[Archived Information]{.smallcaps}

**[Safeguarding Our Children:\
An Action Guide]{.smallcaps}**

**[Implementing *Early Warning, Timely Response*]{.smallcaps}**

**Organizations Supporting This Guide**

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

American Academy of Pediatrics

American Association of School Administrators

American Counseling Association

American Federation of Teachers

American Psychiatric Association

American Psychological Association

American School Counselor Association

Council of Administrators of Special Education

Council for Exceptional Children

Council of the Great City Schools

Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health

National Alliance of Pupil Services Organizations

National Association of Elementary School Principals

National Association of School Nurses

National Association of School Psychologists

National Association of Secondary School Principals

National Association of Social Workers

National Education Association

National Mental Health Association

National Middle School Association

National Parent Network on Disabilities

National PTA

National School Boards Association

National School Public Relations Association

School Social Work Association of America

**U.S. Department of Education**

Richard W. Riley, Secretary

Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

Office of Special Education Programs

Research to Practice Division

Louis C. Danielson, Director

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education

Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program

William Modzeleski, Director

**U.S. Department of Justice**

Janet Reno, Attorney General

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

John C. Wilson, Acting Administrator

**April 2000**

This guide was produced by the Center for Effective Collaboration and
Practice of the American Institutes for Research, and the National
Association for School Psychologists under a cooperative agreement with
the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and
Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs (Grant \#
H327T60005), under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Safe and
Drug-Free Schools Program provided additional support under the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Gun-Free Schools Act.

The text of this document is in the public domain. Authorization to
reproduce this document in whole or in part is granted. While permission
to reprint this publication is not necessary, the citation should be
Dwyer, K. and Osher, D. (2000). *Safeguarding Our Children: An Action
Guide.* Washington, D.C.: U.S. Departments of Education and Justice,
American Institutes for Research.

To order copies of this report, contact ED Pubs:

Mail: ED Pubs, Editorial Publications Center, U.S. Department of
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Call toll-free: 877-433-7827 (877-4-ED-PUBS). If 877 service is not yet
available in your area, call 800-872-5327 (800-USA-LEARN).

*Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide* is available on the
Department of Education's Web site at
www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/ActionGuide/.

You also may obtain additional contacts and related information from
agency Web sites. For the Office of Special Education Programs, visit
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/. For Safe and Drug-Free
Schools, visit http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osdfs/. And for the
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, visit
http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org.

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offered.

**UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION**

**WASHINGTON, D.C. 20202-\_\_\_\_\_**

**April 21, 2000**

Dear Principals, Teachers, Mental Health Professionals, and Families:

In 1998, at the request of President Clinton, the U.S. Department of
Education and the Department of Justice produced *Early Warning, Timely
Response: A Guide to Safe Schools* (the *Early Warning Guide*) to help
communities make schools even safer in the future than they are today.
The *Early Warning Guide* was designed to provide research-based,
practical help needed to \"keep every child in your school out of
harm\'s way.\"

We are pleased by the positive feedback on the *Early Warning Guide* and
by the many schools already implementing recommendations included in the
guide. Since releasing the *Early Warning Guide*, we have received
numerous requests for a follow-up resource that provides additional
information about the \"how to\" of developing school safety plans. In
response, we have developed *Safeguarding Our Children: An Action
Guide*. The *Action Guide* provides practical steps schools can take to
design and implement school safety plans to reduce violence in our
schools and help children get access to the services they need. It
stresses the importance of a three-stage, comprehensive model that
includes prevention, early intervention, and intensive services to
address school safety issues. The guide also emphasizes the importance
of strategic planning, capacity building, comprehensive approaches,
teamwork, and community involvement in successful schools.

The strategies presented in the *Action Guide* are based on research
that has demonstrated the value of prevention and of comprehensive
approaches to school safety that involve the entire education
community\--principals, teachers, counselors, parents, and students. We
hope that you will find the examples of programs and practices provided
throughout this *Action Guide* useful as you examine the needs of your
school and community. However, we caution you that using this guide in a
cursory way to stigmatize children will be counterproductive and
harmful.

We are grateful to the many experts, agencies, and associations in
education, law enforcement, juvenile justice, mental health, and other
social services that reviewed drafts, provided examples and otherwise
contributed to the quality of this publication. We hope that your school
and community will benefit from the information provided in the Action
Guide.

Sincerely,

**Richard W. Riley**

Secretary of Education

**Janet Reno**

Attorney General

**CONTENTS**

(Note: Page numbers refer to printed and Adobe Acrobat versions only)

**Letter from Secretary Riley and Attorney General Reno i**

**Chapter 1: Introduction 1**

Overview of the Action Guide 2

A Comprehensive Three-Level Approach to Prevention 2

Schoolwide Foundation 2

Early Intervention 4

Intensive Interventions 4

Safe Schools Combine All Three Levels 4

Safe Schools Employ Teams Efficiently and Effectively 5

Safe Schools Have the Capacity to Plan, Implement, Monitor, and Evaluate
a Prevention and

Intervention Plan 5

Safe Schools Have the Capacity to Identify and to Respond to Individual
Needs 6

**Chapter 2: Building A Schoolwide Foundation 7**

Creating a Caring School Community in Which All Members Feel Connected,
Safe, and Supported 7

Teaching Appropriate Behaviors and Social Problem-Solving Skills 8

Staff Training 10

Staff Support and Coordination 10

Monitoring the Program 10

Positive Behavior Support Systems 11

Establishing Schoolwide Systems to Manage and Support Behavior 11

Creating a Safe Physical Environment 14

Providing Appropriate Academic Instruction 15

**Chapter 3: Responding To Children Exhibiting Early Warning Signs:**

Early Intervention 17

Review of the Early Warning Signs of Violence 17

Building the Capacity to Identify Early Warning Signs 18

Connecting the Early Warning Signs to Early Intervention: Developing a
Referral Response Process 19

Referral 20

Involving Students in the Referral Process 20

Responding to Referrals 22

The Initial Meeting 22

Developing Early Interventions 24

Problem Identification and Analysis 24

Plan Development, Implementation, and Evaluation 25

Early Intervention Strategies 27

**Chapter 4: Providing Intensive Interventions To Troubled Students 31**

Comprehensive School-Based Mental Health Programs 31

Special Education and Related Services 32

Alternative Programs and Schools 33

Systems of Care 33

Individualized Mental Health Services and Supports 35

Multisystemic Therapy 36

Treatment Foster Care 37

Wraparound Planning and Services 38

**Chapter 5: Creating And Implementing A Comprehensive Plan 41**

The Role of the Schoolwide Team in Creating Safe Schools 41

Organizing the Schoolwide Team 42

Community Members and the Schoolwide Team 42

Building an Effective Schoolwide Team 43

Logistics for the Schoolwide Team 44

Obtaining Approval and Buy-Ins 44

Securing a Planning Budget 44

Designing a Communication Process 44

Scheduling Meetings and Setting Timelines 45

Implementation Considerations for the Schoolwide Team 46

Other Considerations 47

**Conclusion 48**

**Resources 49**

Online Resources 49

School Safety-Related Sites 49

Student Support and Classroom Management Sites 49

Federal Sites 50

Organization Sites 51

Family Information Sites 52

Additional Resources 53

**Index 57**

**Contributors to the Action Guide 59**

**Chapter 1:**

**Introduction**

Schools are almost always safe places. Even so, recent school shootings
created a widespread demand to improve school safety. In 1998, President
Clinton directed the departments of Education and Justice to develop a
guide to help \"adults reach out to troubled children, quickly and
effectively.\" The result was *Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide
to Safe Schools*\* (also called the *Early Warning Guide*). Attorney
General Janet Reno and Secretary of Education Richard Riley said the
guide \"should be seen as part of an overall effort to make sure that
every school in this nation has a comprehensive violence prevention plan
in place.\"

The *Early Warning Guide* has been copied, downloaded, reprinted, and
distributed to agencies, organizations, and every school across the
nation. The *Early Warning Guide* is a good example of effective
collaboration between federal agencies, national associations, and
researchers from various disciplines, as well as practitioners, family
members, and youth. Hundreds of people worked together to design,
develop, review, and disseminate the research-based and
practice-validated *Early Warning Guide*. In fact, the *Early Warning
Guide* was so well-received that the departments of Education and
Justice decided to develop a companion piece\--*Safeguarding Our
Children: An Action Guide* (or the *Action Guide*).

The purpose of this *Action Guide* is to help schools develop and
implement a comprehensive violence prevention plan grounded in the
principles of the *Early Warning Guide*. This *Action Guide* is based on
evidence-based practices. Effective action plans are strategic,
coordinated, and comprehensive. They involve schoolwide prevention,
early intervention, and intensive services for students with significant
emotional or behavioral needs, including those with disruptive,
destructive, or violent behaviors.

Prevention, early intervention, and intensive services can reduce
violence and other troubling behaviors in schools. Understanding the
causes of violence and knowledge of evidence-based practices can help
schools identify and address warning signs early so children can get the
help they need before it is too late. The most promising prevention and
intervention strategies extend beyond the schoolhouse door; they include
administrators, teachers, families, students, support staff, and
community agency staff. Everyone\'s support is important to safeguard
our children.

\* Dwyer, K., Osher, D., and Warger, C. (1998). *Early Warning, Timely
Response: A Guide to Safe Schools*. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Education. Quotations on this page are from page i of the *Early Warning
Guide*. English, Spanish, and referenced versions of the *Early Warning
Guide* are available at http://cecp.air.org/guide.

Schools that have comprehensive violence prevention and response plans
in place, plus teams to design and implement those plans, report the
following positive results:

-   Improved academics.

-   Reduced disciplinary referrals and suspensions.

-   Improved school climate that is more conducive to learning.

-   Better staff morale.

-   More efficient use of human and financial resources.

-   Enhanced safety.

**Overview of the Action Guide**

School violence occurs in a unique context in every school, making a
one-size-fits-all approach ineffective. This *Action Guide* helps
schools develop and carry out a violence prevention and response plan
that can be customized to fit each school\'s particular strengths. The
plan includes the following:

\* Identifying and understanding the problem of school violence and its
relationship to school climate.

\* Building a schoolwide foundation that prevents most problems from
occurring.

\* Recognizing, reporting, and using the early warning signs
effectively.

\* Developing interventions to respond to students with troubling
behaviors.

Building a comprehensive plan takes time and requires input from
students, staff, agencies, families, and other community members. This
*Action Guide* presents strategies that schools have used successfully
to create and implement these plans. The *Action Guide* provides
examples of sound practices and programs and offers suggestions on what
to look for and what to do.

**Qualities of Safe and Responsible Schools**

-   The school has strong leadership, caring faculty, family and
    community involvement, including law enforcement officials and
    representatives of community-based organizations and student
    participation in the design of programs and policies.

-   The physical environment of the school is safe and schoolwide
    policies are in place to promote and support responsible behaviors.

-   Prevention and intervention programs are sustained, coordinated, and
    comprehensive.

-   Interventions are based on careful assessment of student needs.

-   Evidence-based approaches are used.

-   Staff are provided with training and support to help them implement
    programs and approaches.

-   Interventions are monitored and evaluations are conducted to ensure
    that the programs are meeting measurable goals and objectives.

**A Comprehensive Three-Level Approach to Prevention**

Research on safe schools demonstrates that a comprehensive three-level
approach to prevention is the most efficient and cost-effective way to
reduce the risk of violence.

**A Three-Level Approach to Preventing Violence:**

-   Provide Intensive Interventions for a Few Children

-   Intervene Early for Some Children

-   Build a Schoolwide Foundation for All Children

**Build a Schoolwide Foundation**

Support positive discipline, academic success, and mental and emotional
wellness through a caring school environment, teaching appropriate
behaviors and problem solving skills, positive behavioral support and
appropriate academic instruction.

**Intervene Early**

Create services and supports that address risk factors and build
protective factors for students at risk for severe academic or
behavioral difficulties.

**Provide Intensive Interventions**

Provide coordinated, comprehensive, intensive, sustained, culturally
appropriate, child-and family-focused services and supports.

**Schoolwide Foundation**

An effective schoolwide foundation is designed to improve the academic
performance and behavior of all children. The schoolwide foundation
includes the following:

-   Compassionate, caring, respectful staff who model appropriate
    behaviors, create a climate of emotional support, and are committed
    to working with all students.

-   Developmentally appropriate programs for all children that teach and
    reinforce social and problem-solving skills.

-   Teachers and staff who are trained to support positive school and
    classroom behaviors.

-   Engaging curricula and effective teaching practices.

-   Child- and family-focused, culturally competent approaches.

-   Collaborative relationships with families, agencies, and community
    organizations.

These approaches alone are sufficient for most students\' needs, but
they will not address fully the needs of all students. However, an
effective foundation makes it easier to identify students who require
additional interventions and increases the effectiveness of all
interventions\--both early and intensive. Chapter 2 describes the
schoolwide foundation.

