to the email.
What’s inside
- Who he is in one paragraph: four Guinness World Records, the MA in psychology, five years teaching inside San Quentin
- The three talks with grades and length
- The marathon record: three public attempts, with dates and times anyone can check
- Where his story has run: TODAY, ABC World News Tonight, Good Morning America, People
- Rates, and a QR code to check your date
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PDF · 3 pages
Sample booking agreement
Five minutes to read. No deposit, no charge for a snow day or a lockdown, and it clips onto your district’s own contract if you have one.
It books any of the three talks, Anything Is Possible, The Weight You’re Carrying or I Walked the Hallways Alone, or all three as a series.
What’s inside
- Who and when: date, times, talk, audience and room
- Fee, travel and payment: no deposit, invoiced after the assembly, due in 30 days
- What each side brings, item by item
- Content, safety and privacy: safe-messaging review, background checks, never alone with a student, no student records kept
- Cancellations: snow day or lockdown means a new date and no fee; the 14-day and 48-hour rule for everything else
- Insurance ($1M per occurrence, $2M aggregate), who covers what, independent contractor, signatures
How payment works
No deposit. Chad Kempel LLC sends a W-9 and certificate of insurance the day the agreement’s signed, invoices after the assembly, and is paid within 30 days by check, ACH or purchase order.
For counselors, teachers and families
Before and after the talk
Most of these go out one to three weeks before the assembly.
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Word · 3 pagesParent letter
Goes out from your office, on your letterhead, so families hear it from the school. It covers what the talk is about, how you prepared and how to opt out, with a slip and a back page on warning signs.
What’s inside
- A subject line and letter on your letterhead, with brackets for the date, grades, period and names
- A paragraph for each of the three talks. Paste in the one you booked
- How your counselors prepared, the safe-messaging review and the 988 line
- Opt-out by reply or slip, with a morning-of phone option. Students attend unless a family says otherwise
- A back page for families: warning signs and what to do
- The survey line, to keep only if your school approved the survey. Spanish version above
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PDF · 2 pages
Teacher and counselor guide
What each talk covers, what to do if a student opens up, and next-morning questions so the talk doesn’t end at the bell.
What’s inside
- The three talks, a paragraph each, and the heavy parts named plainly
- Before the assembly: which students to flag to a counselor, and where to sit
- If a student opens up to you: five steps, including how to ask directly about suicide
- Next-morning discussion questions and a journal prompt for each talk
- The two-week check-in, one question per talk
- A line for your counselor’s name and room, fillable before copying
- What to watch for that week, and what not to say in front of the class
- 988 and 911 on both pages
- A black-and-white version for the staff copier, button below
Download PDF Black and white, for copies, opens in a new tab
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PDF · 1 page
Take-home sheet: The Weight You’re Carrying
The one sheet every student keeps, and nobody collects. Your counselor types their name and room into the PDF before it goes to the copier.
What’s inside
- Four terms: cognitive load, the freeze response, displacement and post-traumatic growth
- One small tool for each, with a sentence the student finishes
- “Yours to keep. No one collects this.”
- 988 and 911, plus a line for your counselor’s name and room
- Fillable: the counselor types the name and room once, then copies
- Spanish and large-print versions above
Download PDF En español, opens in a new tab Large print, opens in a new tab
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PDF · 1 page
Student survey, word for word
Three anonymous questions, exactly as students see them. Share it with families before anyone puts a QR code on the screen.
What’s inside
- The rules: only with the school’s OK, families can opt out, anonymous, optional, nothing personal, totals only
- The three student questions, word for word, with the answer choices for each talk
- The last screen every student sees: where to get help, 988 and 911
- The staff check: three statements teachers answer
- An optional three-week follow-up question
- What the school gets: a one-page summary within a week
Help, any time
Call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24 hours a day. For Spanish, press 2 or text AYUDA to 988. You can also chat at 988lifeline.org.
In danger right now, call 911. At school, talk to a counselor.
Schools can order free 988 wallet cards in English and Spanish from SAMHSA.
Online, nothing to print
Pages that go with the talk
Two pages that pick up where the assembly left off. Share the links with your staff and your students.
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For teachers and counselors
Discussion questions and journal prompts for the talk your school heard, a two-week plan, a projector mode for the classroom screen, and what to do if a student opens up.
chadkempel.com/educator
Open the page -
For students
The tools from the talk, three things to do this week, and the stories behind it. Theirs to come back to.
chadkempel.com/student
Open the page
By email
Available on request
Not posted, but yours for the asking. Each button opens an email that’s already written, or write to chad@chadkempel.com.
W-9
For your business office, from Chad Kempel LLC.
Email to requestCertificate of insurance
General liability, $1M per occurrence, $2M aggregate. Your district can be named as certificate holder or additional insured.
Email to requestBackground check status
Cleared through the West Ada School District (Idaho’s largest) and the Idaho Department of Correction. If your district runs its own check, Chad completes it.
Email to requestTalk outline for counselors
The full outline of the talk you’re weighing, so your counselors can read every story before you commit.
Email to request
Your district’s vendor forms
Send your district’s vendor or contractor packet. Chad fills it out and sends it back within two business days.
Before you ask
Questions schools ask
Short answers, pulled straight from the documents above. Anything else: chad@chadkempel.com.
Do you require a deposit?
No. Chad Kempel LLC invoices after the assembly, and payment is due within 30 days by check, ACH or purchase order. The W-9 and certificate of insurance go to your business office as soon as the agreement is signed.
What happens if we have a snow day or a lockdown?
You pick a new date in the same school year. No fee, no argument. If the school cancels for another reason, there’s no charge more than 14 days out.
Can parents opt their student out?
Yes. The parent letter goes out one to three weeks ahead with an opt-out slip and a morning-of phone option. Students who opt out spend the assembly in a supervised place with a staff member. Families can also excuse a student from the survey alone.
Is the student survey anonymous?
Yes. No names, email addresses, phone numbers, student IDs or sign-ins, and no open text box. Results are reported only as totals, and any group with fewer than 10 answers is combined or left out. It runs only with the school’s approval, and every question is in the survey document, word for word.
Are you insured and background-checked?
Chad Kempel LLC carries general liability insurance of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, and the certificate can name your district as certificate holder or additional insured. Chad has passed background checks through the West Ada School District (Idaho’s largest) and the Idaho Department of Correction, and completes any check your district requires.
Can we use our district’s own contract?
Yes. The sample agreement attaches to your district’s contract as the scope of work. Where they differ, the district’s terms control, except that Chad’s talks and materials stay his and the student privacy terms still apply.
Is anything available in Spanish?
The parent letter and the take-home sheet are both available in Spanish, and the take-home sheet also comes in large print. Interpreters and captioning are welcome at the assembly; Chad sends the slides ahead of time.
What does an assembly cost?
For the 2026–27 school year, Idaho schools pay the local introductory rate: $1,000 for one assembly or $2,500 for all three talks, with no travel fee within a few hours of Boise. California and the rest of the West: $1,800 for one, $3,300 for all three. Schools more than 300 miles from Boise add $500 for driving, or airfare at cost if he flies. The approval packet has the details and how schools usually pay for it.
What do teachers get afterward?
A next-morning plan: discussion questions and a journal prompt for each talk, plus a two-week check-in. It’s in the teacher and counselor guide and on the educator page.
Still picking a date?
Send the date you’re eyeing and you’ll hear back within 48 hours. A yes, a no, or a better date. No sales pitch.