---
title: Priority & urgency
category: cases
order: 10
lastUpdated: 2026-06-08
featureAvailability: GA
roles: [facilitator, admin, teacher]
navigationPath: Cases → (open a case) → Priority  •  Intake form → Urgency
relatedArticles: [cases/creating-cases, cases/follow-ups, reporting/intervention-trends]
---

## At a glance

- **Who uses it:** Submitters set urgency at intake; facilitators set priority on the case.
- **Purpose:** Document the two related-but-distinct severity fields and how each is used.

## Two fields, two purposes

**Urgency** is set by the **submitter** on the intake form. It's the referring teacher's read on how time-sensitive the concern is.

**Priority** is set by the **facilitator** on the case. It's the case owner's read on how the case should be triaged against other cases on their caseload.

Both fields use the same three-value scale: **Low**, **Medium**, **High**.

## Why both?

The submitter knows the classroom context. The facilitator knows the caseload context. Sometimes a teacher marks a referral High because the situation feels urgent to them; the facilitator, looking at five other cases, may set Priority Medium because the others are more immediately at risk. Keeping the two fields separate preserves both signals.

## Where each appears

- **Urgency** shows on the referral in the New inbox and on the case Overview.
- **Priority** shows in the case header and is the primary sort key on the facilitator's caseload view.

[SCREENSHOT: case-priority-urgency-fields]
_Cases → open case Overview tab with the Priority pill in the header and the Urgency field in the intake source panel below._

## Step-by-step

### Set urgency (intake)

Urgency is a field on the **staff intake** form. Submitters pick Low / Medium / High at submission time. Most student intake forms also include it.

### Set or change priority (facilitator)

1. Open the case.
2. Click the **Priority** pill in the header.
3. Pick Low / Medium / High.
4. Change is audit-logged.

## Tips & best practices

- Don't let everything become High. If 60% of cases are High Priority, the field stops differentiating.
- Combine Priority + next follow-up date for sorting your daily work, not Priority alone.
- Revisit Priority every couple of weeks — it should drift down as cases stabilize.

## Common mistakes

- Treating Urgency and Priority as the same field. They aren't — Urgency is the submitter's signal; Priority is the owner's plan.
- Setting Priority once at case open and never changing it.

## Related articles

- [Creating a case](/help/cases/creating-cases)
- [Follow-ups](/help/cases/follow-ups)
- [Intervention trends](/help/reporting/intervention-trends)

## FAQ

**Can I add a custom severity level (e.g. Critical)?**
No — the three-value scale is shared across orgs to keep cross-school reporting comparable.

**Is priority included in reports?**
Yes — Reports → Caseload includes a priority breakdown. Average time-in-status by priority is on the intervention trends report.