**Early Intervention**

Early intervention is necessary for those students who are at risk of
academic failure or behavior problems. Early intervention, along with an
appropriate foundation, is sufficient for almost all students. Chapter 3
describes early intervention and how it can be used to respond to early
warning signs.

**Intensive Interventions**

Intensive interventions are necessary for those students whose needs
cannot be fully addressed by early intervention. Intensive interventions
should always be individualized to a student\'s needs and strengths.
These interventions often involve multiple coordinated services, such as
individualized special education services or interagency wraparound
supports. Chapter 4 describes intensive interventions.

No plan will make a school immune to violence. Nevertheless, having a
violence prevention and response plan in place reduces the likelihood of
violence and helps schools respond quickly and effectively to violent
incidents that may occur.

**Safe Schools Combine All Three Levels**

For a school to be safe for all children, all three levels must be in
place. A school that builds a schoolwide foundation will still fail if
it ignores the needs of children at risk of severe academic or
behavioral problems or children who are seriously troubled. In most
schools, a schoolwide foundation will meet the needs of most students,
while early intervention will address the needs of most of the other
students. Individualized intensive interventions will be needed for a
relatively small number of students.

**Safe Schools Employ Teams Efficiently and Effectively**

Each day, school personnel make important decisions about how to
implement the best educational program for the entire school and how to
provide the best education possible for specific students who may be
experiencing difficulties.

**Employing Teams Efficiently**

Schools are often burdened by too many teams, committees, or workgroups
that affect staff time and result in fragmented efforts. When possible,
the Schoolwide Team and the Student Support Team should be an expansion
or refinement of existing teams. Also, these two teams should coordinate
their efforts with all teams addressing similar issues. While this
coordination may increase the workload of some teams at first, it will
improve their long-term effectiveness.

Effective schools usually form a small number of teams composed of
professionals and support personnel who are responsible for these
decisions. This *Action Guide* recommends that schools employ two teams:
one that addresses overall school performance and another that addresses
individual student problems. These teams are integral to creating and
implementing a comprehensive plan for safe and effective schools. A
minimum of three people\--the principal, a teacher, and a mental health
specialist\--should serve on both teams. This *Action Guide* will refer
to the first team as the Schoolwide Team, and the second as the Student
Support Team.

Although schools may use other titles for their teams, almost every
school has them. The Schoolwide Team is sometimes called the School
Management Team or School Improvement Team. The Student Support Team may
be known as The Child Study Team or the Student Assistance Team. While
the primary functions of these two teams are different, both teams are
necessary to create safe, educationally sound learning environments.

The teams have different responsibilities, but coordination is
necessary. To facilitate this coordination, the teams should have a
number of members in common, such as the principal, a teacher, and the
school\'s mental health professional. A dynamic, collaborative
relationship, in which knowledge and information are continuously
shared, will help ensure that the schoolwide, early, and intensive
interventions are aligned to meet the goals of a safe and effective
school.

**Linkage Between Schoolwide and Student Support Teams**

**Schoolwide Team**

School staff, parents, students, community agencies, law enforcement, &
other stakeholders

Principal

Teacher

Mental Health Professional

**Student Support Team**

Family, classroom teachers, agency providers, special educators,
students, & others

**Safe Schools Have the Capacity to Plan, Implement, Monitor, and
Evaluate a Prevention and Intervention Plan**

Safe schools are strategic and smart. They identify and assess their
needs and strengths, determine their safe school goals and objectives,
align their efforts with other school reform and community initiatives,
select and implement evidence-based approaches to realize these goals
and objectives, coordinate and monitor their implementation, and
evaluate the effect of their interventions. These responsibilities
require team members who have the appropriate expertise, credibility
with relevant stakeholders, access to resources, and authority to act.

The Schoolwide Team should have expertise and credibility in the
following seven areas:

-   Prevention, early intervention, and intensive intervention.

-   School reform.

-   Community resources.

-   Family concerns.

-   Student concerns.

-   Staff concerns.

-   Administrative concerns.

Chapter 5 describes the role of this team.

**Safe Schools Have the Capacity to Identify and to Respond to
Individual Needs**

Safe schools have Student Support Teams to assess the needs of children
who exhibit early warning signs. Members of this team should have the
professional, cultural, and linguistic competence to identify the
students\' needs and strengths. These teams should have expertise in the
following six areas:

-   Diagnosing mental health problems.

-   Evaluating academic difficulties.

-   Conducting a functional assessment of student behavior to determine
    the \"why\" behind a behavioral problem or incident.

-   Consulting with and supporting school staff, students, and families.

-   Coordinating school and community services.

-   Collaborating with students and families.

To be most effective, the Student Support Team should involve the
student and his or her family in its deliberations. If the student is
being considered or is eligible for special education services,
requirements for individualized planning under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) must be met. Also, the team is more
effective when regular and special educators collaborate. If the student
receives services from other community agencies, the team should
coordinate with those agencies (e.g., child welfare, juvenile justice,
mental health, vocational rehabilitation, and substance abuse). The role
of the Student Support Team is described further in Chapter 3.

**Chapter 2:**

**Building a Schoolwide Foundation**

Some students will learn and behave appropriately in almost any school
environment. Other students, however, require some level of support to
help them realize high academic and behavioral standards. A schoolwide
foundation provides all students with the supports and skills they need
to become effective learners and problem solvers. In addition, the
foundation provides students and staff with the supports and skills they
need to develop and foster appropriate behaviors and healthy emotional
adjustment. Research at the University of Oregon\'s Institute on Violent
and Destructive Behavior suggests that most schools with effective
schoolwide systems that focus on learning and behavior can prevent at
least 80 percent of problematic student behaviors.

A comprehensive schoolwide foundation should help ensure that a school
is safe and responsive to all children. The *Early Warning Guide*
identified 13 characteristics as being essential to such a safe and
responsive school.

This chapter describes the following four key components of a
comprehensive, effective schoolwide plan that can be used to prevent
school violence:

-   Creating a caring school community in which all members feel
    connected, safe, and supported.

-   Teaching appropriate behaviors and social problem-solving skills.

-   Implementing positive behavior support systems.

-   Providing appropriate academic instruction.

**Characteristics of a School That Is Safe and Responsive to All
Children**

-   Focus on academic achievement.

-   Involve families in meaningful ways.

-   Develop links to the community.

-   Emphasize positive relationships among students and staff.

-   Discuss safety issues openly.

-   Treat students with equal respect.

-   Create ways for students to share their concerns.

-   Help children feel safe expressing their feelings.

-   Have in place a system for referring children who are suspected of
    being abused or neglected.

-   Offer extended day programs for children.

-   Promote good citizenship and character.

-   Identify problems and assess progress toward solutions.

-   Support students in making the transition to adult life and the
    workplace.

**Creating a Caring School Community in Which All Members Feel
Connected, Safe, and Supported**

Safe schools support caring relationships between students and staff.
Establishing these relationships reduces the causes of interpersonal
conflicts (e.g., prejudice) and allows students to gain a sense of
belonging, pride, and attachment to the school. These feelings are an
important part of keeping students engaged in the educational process
and sensitive to the needs of others with whom they interact in school.
Establishing these relationships between students and staff makes it
more likely that students can share their safety concerns with staff and
enhances the opportunities for adults to coach, mentor, and even
discipline students, if necessary.

Creating caring relationships is not easy\--particularly in large and
diverse schools. Schools can create and nurture caring environments by
organizing the environment to support positive relationships (e.g., by
creating small learning communities within schools). In addition,
schools can develop effective programs to prevent harassment, bullying,
and conflict between groups. These programs will be most effective when
they align with social skills instruction, the schoolwide discipline
system, and the school\'s curriculum.

There are a variety of evidence-based programs that schools can adopt to
improve their schoolwide foundation as well as to develop early and
intensive interventions.

**Program Evaluation Criteria**

There are a variety of evidence-based programs that schools can adopt to
improve their schoolwide foundation, as well as to develop early and
intensive interventions. A number of factors should be considered when
selecting appropriate programs for your school. The program evaluation
criteria below will help determine which program is best for a
particular setting.

-   **Outcome Evidence:** Is there evidence that this program has worked
    in other school communities similar to yours? How widely used is
    this intervention?

-   **Fiscal Costs: Is training required?** Will materials need to be
    purchased separately?

-   **Personnel and Staffing Implications:** Will additional staff be
    required or will duties need to be expanded?

-   **Program Outcomes with Diverse Populations:** Has the program been
    effective with students similar to the students in your school
    community?

-   **Flexibility:** Can the intervention be altered to meet your unique
    needs? What is the likely effect of modifying the intervention?

-   **External Support:** Is it available? How much will it cost?

Activities to build a school community are varied, but in general,
successful community building ensures that students associate positive
experiences with their interpersonal interactions in the school
environment. In other words, students who are accepted, are respected,
and experience interpersonal and academic success will feel good about
their school experience. Numerous schoolwide activities can be developed
to build a strong sense of community within the school. These activities
range from the schoolwide use of an anti-bias curriculum that teaches
children tolerance and to deal with prejudice to the fair and equal
treatment of all students within the school building.

**Teaching Appropriate Behaviors and Social Problem-Solving Skills**

Just as students learn how to read, write, and calculate math equations,
they must also learn how to interact appropriately with peers and adults
and how to solve interpersonal conflicts nonviolently. A school will
have an increased risk of having students who solve problems with
violence if the students are not encouraged and taught to interact
appropriately and to use problem-solving skills. Thus, safe schools
develop interpersonal, problem-solving, and conflict resolution skills
in all students.

Social skills instruction is an effective way to teach appropriate
behaviors and problem-solving skills to all students. Social skills can
be taught either directly through structured lessons or indirectly by
integrating problem-solving themes into other curricula such as social
studies or reading. In either case, social skills and problem-solving
activities should become a part of the daily school routine. Numerous
social skills programs are available; the school should select a program
that fits the culture of the school best.

Many successful social skills programs teach students to develop a
problem-solving language that will assist in guiding and monitoring
their behavior when they encounter a difficult situation. This language
and the corresponding behaviors are taught by providing students with an
opportunity to see other people using good social skills successfully,
practice these skills themselves, receive feedback from the teacher and
others on the use of the skills, and then try them out in real
situations.

It is important to develop an infrastructure to support the ongoing use
of social skills programs. This infrastructure should include at least
three main components:

\* Training all school staff in the instruction and reinforcement of
social skills.

\* Designating school support leaders.

\* Monitoring and supporting the teaching of social skills.

**Developing Social and Emotional Competence and Problem-Solving
Skills**

**Resolving Conflict Creatively Program\***

The Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) is a school-based,
primary prevention program that begins in kindergarten and continues
through the 12th grade. It is one of the largest and longest-running
conflict resolution initiatives in the country that is designed to
promote constructive conflict resolution and positive intergroup
relations.

The specific objectives of the program include making children aware of
the different choices they have for dealing with conflicts; helping
children develop skills for making those choices; encouraging
children\'s respect for their own cultural backgrounds and those of
others; teaching children how to identify and stand against prejudice;
and making children aware of their role in creating a more peaceful
world.

These objectives are achieved primarily through a curriculum taught by
trained teachers and designed around several core skills, including
communicating and listening effectively, expressing feelings and
managing anger, resolving conflicts, fostering cooperation, appreciating
diversity, and countering bias. The 30- to 60-minute lessons are
organized into units based on these core skills and are delivered in a
manner that facilitates student-directed discussions and learning.
Separate curricula for lower and upper elementary school grades as well
as high school enable concepts to be conveyed to children in
age-appropriate ways.

In addition to the classroom curriculum component, RCCP also
incorporates the training of student-based peer mediation groups and
administrators. The program aims to create environments in classrooms
and across entire schools where opportunities for social-emotional
learning are provided along with opportunities for traditional academic
learning.

Formal evaluation of the impact of RCCP found significant reductions in
the frequency of aggressive behaviors and in the types of thinking and
cognitive processing leading to aggression (e.g., hostile attributions,
aggressive fantasies, and aggressive problem-solving strategies). When
trained teachers employed the curriculum regularly, RCCP was found to
benefit all children regardless of grade, gender, and classroom or
neighborhood context.

**Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies**

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) is a classroom-based
curriculum for kindergarten through fifth-grade students designed to
prevent violence, aggression, and other problem behaviors by developing
students\' social and emotional competence and problem-solving skills.

The objectives of PATHS are met by teaching cognitive problem-solving
skills, which improve critical thinking skills, develop effective
interpersonal skills, and enhance the classroom climate. The PATHS
curriculum, delivered by the classroom teacher, is divided into three
separate units: self-control, feelings and relationships, and
interpersonal cognitive problem-solving. The cognitive problem-solving
skills that students learn in the third unit build upon and expand the
skills students developed in the first two units. Students learn to
understand, regulate, and express emotions. PATHS teaches students to
recognize the feelings of others, to relate the experiences of others to
themselves, to develop empathy for others, and to understand how the
behaviors of others can affect their own emotions.

The techniques used to teach these lessons include group discussion,
role-playing, art activities, stories, and educational games. The PATHS
curriculum provides students with extensive opportunities to practice
their new skills and assistance with applying the skills in their daily
life.

A formal evaluation of the PATHS curriculum found significant reductions
in students\' hyperactivity, peer aggression, and noncompliance with
teacher and staff directions. Specifically, first-grade students
receiving PATHS were found to have significantly lower levels of
aggression and disruptive behaviors compared with their same-age peers
who did not receive the curriculum.

\* A variety of evidence-based programs that schools and communities can
use to implement the *Action Guide* are listed in the \"Additional
Resources\" section of this guide. Inclusion in the *Action Guide* does
not represent endorsement of these programs by the U.S. Department of
Education or the U.S. Department of Justice.

**Staff Training**

Programs designed to teach children new skills are most beneficial if
all staff\--including non-teaching staff such as custodians, cafeteria
workers, and bus drivers\--are involved. When new staff are hired, they
also will require training. Training should be conducted by someone who
is skilled in in-service training and consultation and who is familiar
with social skills programs. Staff must be comfortable with and
committed to teaching problem-solving skills, encouraging and
reinforcing their use, and holding students responsible for using these
skills. Most programs that are designed to teach students
problem-solving skills are adaptable to the needs of teachers. Acquiring
good teaching skills may be more difficult for non-teaching staff and,
therefore, these individuals should receive adequate initial training
and responsive follow-up support.

**Staff Support and Coordination**

The degree to which a new program is implemented successfully depends
largely upon the support provided to those implementing the program.
Someone in the school should have the skills, time, and authority to
assist staff in their initial and ongoing efforts to teach and help
students to use appropriate social problem-solving skills. In addition,
because students may have several teachers, some coordination is
necessary to ensure that teachers are consistently teaching these
skills, and that all staff members are modeling and reinforcing the
students\' use of these skills.

**Monitoring the Program**

Support leaders should check frequently with teachers to ensure that
skills are being taught consistently. Over time it will be important for
the school to determine whether the program is working. Most teachers
will be able to tell quickly whether students are using the social
skills in class. It is important, however, to observe whether these
skills are also being used outside of class and school. Community agency
staff and families can often provide this information.

**Second Step Curriculum**

Second Step is a violence prevention social skills curriculum developed
by the Committee for Children. The curriculum is designed to enable
children\--preschool through junior high\--to change the attitudes and
behaviors that contribute to violence.

Students make such changes through an in-class social skills curriculum
that teaches students specific skills to reduce impulsive and aggressive
behaviors and to increase their level of social competence.

Three primary skill areas are emphasized: empathy, impulse control, and
anger management. Each social skill lesson is integrated into the
regular curriculum in 35-minute sessions that are conducted once or
twice a week. Teachers lead a discussion, model skills, and have
students role-play.

The curriculum also incorporates a family-based component that employs a
video-based parent program and a series of parent group meetings.

Formal evaluation of the impact of the Second Step Curriculum indicated
moderate decreases in aggression and moderate increases in prosocial and
neutral interactions over the period of one school year for students
receiving the curriculum. Furthermore, the evaluation indicated that the
control group of peers who did not receive the curriculum increased
their physical and verbal aggression over the same school year.

**Positive Behavior Support Systems**

Safe schools provide a social and physical environment that fosters
appropriate behavior. The social environment includes the norms, rules
and their enforcement, and any support necessary to enable students and
adults to behave appropriately. The physical environment includes the
way in which the building and the school\'s routines are managed to
prevent problems (e.g., supervision during class changes).

**Establishing Schoolwide Systems to Manage and Support Behavior**

Effective discipline systems must be simple, schoolwide, proactive, and
positive. Simplicity is important so that all members of the
school\--administrators, teachers, staff, students, and their
families\--understand the rules and what happens when people violate the
rules.

These rules should be schoolwide so that expectations and behavioral
supports for students are consistent throughout the school. The
behavioral management systems should be proactive and positive, as
research demonstrates that proactive approaches (e.g., intervening
before a verbal dispute escalates into a physical fight) and positive
support (teaching expected behaviors) are more effective than reactive
approaches that emphasize punishment.

A critical component of a safe school environment is the establishment
of clear guidelines for student behavior. Such guidelines should enable
students to understand what behaviors adhere to or violate the school\'s
expectations. Early in the school year, the Schoolwide Team, with input
from the entire school community, should meet to establish behavior
guidelines. Ideally, these basic rules of behavior should be as follows:

-   Stated simply and positively (e.g., \"Walk\" instead of \"Do not
    run\").

-   Few in number so they can be memorized.

-   Reinforced, modeled, and enforced by the adults in the school.

-   Consistent with the social skills that all school staff are teaching
    and reinforcing.

After establishing schoolwide behavioral expectations, the team should
determine incentives for appropriate behavior and consequences for
inappropriate behavior. These actions should be agreeable to all or most
members of the school and be easy to use. An effective schoolwide
management system is one in which all students know and can explain the
school\'s expectations for behavior, as well as the incentives and
consequences associated with adhering to or violating the expectations.

Despite ongoing and structured encouragement of appropriate behavior,
some students may commit minor infractions or exhibit major disruptive
behaviors. Caring schools use positive disciplinary measures to address
these instances. Positive discipline has, at a minimum, the following
three important characteristics:

-   An explanation of why the behavior is a problem.

-   An explanation of which rule was violated.

-   The provision of opportunities to learn appropriate behaviors and to
    correct mistakes.

Students need to understand that not all inappropriate behavior is the
same and that different consequences are associated with different
levels of inappropriate behavior. Safe schools should build their
capacity to deal with multiple violations of the rules by developing
multiple levels of consequences. These levels should be systematically
followed and never short-circuited. That is, steps on the consequences
ladder should not be skipped to expedite a child\'s removal from the
school building. The exception is any major violation of school rules
that endangers the life of the child or the lives of others. It is also
critical that parents understand the school conduct codes and the
consequences for violations.

The consistent use of incentives and consequences is critical to
successful management of behavior at the school level. When staff fail
to adopt and implement agreed-upon procedures to encourage student use
of positive behaviors, students learn that sometimes it is okay not to
solve problems this way. As a result, their use of problem-solving
strategies will be erratic at best. Consistency does not just happen. It
is usually due to school-level strategic planning, team building,
professional development, and ongoing discussion and evaluation.
Consistency is further strengthened when a school\'s positive behavioral
strategies and discipline system extend to families, support agencies,
and other community groups.

The important components of schoolwide management strategies also apply
at the classroom level. Expectations for behavior, the use of incentives
and consequences, and the consistency with which they are implemented
are just as important in the classroom as anywhere else in the school
building. Students should understand classroom rules, have the skills to
demonstrate behaviors that will allow them to meet the rules, and
understand the incentives and consequences for appropriate and
inappropriate behavior. In general, classrooms that are well managed are
characterized by the following conditions:

-   Classroom routines are well-established and understood by all.

-   Teachers spend a great majority of time on academic instruction and
    only a minimal amount of time is required to redirect disruptive
    behavior.

-   Teacher feedback to students regarding their behavior is
    overwhelmingly positive.

-   Mechanisms are in place for students to cool off and generate
    solutions to problems.

-   Students have opportunities to practice and use the solutions that
    they generate.

-   Academic tasks match students\' instructional levels.

-   Academic tasks are presented at an engaging and appropriate pace.

-   Rules and consequences are followed and applied consistently.

-   High expectations exist for student behavior.

-   Transition periods are highly structured with increased adult
    monitoring.

In addition to developing expectations for appropriate behavior and
reinforcing that behavior throughout the school, an effective schoolwide
violence prevention plan includes environmental interventions designed
to prevent unsafe behavior. These interventions are discussed next.

Expectations for student behavior should be posted throughout the school
and should be frequently reinforced by all staff. Also, the use of
pictures or symbols to illustrate each expectation can be helpful for
younger children and for some students with cognitive disabilities.

**Creating a Safe Physical Environment**

Inevitably, there will be special situations and special places in
schools where problems are more likely to occur. To prevent such
problems, changing the school environment may be necessary. These
interventions alter the use of school space and supervision routines so
that opportunities for violent or disruptive behavior are minimized or
eliminated.

An analysis of the school environment can determine if hot spots exist
in the school. For example, the back hallway leading from the locker
commons to the band room may be an area where many fights or disruptions
occur due to minimal supervision and poor lighting. Perhaps an analysis
also will show that these problems are most likely to occur in the
mornings at a time when student traffic increases through the back
hallway. A thorough understanding of when and where problems occur
should prove invaluable to the Schoolwide Team. Some of the
environmental characteristics that a school may examine include the
following:

-   Number and types of exits.

-   Location and design of bathrooms.

-   Design of the cafeteria, common areas, and the playground.

-   Patterns of supervision.

-   Density of traffic patterns throughout parts of the school during
    various times of the day.

-   Lighting.

-   Isolated areas.

-   Bell and class schedules and the mixing of students from different
    grades.

-   Length of time students stand in line to wait for a bus or to wait
    for lunch.

Equipped with the above information, the Schoolwide Team will be in a
position to change the environment to minimize opportunities for
inappropriate behavior. By continuing to monitor and supervise all areas
of the school regularly, the team can maximize environmental safety.

**Comprehensive Schoolwide Prevention and Intervention Programs that
Provide Positive Support**

**Project ACHIEVE**

Project ACHIEVE is a schoolwide, comprehensive prevention and early
intervention program for students in elementary and middle schools. It
emphasizes increasing student performance in social skills and conflict
resolution, improving student achievement and academic progress,
facilitating positive school climates, and increasing parental
involvement and support.

Project ACHIEVE is an integrated process that involves organizational
and resource development, comprehensive in-service training, and
follow-up. Project ACHIEVE begins with strategic planning which requires
teachers, staff, school-based mental health professionals, students, and
families to work together to adopt schoolwide systems of effective
behavior management and positive skills-oriented student discipline, as
well as to improve instructional practices and academic support for
students.

These schoolwide systems focus on teaching students prosocial skills,
problem-solving methods, and anger management techniques while
simultaneously training teachers, staff, and families to intervene
positively when problems occur. Typically, students are taught one new
skill each week that faculty and staff help them practice by prompting
them at every reasonable opportunity with key phrases, such as Stop and
think, Make a good choice, What are my choices, and How did I do?
Project ACHIEVE is designed to reduce acts of aggression, violence, and
disruptive behavior that often lead to suspensions, academic failure,
and special education referral.

Project ACHIEVE has a strong evaluation component that considers student
outcomes, teacher outcomes, school outcomes, and direct and indirect
outcomes. A formal evaluation of the impact of Project ACHIEVE found the
following: a decrease in disciplinary referrals to the principal\'s
office; a decrease in out-of-school suspensions; a significant decrease
in the retention of students; and a significant increase in the number
of students who scored above the 50th percentile on end-of-year
achievement tests.

**Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports**

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a comprehensive
schoolwide prevention and intervention program that provides behavioral
support to students, including those with chronic behavioral problems,
and consultation support to teachers.

PBIS has four major components that provide prevention and intervention
for problematic behavior, including schoolwide behavior support systems,
specific setting support systems, classroom behavior support systems,
and individual behavior support systems. The schoolwide support involves
procedures and processes that are intended for all students, all staff,
and all settings. Schoolwide efforts clarify expectations, simplify
rules for student behavior, and build in a continuum of procedures to
encourage students to display expected behaviors and discourage students
from violating rules. The most important element of support at the
schoolwide level is a building-based team that oversees all development,
implementation, modification, and evaluation of prevention efforts.

The setting-specific support component uses a team-based mechanism to
monitor specific settings and to develop intervention strategies for
settings within the building where problem behaviors occur regularly.
The classroom support component involves procedures and processes for
individual classrooms that parallel the strategies and procedures used
schoolwide. The individual support component provides intensive,
immediate, and effective intervention to students whose behavior
presents the most significant or chronic challenge to staff. For these
students, PBIS provides teachers and staff with a set of functional
suggestions as well as additional resources to help them manage the
student\'s behavior more effectively and deter placement of the student
out of the neighborhood school.

A formal evaluation of PBIS found a significant reduction in discipline
referrals to the principal\'s office, especially in the time period
prior to school vacations. In addition, evaluation findings indicated
that teachers favor the PBIS program because they feel more effective in
their teaching and management of student problem behavior.

**Providing Appropriate Academic Instruction**

Disruptive, antisocial, or violent behavior can result from ongoing
academic frustration and failure. Schools and teachers face tremendous
pressures to cover all of the required curricula while ensuring that
every child performs at least at grade level. In their zeal to
accomplish both goals, teachers sometimes provide instruction that is
not tailored to meet the learning needs of every child. The experience
of success\--whether through academic or vocational instruction, or a
combination of both\--is important to minimize students\' feelings of
frustration. Of course, without extra support, success is virtually
impossible.

Numerous interventions exist to address the individual needs of
struggling students, but far fewer schoolwide interventions have been
fully developed. However, at least three schoolwide interventions are
both effective and feasible for teachers to implement. They are
Class-Wide Peer Tutoring, cooperative learning, and direct instruction.
These strategies are particularly powerful because they enable children
to experience a high rate of success on meaningful academic tasks and to
practice their new skills. To use these techniques successfully,
teachers and other staff must receive ongoing training to master
instructional techniques.

**Class-Wide Peer Tutoring\--An Example of an Academic Intervention**

Class-Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) is a method of same-age, intra-class,
reciprocal peer tutoring that many schools around the country have found
useful in adapting general education classroom instruction to meet the
individual needs of diverse students with diverse skills.

In addition to peer tutors, teachers divide the text into short passages
that can be introduced on Monday each week, tutored during daily
sessions throughout the week, and tested for progress on Friday. Because
the basic academic skills units (e.g., reading comprehension, math,
spelling) are short by design, each student can practice them several
times each day\--leading to mastery, fluency, or automaticity. The units
also may be organized by difficulty level to accommodate skill level
differences represented in the classroom. For upper-grade, content-level
instruction (e.g., social studies, science), the peer tutoring materials
are organized around study guides that are coordinated with text book
units within chapters.

CWPT incorporates a game structure. Students earn points for themselves
and for their team. They learn that winning the game is a matter of how
well they and their partner respond to the task. Because of this
arrangement, tutors learn to help, prompt, and really care about how
their partner performs. Since teams and partners change each week, CWPT
students learn from the very beginning that they are expected to work
with every student in the classroom, so they learn to accept a variety
of individual learning styles and different personalities.

More than 35 studies have shown CWPT\'s superiority compared with other
instructional strategies. Studies have shown increased engagement,
mastery, and fluency with the subject matter. Further, students\' weekly
test scores and grades have improved.

**Chapter 3:**

**Responding to Children Exhibiting Early Warning Signs: Early
Intervention**

With an effective foundation in place, most schools can look forward to
a significant reduction in student behavioral problems. Preventing and
greatly reducing such problems schoolwide makes it easier for staff to
focus attention on specific students whose behaviors signal a need for
early intervention. Students who continue to experience behavioral
problems, despite schoolwide prevention activities, may be exhibiting
early warning signs of violence.

This chapter focuses on the 10 to 15 percent of students whose problem
behaviors indicate a need for early intervention. The chapter reviews
the early warning signs of violence, lists effective practices used by a
number of schools to teach individuals to recognize the early warning
signs, outlines a process for receiving and responding to concerns about
individual children, and discusses how to develop early individualized
interventions.

**Review of the Early Warning Signs of Violence**

**Early Warning Signs**

-   Social withdrawal.

-   Excessive feelings of isolation or being alone.

-   Excessive feelings of rejection.

-   Being a victim of violence.

-   Feelings of being picked on and persecuted.

-   Low school interest and poor academic performance.

-   Expression of violence in writing and drawings.

-   Uncontrolled anger.

-   Patterns of impulsive and chronic hitting, intimidating, and
    bullying behaviors.

-   History of discipline problems.

-   History of violent and aggressive behavior.

-   Intolerance for differences and prejudicial attitudes.

-   Drug use and alcohol use.

-   Affiliation with gangs.

-   Inappropriate access to, possession of, and use of firearms.

-   Serious threats of violence (also an imminent warning sign).

The list on the right presents the early warning signs, which were
introduced in the *Early Warning Guide*. Safe and effective schools
ensure that teachers, administrators, school support staff, parents,
students, and the larger school community become familiar with the early
warning signs and the principles for taking appropriate actions.
Understanding is the first step in the process of early intervention
because it gives people the knowledge to recognize when a student may
need help.

An important balance must be found between responding to the signs of a
child who may need help and being harmful by labeling or overreacting to
a situation. The ability to recognize the warning signs and to interpret
them as indicators that a child may need assistance reduces the risk
that parents, educators, and community members will misinterpret student
behavior and react inappropriately.

This balance between responding and overreacting is more likely achieved
when the efforts to identify and respond to students are guided by the
five principles for using the early warning signs of violence, which are
listed. Further elaboration on these five principles can be found in the
*Early Warning Guide*.

Furthermore, the importance of building relationships with children and
youth\--part of the schoolwide foundation\--cannot be overemphasized.
When teachers, administrators, support staff, pupil services staff, and
parents build close, caring, and supportive relationships with children
and youth, they increase the likelihood that a child or youth who is in
trouble will reach out to them. Teachers, due to their vast experiences
with many same-age children, are uniquely positioned to identify
students who may be exhibiting early warning signs. Teachers have
frequent interactions and conversations with students, and are
responsible for monitoring student academic performance and behavior.
The depth and frequency of this contact often places teachers in a
position in which students may disclose something personal or critically
important to them, such as their feelings of isolation, reports of
bullying behavior, situations of abuse or neglect, suicidal ideation, or
threats that peers are making toward others or the school. Similarly,
close and caring relationships between teachers and students can
increase the chances that a student holding critical knowledge about
another child or a potentially violent situation will disclose that
information sooner rather than later. By getting to know children and
youth, teachers, support staff, and parents are more likely to recognize
a pattern or a change in behavior that may be an early warning sign and
then seek assistance for the child.

It\'s okay to be concerned about a child, but it\'s not okay to
overreact and jump to conclusions. There are early warning signs in most
cases of violence to self and others\--certain behavioral and emotional
signs that, when viewed in context, can signal a troubled child. But
early warning signs are just that\--indicators that a student may need
help.

Early Warning, Timely Response, p. 5.

**Principles for Using the Early Warning Signs of Violence**

-   Do no harm.

-   Understand violence and aggression within a context.

-   Avoid stereotypes.

-   View warning signs within a developmental context.

-   Understand that children typically exhibit multiple warning signs.

**Building the Capacity to Identify Early Warning Signs**

Teachers, administrators, and support staff are bombarded each school
year by in-service training and new initiatives. Information overload
and time demands can be overwhelming. Yet, the responsibility to protect
the safety of children and to meet the needs of children at risk for
violence cannot be left to one person or group of people. Rather, all
school staff must be familiar with the early warning signs and possess a
sense of urgency to respond appropriately on the behalf of children. The
following policies, procedures, and practices build the capacity of a
school and community to identify the early warning signs exhibited by
children:

-   Policies that sanction and promote the identification of early
    warning signs and are backed by adequate resources. District and
    school policies should ensure that all members of the school
    community understand the importance of early warning signs and
    employ them appropriately. School boards and school-based
    policy-makers should be provided with evaluation data so that they
    can modify policies when necessary and allocate resources.

**Caution**

Simplistic or mechanical use of lists of warning signs can harm children
and waste resources. Using the *Early Warning Guide*, educators, staff,
and families can increase their ability to recognize early warning signs
and discuss their concerns with the Student Support Team. Schools using
the early warning signs should, at a minimum, use the descriptions of
the early warning signs in the *Early Warning Guide*.

-   Procedures that encourage and expect individuals to report concerns
    about a student exhibiting early warning signs. Each school should
    develop a procedure that students and staff can follow when
    reporting their concerns about a child who exhibits early warning
    signs. For example, in many schools the principal is the first point
    of contact. In cases that do not pose imminent danger, the principal
    contacts a qualified mental health professional (e.g., school
    psychologist) who takes responsibility for addressing the concern
    immediately. If the concern is determined to be significant, the
    child\'s family should be contacted. Parents are consulted before
    any formal assessments are implemented and are included in the
    development of interventions for their child. In cases where
    school-based contextual factors are determined to be causing or
    exacerbating the child\'s troubling behavior, the school acts
    quickly to modify them.

-   Practices that encourage individuals to raise concerns about
    observed early warning signs and to report all observations of
    imminent danger immediately. When staff seek help for a troubled
    child, when friends report worries about a peer or friend, when
    parents raise concerns about their children\'s thoughts or behavior,
    children can get the help they need. School leaders can encourage
    members of the school community to raise concerns.

-   Policies that support ongoing training and consultation. District
    and school policies should ensure that school staff receive training
    and consultation on the effective use of the warning signs.

-   Policies and procedures that ensure that staff and students use the
    early warning signs only for preliminary identification and referral
    purposes. Only trained professionals should diagnose a student in
    consultation with the child\'s parents or guardians.

-   School practices that encourage and provide opportunities for staff
    and families to establish close, caring, and supportive
    relationships with children and youth. Safe schools ensure that
    adults get to know children well enough to be aware of their needs,
    feelings, attitudes, and behavior patterns.

-   Policies, practices, and procedures that foster collaboration
    between the school and the students\' families. Working together,
    educators and parents are encouraged to review school records for
    patterns of behavior or sudden changes in behavior.

**Imminent Warning Signs**

-   Serious physical fighting with peers or family members.

-   Severe destruction of property.

-   Severe rage for seemingly minor reasons.

-   Detailed threats of lethal violence.

-   Possession and/or use of firearms and other weapons.

-   Other self-injurious behaviors or threats of suicide.

Early Warning, Timely Response, p. 11.

**Gun-Free Schools**

The Gun-Free Schools Act requires that each state receiving federal
funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) must have
put in effect, by October 1995, a state law requiring local educational
agencies to expel from school for a period of not less than one year a
student who is determined to have brought a firearm to school.

Each state\'s law also must allow the chief administering officer of the
local educational agency to modify the expulsion requirement on a
case-by-case basis. All local educational agencies receiving ESEA funds
must have a policy that requires the referral of any student who brings
a firearm to school to the criminal justice or juvenile justice system.

**Immediate Interventions for Dangerous Situations**

Immediate intervention by school authorities and possibly law
enforcement officers is needed in the following circumstances:

-   A student has presented a detailed plan (time, place, and method) to
    harm himself or herself or others\--particularly if the student has
    a history of aggression or has attempted to carry out threats in the
    past.

-   A student has a weapon, particularly a firearm, and has threatened
    to use it.

In cases such as these, the school staff should immediately inform
parents and other caregivers of these concerns. Schools are also
responsible for seeking assistance from appropriate agencies, such as
the police, child and family services, and community mental health
services. These responses should reflect school board policies; federal,
state, and local laws; and the school\'s violence prevention and
response plan.

**Connecting the Early Warning Signs to Early Intervention: Developing a
Referral Response Process**

Once school staff, parents, and community members become familiar with
the warning signs and understand the urgency of being responsive to a
child exhibiting signs, they need to know how to respond. They need to
know with whom to share their concerns and how to get help. Teachers and
staff should feel confident that when they share their concerns about a
child, support will be readily available. They rely upon having quick
access to trained professionals who will determine how to help these
students.

In the majority of schools, a team of trained professionals already
exists that provides consultation, evaluation, and intervention for
students who are struggling academically, behaviorally, and socially.
Safe schools will typically expand the focus of this team to include
responding to individual students who exhibit early warning signs or, if
necessary, create such a team. When a child or youth exhibits early
warning signs, the school can no longer rely on schoolwide interventions
alone. Rather, a Student Support Team, working with the teacher, child,
and parents, must develop interventions that specifically address the
child\'s behaviors of concern. Early intervention requires a referral
process that can respond in a timely, coordinated, and effective manner.

**Referral**

It is important for all staff and families to understand the role and
function of the Student Support Team and to be informed that the team is
the authority to whom they bring their concerns regarding a child who
may be exhibiting early warning signs. Staff training, parent
question-and-answer sessions, classroom visits to inform students, and a
public relations campaign within the community are needed to explain the
team\'s membership, purpose, and approach and to disseminate information
about how to request the team\'s assistance. Some schools create a
brochure on ways to access the Student Support Team formally and include
names and telephone numbers of team members to encourage informal
consultations.

All those involved with the student\--including administrators,
teachers, support staff, families, and students\--may find it difficult
to admit that a child close to them needs help. To encourage people to
share their concerns about individual children, the referral process
must be easy, and it must result in immediate attention by the Student
Support Team. Schoolwide referral systems should enable teachers, staff,
and parents to access the Student Support Team in a timely, respectful,
supportive, and confidential manner. A school should consider several
principles when developing a referral process.

**Principles for Developing a Referral Process**

The process of making a referral to the Student Support Team should
enable students and staff to access help quickly. In developing the
team\'s referral process, keep in mind the following seven principles:

-   **Simplify requests for urgent assistance.** Many school systems and
    community agencies have complex legalistic referral systems with
    timelines and waiting lists. Children who may be exhibiting early
    warning signs and are potentially at risk of endangering themselves
    or others cannot be placed on a waiting list. Referral forms must
    communicate the urgency of the referral to the team. Teams should
    consider adding a box on the standard referral form to indicate when
    the referral is about a child who is exhibiting early warning signs
    for violence. Alternatively, a separate referral form might be
    developed that is copied onto brightly colored paper and used only
    for referrals regarding a child who is exhibiting early warning
    signs. Consideration should also be given to listing the imminent
    warning signs on the referral form, with instructions that direct
    the person to go to the principal immediately if the concerns match
    imminent warning signs rather than early warning signs.

-   **Give scheduling preference to urgent referrals.** The Student
    Support Team must respond by convening as soon as possible following
    the receipt of a referral regarding a child exhibiting early warning
    signs. These referrals cannot be pushed to an agenda in the future.
    In some cases, the Student Support Team will need to \"bump\" a
    nonurgent referral from its agenda to review the referral as soon as
    possible. In other situations, the team will need to convene at a
    day or time other than its regular schedule.

-   **Encourage informal consultations.** Sometimes teachers, staff,
    students, and parents hesitate to refer a child they think may be
    exhibiting early warning signs. Their hesitation may stem from the
    formal nature of this action, the insecurities they feel about
    identifying early warning signs, and how they might feel if their
    referral is deemed unfounded. That\'s why safe schools encourage
    informal consultations, because they offer another option to share
    concerns about individual children.

-   **Inform and listen to parents when early warning signs are
    observed.** Parents should be involved as soon as possible. Parents
    need to be encouraged to meet with the Student Support Team when a
    referral has been made about their child possibly exhibiting early
    warning signs.

-   **Make interventions available as soon as possible following
    referrals.** Too frequently, interventions are not available
    quickly. Safe and effective schools build mechanisms into their
    referral process that ensure that the Student Support Team convenes
    promptly, involves parents immediately, and, within the first
    meeting, decides what actions or steps each person will take
    initially to support the child.

-   **Maintain confidentiality and parents\' rights to privacy.** In
    responding to a referral, Student Support Teams may determine with
    the family that agencies outside of the school need to become
    involved. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a
    federal law that addresses the privacy of education records, must be
    observed in all referrals to or sharing of information with other
    community agencies. In particular, parent-approved interagency
    communication should be kept confidential. FERPA generally requires
    parental consent before personally identifiable information about a
    student is shared with other agencies. FERPA does allow disclosure
    (without parental consent) to appropriate parties such as medical or
    emergency personnel in the case of an acute emergency (imminent
    danger).

-   **Circumvent the referral process in cases of imminent warning
    signs.** When a student is believed to pose imminent danger, safety
    must always be the foremost consideration. In these situations, the
    referral process is circumvented. Action must be taken immediately
    by school authorities and law enforcement personnel. Principals may
    find it helpful to seek consultation from the Student Support Team
    while taking immediate action and notifying the student\'s parents
    of the school\'s concerns.

**Involving Students in the Referral Process**

Students must be partners in identifying early warning signs and
providing information about potentially dangerous situations. Just as
schools should make the referral process comfortable for adults, safe
schools should tailor the referral process to the needs of students.
Students who have information about a peer or a potentially dangerous
situation may be fearful and hesitant to share their concerns. Both the
Schoolwide Team and the Student Support Team should work with students
to develop ideas and approaches for students to share their concerns
about peers and situations without the fear of reprisal. Some schools
have created a telephone hotline or a safe school box for written
concerns; others have designated a set of students at each grade level
who are \"safe school liaisons,\" because they are available to hear
concerns from their peers. Techniques like these enable students to
share their concerns or information more comfortably, trusting that
their information will remain confidential. Acknowledging to students
that they are partners with the staff in keeping their school safe will
create a sense of shared responsibility and ally students with the staff
and community. Ensuring students of confidentiality will increase their
use of the reporting system.

**Handling Referral Questions**

One effective model that combines problem-solving, consultation, and
preliminary planning processes is Referral Question Consultation. This
component of Project ACHIEVE was developed to specifically investigate
referral concerns of teachers, parents, or others working with a
student. This model focuses on developing specific referral questions
that, when answered, have obvious implications for intervention.

These referral questions are based on the development of hypotheses
regarding a particular referral concern. Referral questions and
individualized assessment plans are collaboratively developed through
ongoing, data-based consultation with the student\'s teachers and
parents. Once the assessment is completed, specific answers to the
referral questions are generated. These answers lead directly to
developing interventions that alleviate the conditions causing the
troubling behavior.

**Responding to Referrals**

The Student Support Team must have the capacity to respond to referrals
in a timely, coordinated, and effective manner. Adopting a procedure to
guide how the team provides individualized interventions and supports
will improve both the efficiency and the effectiveness of the team\'s
response to children and youth who need early intervention. Effective
procedures incorporate problem-solving, consultation, preliminary
planning, and developing and implementing interventions. Teams
repeatedly cycle through these activities as they develop, implement,
monitor, and modify individualized interventions and supports for
particular students.

Safe schools understand that families are central to children\'s
educational success and their social and emotional adjustment. To
involve the family at each step\--from referral through the
implementation of individualized interventions\--requires that families
feel valued and supported and that they experience parity with other
members of the team.

Families should be viewed as members of the team who can provide a
comprehensive picture of their children from birth to the present.
Families can help the team identify children\'s strengths and interests,
as well as validate observed needs. The information provided by families
informs decisions the Student Support Team will make with families
regarding children\'s needs for individualized early intervention and
assessment. Maintaining a collaborative relationship between the school
and family will lay the groundwork for the successful implementation of
early intervention plans.

**Questions to Frame the Discussion at the Initial Meeting After the
Referral**

For the initial meeting, the team\'s assessment goals are to gather
preliminary information about the factors contributing to the behaviors
of concern. The team should pose questions that begin to identify
possible reasons for the problem behaviors. This preliminary information
is important because it directs follow-up activities as the team moves
into developing the child\'s individualized intervention plan. The
following five types of questions can help the team engage in
problem-solving:

-   Questions that lead to discussion about the child\'s strengths and
    weaknesses in such areas as academic skills and progress,
    friendships, emotional adjustment, coping strategies, physical
    health, interests, loss or other traumatic experiences, and personal
    and family strengths and stressors.

-   Questions that lead to discussion and information about the
    interaction of the child\'s skills and ability to cope with life and
    school demands, including self-management of frustration, conflict,
    and attention; adaptability to changes; and willingness to seek
    assistance.

-   Questions that lead to discussion about the interaction of the
    child\'s skills and means for coping with instructional demands,
    including the match between the child\'s academic skills and
    academic demands.

-   Questions that lead to discussion about how directions are typically
    presented; whether they are multi-step, ambiguous, complicated;
    whether instruction is paced too slow or too fast; presented in
    either a highly oral or a highly visual mode; the amount of
    independent work versus group work; and pencil-and-paper work versus
    hands-on projects.

-   Questions that lead to discussion of what strategies the school has
    tried and what the results have been.

**The Initial Meeting**

Once the Student Support Team receives a referral for a child who may be
exhibiting early warning signs, the response process begins with a
meeting. The agenda for the initial meeting will likely include
problem-solving, consultation, and preliminary planning.

-   **Problem-Solving.** The team should convene promptly to discuss the
    referral and to decide what actions to take following the meeting.
    The team\'s discussion in this meeting should focus on understanding
    the problem behaviors and events that led to the concerns and
    subsequent referral. Effective collaboration at this initial team
    meeting is imperative. Team members must encourage the referring
    person to discuss concerns openly and should acknowledge the
    person\'s \"good work\" in noticing the child\'s difficulties and
    making the referral for assistance. A team member should let the
    referring person know that questions will be posed to clarify the
    concerns and observations leading to the referral and to determine
    any immediate risks to the child or school community that should be
    addressed immediately.

-   **Consultation.** Once the team discusses the questions, the team
    will determine how to respond to the concerns. At this stage,
    consultation with the referring teacher or parent may be
    appropriate. For example, the mental health professional or the
    school nurse may provide valuable support if the problem is social,
    emotional, or medical in nature. Similarly, the team may determine
    that the classroom teacher needs assistance from a master teacher to
    modify instructional approaches or classroom management strategies.
    If the team decides that a consultation will not be sufficient to
    deal effectively with the problem, it should decide how to proceed;
    sometimes, a more in-depth approach is needed.

-   **Preliminary Planning.** At this point, the team develops a
    preliminary action plan to detail specific follow-up activities,
    outlining the child and teacher supports that will be implemented
    immediately and continue until the team meets again to develop the
    child\'s individualized intervention plan. The nature and complexity
    of the problem will determine how the team moves through the
    process.\
    \
    To ensure effective follow-through, the team may designate a case
    manager, who tracks every step of the process. In addition, the team
    should list the responsibilities of each team member on the action
    plan, list dates each activity will be completed, and agree on a
    date and time when members will reconvene. Typically, families and
    team members find that a case manager can facilitate progress and
    help families feel connected and in the \"communication loop.\"

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; Public Law
105-17 and Final Regulations published in the Federal Register, March
12, 1999), an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) team must meet to
conduct a \"functional behavioral assessment\" and implement an
associated \"behavioral intervention plan\" for any child with a
disability who has been removed from the current education placement for
more than 10 school days in the same school year. If the child already
has a behavioral intervention plan, the IEP team shall meet to review
the plan and its implementation and modify the plan and its
implementation, as necessary, to address the behavior.

**Developing Early Interventions**

After the team\'s initial meeting, follow-up activities should focus on
collecting data and information that identify the specific factors
underlying and contributing to the problem behaviors. Several data
collection procedures can help identify the causes of a child\'s problem
behavior, but one approach\--functional assessment\--is becoming more
familiar to school professionals. This familiarity is due to changes in
special education law which require the use of functional assessment in
particular situations involving students with disabilities.

The following describes how to employ functional assessment to develop
individualized interventions and supports. The Student Support Team can
use this process to develop individualized early interventions following
the initial meeting to review and discuss the referral. There are three
phases: problem identification and analysis, plan development and
implementation, and plan evaluation.

**Problem Identification and Analysis**

-   **Understanding the Problem Behaviors.** A well-developed assessment
    plan and a properly executed functional assessment should identify
    the contextual factors that contribute to behavior. This is
    accomplished by collecting information on the various conditions
    under which a student is most and least likely to be a successful
    learner. The information collected through discussion, record review
    and direct observation will allow the team to predict the
    circumstances under which the problem behavior is most and least
    likely to occur.

-   **Direct Measurement of the Problem Behavior.** During this stage,
    the Student Support Team collects and analyzes important information
    about the problem behavior. Observing the student in the classroom
    or other settings provides information regarding frequency,
    intensity, and severity of the problem; when and where the behavior
    does and does not occur, and the consequences of this behavior.

-   **Functional Assessment.** During the problem-solving phase, the
    team identifies the causes of behavior and selects interventions to
    directly address those causes. In using functional assessment, the
    team looks beyond the behavior itself and focuses on the factors
    associated with the behavior in the setting in which it occurs. What
    is the child seeking to obtain, avoid, or escape? What does the
    child gain through this behavior? Conversely, what is the child
    protesting? The major objective is to substitute a positive behavior
    or response that serves the same function for the student, but is
    acceptable in the school. Since the child\'s desires are often
    intricately woven into the instructional setting and demands,
    functional assessment can provide information on ways to modify and
    address the instructional strategies and other environmental
    conditions contributing to the problem behavior.

**Functional Assessment\--An Example**

Seventh-grade twin brothers, who were receiving special education and
related services, were being disruptive out of school and in some of
their classes. The IEP team met and decided to do a functional
assessment. This assessment included teacher interviews and classroom
observations in the settings where the students were and were not
disruptive. After speaking with the students, the team determined that
they were disruptive only in science and social studies because they had
difficulty reading the teacher\'s cursive handwriting. As a result of
the assessment, the teachers printed the material and worked to address
the underlying learning issues.

The students\' academic performance and behavior markedly improved after
the assessment.

**Plan Development, Implementation, and Evaluation**

-   **Developing a Step-by-Step Intervention Plan.** A plan should be
    developed to enable the child to substitute a replacement behavior
    and to make the environment and adult-child interactions conducive
    to the child\'s needs for support and learning. The new behavior
    should be meaningful to the child and allow the child to meet an
    appropriate need that the child was previously meeting by engaging
    in the undesirable behavior. Once the replacement behavior is
    defined, a plan should be developed to teach the child the new
    behavior and to change any environmental conditions that are either
    causing or maintaining the undesirable behavior.

-   **Implementing the Intervention.** Each step of the plan must be
    implemented as planned. If the plan is part of a child\'s IEP, it
    must be implemented as written. After two to four weeks, the team
    should gauge the preliminary success of the plan and identify ways
    the plan may be modified or supports added. If a school has tried
    other plans that lacked consistency or adequacy, the Student Support
    Team should allow more time to pass before determining the
    effectiveness of the new plan. Students can \"wait out\" an
    intervention if they expect it to discontinue quickly.

-   **Monitoring the Intervention.** If the plan is successful in
    meeting its intended goals, then the team must decide whether the
    intervention should be continued, scaled back, or applied to other
    behaviors or in other settings. Ultimately, the intervention should
    include a self-management and monitoring component so that the
    student can begin to take responsibility for his or her own
    behavior. If the plan does not meet its desired goals, then
    revisions to the intervention may be necessary. Revisions may also
    require the team to cycle back through direct measurement of
    behavior and functional assessment. If the student is a child with a
    disability, the requirements of the IDEA must be fulfilled.

**Early Interventions**

**First Step to Success**

First Step to Success is an early intervention program designed to
address the needs of kindergarten children identified as having
antisocial or aggressive behavioral problems. The model includes three
components: a kindergarten screening process, a classroom-based skills
training curriculum called CLASS, and a family intervention program
called HomeBase.

First Step to Success uses trained consultants who work directly with
students, teachers, and parents to help coordinate the intervention
efforts between the home and the school. Consultants provide teachers
and parents strategies to teach students alternative replacement
behaviors and to effectively reward students when those behaviors are
used appropriately and consistently. Students learn specific skills and
behaviors to use that are more effective and adaptive than the behaviors
they have used in the past.

To provide practice and reinforcement for the new skills the child has
learned, the consultant, teacher, or classroom aide provides the student
with visual cues (i.e., a green or red card) during the school day that
indicate whether he or she is on-task and using appropriate behaviors.
Over the course of a school day, the student accrues points toward his
or her behavioral goal. If the student makes the daily goal, he or she
gets to select a fun activity for the entire class to participate in and
appreciate.

Every evening, teachers provide parents with feedback about how the
student\'s day went. Parents are trained and encouraged to reward the
child\'s positive behavior by spending extra time with their child in a
fun child-directed activity. Once the classroom teacher feels
comfortable taking full responsibility for implementing the CLASS
curriculum, the consultant begins working more directly with the
student\'s parents to assist the family with implementing the HomeBase
intervention program.

A formal evaluation of First Step to Success found effective and lasting
improvements in the students\' behavior and social adjustment, even
three years after the initial intervention. Significant reductions were
observed in the students\' aggressive and maladaptive behaviors, while
significant increases were observed in the student\'s adaptive behaviors
and academic engaged time. In addition, teachers implementing the CLASS
curriculum expressed high levels of satisfaction with the program,
noting that it is easy to learn and implement and leads to favorable
results with their students.

**Positive Adolescent Choices Training**

Positive Adolescent Choices Training (PACT) is a violence prevention
curriculum designed to be implemented in an intensive, small group
setting with African American middle and high school students who are at
risk for becoming victims or perpetrators of violence. The PACT
curriculum is a culturally sensitive training program developed
specifically for African American adolescents.

PACT uses a cognitive-behavioral group training method that equips
adolescents with specific knowledge, as well as social and anger
management skills to use in situations of interpersonal conflict. The
curriculum involves teaching in three primary areas: violence-risk
education, anger management, and prosocial skills. Individual lessons
concentrate on dispelling myths, educating students about violence,
building alternative social and self-management skills, and changing
cognitive beliefs that lead to physical contact, aggression, and violent
acts.

The violence-risk education component dispels myths about what
constitutes a threat and counters belief systems that perpetuate
hostility and the capacity for violence (e.g., thinking that violence is
acceptable, victims don\'t suffer, victims deserve what they get, and
quick assumptions that others intend harm). Emphasis is placed on
developing the student\'s capacity to generate alternative solutions to
conflict, including skills such as giving positive and negative
feedback, accepting feedback from others, negotiating and
problem-solving, and resisting peer pressure.

PACT uses videotaped vignettes with African American role models as well
as student-directed role-playing skits to teach skills and provide
multiple opportunities to practice alternative anger management skills.
A formal evaluation of PACT found a significant reduction in the
physical aggression displayed at school by students participating in the
intensive curriculum, as well as fewer violence-related juvenile court
charges than a comparable group of students who had not participated in
the PACT curriculum.

**Early Intervention Strategies**

The table below lists strategies that may be used for early
interventions. These strategies differ in their complexity. Although
each strategy listed may work for some students, no one strategy works
for all students. In addition, some strategies have been evaluated
extensively through research studies, while others have less research to
document their effectiveness. These strategies are provided to assist
Student Support Teams who are developing intervention plans for students
whose behavioral problems have been resistant to universal or schoolwide
interventions. It is important to note that these strategies could also
be integrated with the schoolwide foundation as well as incorporated in
intensive interventions.

**Developing an Early Intervention Plan\--An Example**

Darren, an eighth-grade student with a learning disability, made a
threat under his breath that he was going to beat up his teacher. The
teacher recognized the threat as an early warning sign. The teacher then
made a referral to the Student Support Team.

The team included the child\'s mother, a special education case manager,
the general education referring teacher, the principal, a
speech-language clinician, a school psychologist, and a school social
worker. The team discussed the referral and the academic, behavioral,
and language goals currently included on Darren\'s IEP. The referring
teacher explained that Darren made the threat after she prompted him for
a third time to begin his work. The teacher also commented that
Darren\'s reading skills were very poor.

The team developed a preliminary hypothesis regarding the problem
behavior and developed an action plan for a follow-up assessment. After
observing Darren in large group instructional settings, the hypothesis
was confirmed: Darren was having difficulty comprehending material
presented orally, comprehending eighth-grade reading material, and
communicating these problems to his teacher.

As a result of the assessment, the speech and language clinician worked
with Darren to script ways that he could communicate his confusion and
need for assistance. At the same time, the special education and general
education teachers collaborated on ways to adapt his textbooks and use
cooperative learning groups to reduce the frequency of large-group oral
presentation of content.

There are three keys to designing early interventions for particular
students. The first is to assess (as completely as possible) the reasons
for the child\'s behavior so that selection of strategies is highly
informed and targeted. The second key is to match the intensity of the
intervention to the severity of the need. The third key is to look at
the student\'s strengths and interests, including his or her cultural
background. Effective interventions should be culturally appropriate.

**Early Intervention Strategies**

(Intervention Strategy/Brief Descriptions)

**Accommodations and modifications**

Changing instructional practices, the ways students demonstrate mastery,
and the way students input information to help students with
disabilities or learning differences achieve and demonstrate academic
mastery (e.g., oral responses versus written essays, tape recordings of
text and information).

**Alternative educational strategies**

Alternative strategies provided for students who for some reason are not
succeeding in the traditional setting.

**Alternative times\--day and night school**

Flexible schedules for students who, for various reasons, may not be
able to attend school during traditional school hours.

**Anger management training**

Methods for teaching socially appropriate ways to deal with anger.

**Behavioral intervention**

A group of strategies designed to increase positive behaviors and
decrease maladaptive behaviors by manipulating environmental conditions
that either precede or follow the student\'s behavior.

**Behavioral support plan**

A plan designed to teach alternative replacement behaviors in
environments and through adult interactions that are adapted and made
more responsive to the student\'s individual needs.

**Contingency contracting**

A behavioral contract between a student and all involved adults. The
contract specifies the expected behaviors and the consequences for
performing or not performing them.

**Cognitive behavioral interventions and training**

An approach to behavior change that includes changing the way a person
thinks or feels about a situation. For example, teaching children that
they have the problem-solving skills necessary to resolve social
problems in a nonaggressive way will usually prevent them from dealing
inappropriately with others in social situations (i.e., using
aggression).

**Differential reinforcement**

A method for decreasing inappropriate behaviors by rewarding alternative
behaviors (e.g., decreasing out-of-seat behavior by rewarding the
student for remaining in his or her seat).

**Drop-out prevention**

Interventions designed to identify students at risk for dropping out of
school and to provide them with the services and supports necessary to
help them successfully complete school.

**Drop-out reentry program**

Interventions and transition planning to ensure a student\'s success
when returning to school after dropping out.

**Environmental modifications**

Modifying the class and school environment to respond to unique
learning, behavioral, or emotional needs of students.

**Extended day programs**

Structured after-school programs designed to offer student supervision.
These programs can focus on athletics, academics, hobbies, or other
interests.

**Extinction procedures**

Ignoring a behavior that is reinforced by attention. For example, if a
student talks out to get the teacher\'s attention, an extinction
procedure would call for ignoring inappropriate talk-outs and
reinforcing appropriate contributions to the group discussion (i.e.,
raising a hand and waiting for a turn to speak).

**Functional communication training**

Teaching students alternative, adaptive ways to communicate their needs
to others, such as through a brief verbalization, hand gesture, or
signal (e.g., flipping a card over, which signals to the teacher the
student\'s need for assistance).

**Goal-oriented therapeutic counseling**

Services provided by trained school counselors, social workers, or
psychologists to help a student or group of students address behaviors
and personal or social problems.

**Group and family counseling**

Counseling provided by a trained individual to help a person or persons
work through a problem.

**Mentoring**

An individualized approach to providing a caring connection and a
positive role model for a child. Mentors spend time with children,
usually doing nonacademic-type tasks.

**Positive behavioral interventions**

Interventions designed to build on a student\'s strengths and increase
the frequency of his or her adaptive responses while modifying the
environment and adult responses to support the student\'s learning and
use of adaptive responses.

**Response cost**

Taking away something positive for inappropriate behavior. Staying in
during recess to complete a missed homework assignment is an example of
response cost.

**Reward system**

Rewarding students for appropriate behavior. Rewards can be social (a
smile), an activity (time to read a novel), or tangible (candy or points
on a token system). Students can earn rewards for themselves or for a
group, and the rewards can be delivered by an adult, peer, or others.

**Self-management**

Teaching students to be aware of their behavior in such a way that they
are able to identify its occurrence or nonoccurrence, measure its
occurrence, and evaluate whether the behavior is improving, remaining
the same, or getting worse.

**Shadowing older students**

A plan where a student shadows a more senior student. Learning through
modeling is often effective for transitions from one school to another.

**Social problem-solving instruction**

Teaching students to use an effective process to solve social problems
fairly and without aggression.

**Time-away**

Giving the student permission to briefly leave a learning activity or
take a break. This is a coping strategy reinforced and encouraged by the
teacher.

**Time-out**

Removing the student from a situation that is rewarding inappropriate
behavior. For example, if a student\'s anger seems to be fueled by the
cheers of his or her peers, the adult may ask the student to go to a
place where peer attention is not available.

**Token economies**

A system by which students earn points (tokens) for appropriate
behavior. Points can later be exchanged for reinforcement (social
rewards, activities, or something more tangible).

**Transition programs**

Interventions specifically designed to identify transition needs, teach
skills, and provide the support necessary for a child\'s success in a
new environment.

**Tutoring**

Intensive academic instruction provided by a teacher or other skilled
person

**Chapter 4:**

**Providing Intensive Interventions to Troubled Students**

Chapter 2 described schoolwide interventions that are intended to reduce
and prevent most behavior problems in schools. Chapter 3 discussed the
use of early intervention strategies for the approximately 10 to 15
percent of students who continue to experience behavioral problems even
when schoolwide interventions are in place. These students also may be
exhibiting early warning signs and, if so, will require the Student
Support Team to develop individualized early interventions to meet their
needs.

In this chapter, the focus turns to the remaining 3 to 10 percent of
children who experience significant emotional and behavioral problems.
Specific interventions and their intensity will depend on the nature,
severity, and frequency of each child\'s emotional and behavioral
problems.

Frequently, students who require intensive interventions, services, and
supports are experiencing moderate to severe emotional and behavioral
disorders that significantly impair their functioning and quality of
life across the domains of family, school, peers, and community. In many
situations, these students are often eligible for special education
services or have a mental health diagnosis.

Safe schools implement intensive interventions that include a full array
of services and supports and that coordinate the resources of the school
and other community agencies. This array of services and supports should
be individualized to meet the unique needs of each child and family.
Rather than plugging children and families into interventions based on
categories or levels of symptoms, the Student Support Teams should work
with other community agencies to tailor services and supports to the
needs of each child and family. The following are examples of
intervention approaches and practices that are being used successfully
to provide intensive interventions to children and their families.

**Comprehensive School-Based Mental Health Programs**

Many schools have access to mental health professionals, such as school
psychologists, counselors, and school social workers. Many of these
staff can provide support for prevention, early intervention, and
intensive intervention services. Effective school-based mental health
programs are located in school buildings using these and other mental
health professionals. Together, they provide a comprehensive range of
mental health services to children and their families, and often have
strong collaborative ties with multiple community agencies.

**The Lafourche Parish School-Based Mental Health Program**

Located in Thibodaux, Louisiana, the Lafourche Parish program provides
intervention, consultation, and assessment for students with a
particularly strong emphasis on coordinated intensive intervention for
its most involved students with behavioral and emotional difficulties.
There are three interconnected programs: discreet planned intervention,
which provides targeted individualized early intervention; day
treatment, which offers a therapeutic classroom environment for students
requiring intensive intervention; and a school-based psychiatric clinic,
which provides a highly intensive intervention for students and families
in conjunction with community mental health centers.

The success of comprehensive school-based mental health programs depends
on the ability of administrators, teachers, school-based mental health
professionals, and other school staff to integrate mental health
priorities and educational priorities into one vision that affects the
everyday practices and decision-making of school professionals.
Successful school-based mental health programs are woven into the fabric
of the school including its classroom and instructional priorities. To
accomplish this integration successfully, schools must combine the
development of their comprehensive school-based mental health program
with systematic schoolwide reform efforts. By joining schoolwide reform
efforts, school-based mental health professionals can emphasize the
benefits of building collaborative efforts within and between schools
and community mental health providers, social services, juvenile justice
agencies, and families.

**The Kids in Community Schools**

The Kids in Community Schools (KICS) program is a school-based mental
health program at the Martin Luther King School in Yonkers, New York. It
is funded through the New York State Office of Mental Health and
administered through Westchester Jewish Community Services. The goals of
the program are to maintain students with emotional disabilities or
children at risk in the least restrictive environment; to develop
preventative mental health services through collaboration with families,
school, and the community; and to enhance community mental health
services for children. The program provides on-site, direct mental
health services, including child and family treatment, crisis
intervention, individual and family respite, and psychological,
psychiatric, and psycho-educational services.

**Special Education and Related Services**

Special education eligibility under IDEA includes the designation of
emotional disturbance. In general, under the federal definition, this
designation includes children and youth demonstrating unsatisfactory
personal relationships with peers and teachers and who have
inappropriate types of behaviors or feelings under normal circumstances.

For children who are eligible under IDEA, and whose behavior interferes
with their learning or the learning of others, the IEP Team must
consider, if appropriate, \"positive behavioral interventions,
strategies, and supports to address that behavior.\" These
interventions, strategies, and supports must be incorporated into the
student\'s IEP. It is also important to point out that the positive
behavioral interventions, strategies, and supports available under IDEA
are not limited to students with emotional disturbance. Such
interventions can help any student whose behavior interferes with his or
her social and emotional development and learning.

The 1997 reauthorization of IDEA emphasized in both spirit and letter
that special education is an array of services and supports rather than
a place. Under its Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) requirements,
IDEA specifies that special classes, separate schooling, or other
removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational
environment should occur only if the nature or severity of the
disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of
supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily. It is
important to note that positive behavioral interventions and supports,
like other services provided to students with disabilities, can be
implemented in the regular education classroom.

**Alternative Programs and Schools**

Schools have sometimes been unsuccessful in addressing the complex needs
of significantly troubled children and youths who have intensely
challenging behaviors. Some districts have established alternative
programs to continue educating students who previously would have
dropped out or been suspended or expelled. These programs have increased
dramatically, with three out of four school districts reporting some
form of alternative program. Some school districts locate alternative
programs in neighborhood schools, while others operate their programs in
separate facilities. Some alternative programs are behavioral in focus.
Others emphasize a day treatment model, which provides students and
families with intensive mental health and special education services.
Effective alternative programs are not custodial; rather, they
collaborate with regular schools to facilitate reintegration.
Characteristics of effective alternative programs include the following:

-   Intensive individualized instruction in credit-earning coursework.

-   Continuation of special education services for students with IEPs.

-   Positive behavioral supports\--including social skills and anger
    management/abatement\--within a structured school environment.

-   Psychological and mental health consultation and counseling.

-   Active family involvement.

-   Transition services that support the return to regular school.

-   Community agency involvement (e.g., mental health programs, social
    services, law enforcement, juvenile justice).

-   Caring staff committed to building relationships with students.

-   Effective, engaging instructional techniques with curriculum demands
    that match each student\'s academic skills.

**Alternative Schools**

**The Positive Education Program\'s Day Treatment Programs**

Cleveland, Ohio\'s, Positive Education Program (PEP) operates six day
treatment centers that provide a supportive environment marked by high
expectations for appropriate behavior and an emphasis on competence.
These centers enable students to stay at home or in their community and
to successfully return to less restrictive educational settings. The
centers are neither dumping grounds nor places that focus on the
external control of behavior. Instead, they develop IEPs for each
student and provide a variety of services, such as individual counseling
and behavioral intervention, social skills, therapeutic arts, speech and
language, and crisis intervention. The centers\' many components include
the following:

-   Positive behavioral supports.

-   Outdoor education, therapeutic camping, and community experiences.

-   Parent support and education.

-   Liaison to juvenile court.

-   Academic programming.

PEP provides young people with a socially and academically rich
environment, readies them for reintegration into mainstream settings,
and works with staff in those settings to support them once they return.

**Lane School**

Lane School, a public school alternative setting for students with the
most serious behavioral problems, is supported by the Lane Education
Service District, Lane County, Oregon. With just four classrooms, the
Lane School typically has fewer than 30 students in its program at one
time. The program is small so that students can receive the structure,
attention, and skills they need to improve their behavior and their
academic performance and prepare to return to their neighborhood
schools.

Interventions are highly individualized, and the emphasis is on
effective problem-solving through communication with others and on
improving each student\'s academic performance. The supervisor of Lane
School emphasizes the need for efficient and effective structures in
place that lead to the creation of \"civil classroom and school
climates.\" This includes having clear rules, teaching students
alternative responses to anger, reinforcing newly learned skills,
intervening in aggression early, deterring violent behaviors with clear
consequences, and emphasizing academics consistently.

Lane School is committed to successful transitions of the students back
into their home schools, a process that begins the day students enroll
in Lane School. These transitions work best when Lane School staff\--in
the words of Robin, a Lane School teacher and transition
specialist\--\"succeed in export\[ing\] the program and\...its
strategies into the county\'s schools\....These schools are truly
committed to advocating for each child.\"

Quinn, M.M., Osher, D., Hoffman, C.C., & Hanley, T.V. (1998). *Safe,
Drug-free, and Effective Schools for ALL Students: What Works!*
Washington, DC: Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice,
American Institutes for Research, pp. 21-22.

**Systems of Care**

A system of care has been defined by the Center for Mental Health
Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.
S. Department of Health and Human Services as a coordinated continuum of
mental health and related services and supports designed to work with
families to help children and adolescents with serious emotional
disturbances get the services they need, in or near their home and
community.

In systems of care, local public and private organizations work in teams
with families to plan and implement a tailored set of services for each
child\'s physical, emotional, social, educational, and family needs.
Teams include family advocates and representatives from mental health,
health, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, vocational
rehabilitation, recreation, substance abuse, and other services. In
effective systems of care, teams include the child and family and build
upon the child\'s and family\'s strengths rather than focusing solely on
problems.

The range of services that may be included in a system of care are as
follows:

-   Career counseling.

-   Case management (service coordination).

-   Community-based inpatient psychiatric care.

-   Counseling (individual and group).

-   Crisis outreach teams.

-   Crisis residential care.

-   Day treatment.

-   Education/special education services.

-   Family support.

-   Health services.

-   Independent living supports.

-   Intensive family-based counseling.

-   Legal services.

-   Protection and advocacy.

-   Psychiatric consultation.

-   Recreational therapy.

-   Residential treatment.

-   Respite care.

-   Self-help or support groups.

-   Small therapeutic group care.

-   Therapeutic foster care.

-   Transportation.

-   Tutoring.

For greatest effectiveness, the Student Support Team and the local
system of care should develop established interagency agreements that
facilitate the integration and coordination of services. When these
services seem necessary for a child and family in need, agency staff
competent in such intensive services can become part of the Student
Support Team. The expanded team works together with the family and
student to develop a plan. Together, they determine roles and
responsibilities (e.g., case management); develop methods for
coordination and communication; and provide for ongoing evaluation.

**Cross-Site Findings Regarding Schools as Part of Systems of Care**

The following six practices are integral to the success of schools as
part of systems of care:

-   The use of clinicians or other student support providers in the
    schools to work with students, their families, and all members of
    the school community, including teachers and administrators.

-   The use of school-based and school-focused Wraparound services to
    support learning and transition.

-   The use of school-based case management. Case managers help
    determine needs; identify goals, resources, and activities; link
    children and families to other services; monitor services to ensure
    that they are being delivered appropriately; and advocate for change
    when necessary.

-   The provision of schoolwide prevention and early intervention
    programs. Prevention helps those students with or at risk of
    developing emotional and behavioral problems to learn the skills and
    behaviors that help in following school rules and enjoying positive
    academic and social outcomes. Early intervention allows schools to
    provide students with the support and training they need to be more
    successful in managing their behavior.

-   The creation of centers within the school to support children and
    youths with emotional and behavioral needs as well as their
    families. Students in the centers interact with caring staff members
    who can help students and their families connect with the entire
    system of care to help meet their needs.

-   The use of family liaisons or advocates to strengthen the role of
    and empower family members in their children\'s education and care.
    All three sites studied have harnessed the power that involving
    family members as equal partners brings to their comprehensive
    programs.

Woodruff, D.W., Osher, D., Hoffman, C.C., Gruner, A., King, M.A., Snow,
S.T., and McIntire, J.C. (1999). *The Role of Education in a System of
Care: Effectively Serving Children with Emotional or Behavioral
Disorders. Systems of Care: Promising Practices in Children\'s Mental
Health, 1998 Series, Volume III*. Washington, DC: Center for Effective
Collaboration and Practice, American Institutes for Research, p. xiii.

**Individualized Mental Health Services and Supports**

Effective systems of care tailor interventions to address the strengths
and needs of individual youth who may require different interventions at
different developmental stages. Over the past decade, powerful and
intensive interventions have been developed to address the multiple
factors contributing to serious emotional and behavioral problems. To be
effective, an intervention should address all of these factors and
support the entire social ecology of the youth in trouble. These
programs provide intensive therapy and support that is available 24
hours a day, seven days a week. There is daily contact, either
face-to-face or by phone, with families. These services usually last for
a minimum of three to five months, depending on the seriousness of the
problem and the success of the intervention. Three models that have
demonstrated impressive results are highlighted below.

**Multisystemic Therapy**

One intervention that has proven its effectiveness is multisystemic
therapy (MST). It has been effective with youth with issues ranging from
substance abuse and crime to suicidal and homicidal impulses.
Multisystemic therapy is built upon the following nine essential
principles:

-   The primary purpose of assessment is to understand the fit between
    the identified problems and their broader systemic context.

-   Therapeutic contacts emphasize the positive and use systemic
    strengths as levers for change.

-   Interventions are designed to promote responsible behavior and
    decrease irresponsible behavior among family members.

-   Interventions are present-focused and action-oriented, targeting
    specific and well-defined problems.

-   Interventions target sequences of behavior within and between
    multiple systems that maintain the identified problems.

-   Interventions are developmentally appropriate and fit the
    developmental needs of the youth.

-   Interventions are designed to require daily or weekly effort by
    family members.

-   Intervention effectiveness is evaluated continuously from multiple
    perspectives, with providers assuming accountability for overcoming
    barriers to successful outcomes.

-   Interventions are designed to promote treatment generalization and
    long-term maintenance of therapeutic change by empowering caregivers
    to address family members\' needs across multiple systemic contexts.

**Treatment Foster Care**

Multisystemic therapy is an example of an effective strategy for
addressing the needs of youths whose behaviors or needs have not
worsened to the point where out-of-home placement is mandated. Treatment
foster care extends the model of intensive, family-focused intervention
to youth whose delinquency has been so serious and so chronic that they
are no longer permitted to live at home. Like multisystemic therapy, it
works because it includes every major aspect of a youth\'s life in the
intervention: the individual, family, peers, and school. Indeed,
treatment foster care has been rigorously evaluated, and, compared with
ordinary group care, has been shown to reduce repeat offenses and to
increase the number of successful youths who return to living with
relatives.

The model on which treatment foster care is based recognizes the
challenges of living with a youth exhibiting serious antisocial
behavior. Parents can be worn down by escalating conflict to a point
where their normal parenting resources are seriously diminished. It is
precisely these normal resources\--the ability to provide meaningful
adult supervision, to implement discipline consistently, to minimize
association with delinquent peers, and to support academic
achievement\--that keep delinquency at bay. What treatment foster care
does is provide these powerful socialization forces of family life for
youngsters at a point when the youths\' behaviors have become so
dangerous to society that they are removed from their homes.

Treatment foster care families are recruited for their ability to share
the basis of their experience with adolescents, their willingness to act
as treatment agents, and their ability to provide a nurturing family
environment. Foster families apply formally and participate in 20 hours
of pre-service training, which emphasizes the use of behavior management
methods. These methods, which provide youths with a structured daily
living environment, include close supervision, clear rules, and
enforcement of limits. Treatment foster care parents are taught how to
implement individualized plans that take into account youths\' needs and
the treatment foster care family\'s schedule and values. A three-level
system is used in which the youth\'s privileges and level of supervision
are based on their compliance with program rules, adjustment in school,
and general progress. Treatment Foster Care parents participate in
weekly foster parent group meetings. Here they review youths\' progress,
identify problems, and discuss potential solutions.

Each youth in treatment foster care participates in individual behavior
therapy focused on skill-building in problem-solving, social perspective
taking, and non-aggressive methods of self-expression. Birth families
and other concerned individuals involved with the youth\'s care
participate in weekly family therapy focused on parent management
training with an emphasis on supervision, encouragement, discipline, and
problem-solving. Schools are an important part of the intervention; each
youth carries a card to class and teachers sign off on attendance,
homework completion, and attitude. Youths who are suspended are required
to do schoolwork or chores during school hours.

**Wraparound Planning and Services**

Another approach to providing intensive interventions that has spread
throughout the country is the Wraparound process. Wraparound is not a
therapy or a program, but rather it is an approach to providing services
and supports to children with serious emotional and behavioral problems
and their families. The Wraparound approach involves 10 essential
elements and values that guide the process of providing intensive
services to children and their families.

The Wraparound approach includes a definable planning process involving
the child and family, community agencies, and school staff that results
in a unique set of school and community services and supports tailored
to meet the needs of the child and family. This Wraparound team includes
the child and family, professional service providers (e.g., mental
health workers, educators, child welfare workers, law enforcement and
juvenile justice personnel), and natural supports from the community,
including extended family members, friends, clergy\--anyone the family
may call upon to help their child. The team develops goals and
identifies the individualized set of services and supports necessary to
achieve those goals. The plan employs a strengths-based assessment, is
coordinated by a Wraparound facilitator or case manager, specifies a
crisis/safety plan, and identifies measurable outcomes that can be
monitored regularly.

Since a critical element of the Wraparound approach is that services and
supports are provided in the child\'s and family\'s community, the
involvement of school professionals from the child\'s neighborhood
school can be extensive. School-based Wraparound planning builds upon
the individualized nature of special education planning and includes the
teacher and other relevant school personnel as part of the planning
team. Given that Wraparound services and supports are usually paid for
through flexible, noncategorical funding, the Wraparound team can often
provide additional supports for the child that are implemented during
the school day to aid teachers and other school staff.

**Elements of Wraparound**

-   Community-based.

-   Individualized and strengths-based.

-   Culturally competent.

-   Families involved as full and active partners in every level of the
    Wraparound process.

-   Team-driven process, involving the family, child, natural supports,
    agencies, and community services.

-   Flexible funding and creative approaches.

-   A balance of formal services and informal community and family
    resources.

-   Unconditional commitment.

-   A service/support plan developed and implemented based on an
    interagency, community-neighborhood collaborative process.

-   Determined and measured outcomes.

**School-Based Wraparound in LaGrange, Illinois**

Since the LaGrange Area Department of Special Education began applying
the Wraparound process, the number of self-contained K-8 classes for
children with emotional and behavioral disorders has dropped from eight
to zero as students with emotional and behavioral disorders, their
families, and their teachers now receive comprehensive supports and
services in a variety of settings. Although an option for self-contained
classrooms is available, these programs have evolved into classrooms
that serve multi-needs children such as those with autism, pervasive
developmental delay, and multiple disabilities. Children who
traditionally had been placed in self-contained emotional and behavioral
disorders classrooms are now served through the Wraparound approach in
their home schools with Wraparound teams, family service facilitators,
and team teachers.

**Chapter 5:**

**Creating and Implementing a Comprehensive Plan**

This chapter describes how to implement the comprehensive three-level
model of prevention using a team approach. This chapter begins by
outlining the role of teams and how to build an effective team to
address important school issues. The chapter later provides information
on the logistics of planning and implementation.

**The Role of the Schoolwide Team in Creating Safe Schools**

The Schoolwide Team, described in Chapter 1, assesses the school,
including the academic and behavioral programs and school climate, to
set short-term and long-term goals that will improve the quality of the
educational experience for all students and the safety of the school.
The team establishes general policies and procedures and selects
programs to be implemented throughout the school. In addition, the
Schoolwide Team coordinates these strategies. Because the Schoolwide
Team shares some members with the Student Support Team, they exchange
information that will help the Schoolwide Team make more informed
decisions about the school and the safety needs of the students.

The Schoolwide Team undertakes activities to plan, implement, monitor,
and maintain the school\'s violence prevention program. At the same
time, the Schoolwide Team proposes policies and procedures that do the
following:

-   Link to all school improvement efforts.

-   Align school efforts with community efforts and services.

-   Gain understanding and support from all members of the school
    community: students, teachers, staff, administrators, school board
    members, families, and other community members.

-   Include all three levels of prevention: a schoolwide foundation,
    early intervention, and intensive interventions.

-   Reflect an understanding of how to use early warning signs
    appropriately.

-   Include an efficient process for referral, problem-solving,
    consultation, and intervention (Student Support Team).

-   Employ effective evidence-based interventions that align with the
    school\'s structure, culture, needs, and resources.

-   Align with special education requirements and all other schoolwide
    efforts, such as extra-curricular activities and services for
    English language learners.

**Organizing the Schoolwide Team**

Because the Schoolwide Team has the responsibility of planning,
implementing, and evaluating an integrated schoolwide violence
prevention effort, members of the team should have diverse and
complementary skills. The selection of team members is critical to the
team\'s effectiveness. Members should be chosen because of their
leadership capabilities and expertise in learning and behavior. Team
members should be willing and able to commit time and effort to the
team, particularly during the initial implementation phase.

**Community Members and the Schoolwide Team**

Comprehensive planning recognizes the influence of the larger community
on the functioning of schools. School leaders should identify these
influences and understand how they affect the school. Schools can
enhance their violence prevention efforts by working with their
community to address issues that directly influence both their community
and school.

Safe and effective schools develop procedures for assessing and working
with the external community so that programs and interventions are
sensitive to community needs. In this way, schools become true partners
with community agencies and organizations.

To ensure that the school considers community factors and to ensure
ongoing coordination of prevention and intervention services, the
following are some of the community leaders who should be involved in
planning and implementation:

-   Attorneys, judges, and probation officers.

-   Business leaders.

-   Clergy and other representatives of the faith community.

-   College or university faculty.

-   Family agency and family resource center staff.

-   Interest group representatives and grassroots community organization
    members.

-   Law enforcement personnel.

-   Local advisory board members.

-   Local officials, including school board members and representatives
    from special commissions.

-   Mental health and child welfare personnel.

-   Parent group leaders, such as Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)
    officers, advocacy group leaders, and parents knowledgeable about
    troubling behavior.

-   Physicians and nurses.

-   Recreational, cultural, and arts organizations staff.

-   School public relations officers.

-   Violence prevention group representatives.

-   Youth workers and volunteers.

-   Other influential community members.

**Reaching Out to the Community**

School safety depends on the ability of the school to partner with the
greater community. Once the Schoolwide Team has formulated a vision,
developed team cohesion, and delineated roles and responsibilities, it
should reach out to the greater community. The vehicle for this outreach
can be a community-wide collaboration, coalition, or work group.
Community outreach ensures the following:

-   Community support for school efforts.

-   Coordination of school and community services.

-   Shared resources, reducing fragmentation.

-   Support for family-school collaboration.

**Building an Effective Schoolwide Team**

Whether the team is well-established or newly established, there is no
assurance that its members will function effectively as a team. Indeed,
one of the strengths of the Schoolwide Team should be its diversity in
expertise, skills, and experiences. The common goal of developing safe
schools should galvanize all parties to pool their resources and work
collaboratively. Cohesiveness and a sense of shared purpose, primary
characteristics of effective teams, can be enhanced through the
following practices:

-   The team takes time at the onset to agree on a vision.

-   Individual members should commit to participate in all relevant team
    activities and training, leaving their personal agendas at the door.

-   The team selects a dedicated leader or facilitator. The leader or
    facilitator keeps the team focused on the task and productive, while
    ensuring that needs are addressed and interpersonal conflicts (if
    any) are resolved.

-   Each member of the team receives the necessary information and
    support so that he or she can participate on the team as an equal.

-   Team members should take turns taking notes, or the team should have
    a secretary. These notes should be circulated to the team members in
    a timely fashion.

-   One team member is responsible for liaison functions, which involves
    keeping the greater school and community informed and linking to
    other school and community teams.

-   The team develops a process for solving problems and making
    decisions. For example, the team should determine how it will make
    decisions\--by consensus, majority, or some other clear and
    agreed-upon process.

-   Teams may strengthen their interpersonal relations through
    trust-building activities. There is a substantial knowledge base of
    ways that teams can build trust and work more effectively together.

**The Schoolwide Team at Kennedy Middle School**

Kennedy Middle School in Eugene, Oregon, has members skilled in positive
behavior support representing all grade levels and subject matters, plus
an active administrator on the Schoolwide Team. The team meets once a
month to guide and monitor the schoolwide safety planning.

Building a productive team takes time, and prior to reaching this goal
the Schoolwide Team will move through several phases of team
development. At times, team members may feel uncomfortable as the team
experiences conflict and strives for resolution. Also, they may feel
uneasy as they learn their roles and establish norms for communication
and other routines. Over time, as members support each other and
accomplish objectives, trust and mutual respect will emerge. As
additional individuals are included at various points, team dynamics and
functioning may be affected. This is a normal part of team development
and functioning and should not be a cause for alarm. However, too much
turnover and turmoil can render the team inoperable; therefore, it is
important that team membership remain fairly consistent and provide
stability to the planning and implementation tasks.

**Logistics for the Schoolwide Team**

Once the team has been established or expanded and has reviewed its
charge, it should then consider logistics. Critical logistical tasks
include obtaining administrative support, securing a planning budget,
designing a communication process, and scheduling meetings and setting
timelines.

**Obtaining Approval and Buy-Ins**

The first order of business is to obtain district or school approval and
buy-in for the Schoolwide Team vision. Approval enables the team to
obtain resources to support its efforts and to secure modifications in
policies and procedures. Buy-in secures the ongoing, active, and usually
visible support of key administrators.

Schools differ in the ways they develop and implement plans. Every
member of the team should know in advance the administration\'s
expectations for the team\'s work and any relevant restrictions or
policy guidelines, such as reporting procedures and decision-making
authority. If possible, the team should include someone who has the
authority to approve procedures and allocate funds. If the team
encounters resistance to one of its suggestions, it should document the
need and demonstrate the connections between its concerns\--such as
improved academics or community support\--and school safety.

**Getting Buy-In**

\"Before we went any further with training and planning, we had a
unanimous agreement that this was what the school wanted to do. We had
to make sure we had a strong buy-in; there was no other way.\"

Glen Carolton, school psychologist in South West School District, Ohio.

Communities also differ in their understanding of the need for the
team\'s work. Providing communities with information early will help
them understand and support the need for a comprehensive prevention,
intervention, and crisis response program. The team should determine the
information needs of the community and tailor its communication strategy
to address these needs.

**Securing a Planning Budget**

Resources and funding may be necessary for the work of the Schoolwide
Team. School officials will need to know the anticipated costs. For
example, will teaching staff require substitutes while they conduct team
duties?

The team may need to prepare a budget for the administration to approve.
Examples of budgetary considerations include release time or
compensation for team meetings, secretarial assistance, meeting space,
support for family participation, and reimbursement for incidentals.

**Designing a Communication Process**

One of the team\'s responsibilities throughout the planning and
implementation process is to communicate its findings to the larger
school community. The team may elect to prepare a formal report or
simply reorganize its findings with a cover memorandum. In either case,
a few suggestions follow:

-   **Prepare an executive summary.** The executive summary should
    identify team members, state the purpose of the team\'s work,
    provide a brief overview of the team\'s work to date, and list
    recommendations for next steps. A brief version of the team\'s
    executive summary can be distributed via newspapers or mailings, or
    on the school\'s Web site or bulletin board.

-   **Consider face-to-face meetings.** The team may decide to schedule
    face-to-face meetings with the school as a whole or with different
    stakeholder groups. The team should work with community
    representatives or a representative of the stakeholder group to
    identify potential questions and to prepare an agenda that maximizes
    the impact of each meeting. It is important to include the entire
    school and community in this knowledge-sharing. The team can invite
    community members and families to school meetings and consider
    having team members attend a variety of meetings with different
    groups, such as the PTA.

-   **Solicit feedback.** Throughout this dissemination process, the
    team should solicit feedback from individuals regarding the accuracy
    of the team\'s findings and the effectiveness of its communication
    efforts. The school and community at large must be informed of the
    team\'s goals and progress. Also, the team can solicit feedback from
    the individuals who will be involved in the next stages\--developing
    and implementing the violence prevention and response plan.

**Executive Summary Template**

Use the following template to develop an executive summary regarding the
work of the team. This report will be used to communicate the team\'s
findings to the larger school community.

Date:

Team members:

Objective/Purpose of work:

Activities to date:

Recommendations/Next steps:

**Scheduling Meetings and Setting Timelines**

The team should schedule meetings according to tasks. Most teams will
begin by meeting weekly. After start-up, there are four major
milestones. They are as follows:

-   Conducting the school assessment.

-   Developing the schoolwide violence prevention plan.

-   Designing the implementation approach for the plan.

-   Implementing and evaluating the plan.

Achieving each of these milestones may require a different amount of
time. It is important to note that it may take a full year to develop a
plan and implementation strategy. It will take even longer to implement
the plan completely and measure its effects. It is important to set
realistic timelines and due dates throughout the process.

**More Resources**

If at any time team members wish to study a topic in more depth, they
should refer to the \"Resources\" section, which lists references,
resources, and contacts related to the topics featured in this Action
Guide. In addition, team members may wish to visit the Web site of the
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice (http://cecp.air.org).
The online resource includes this guide, and links to other sources of
information, which may be useful in planning and implementation.

**Implementation Considerations for the Schoolwide Team**

Schools differ in the way they implement their comprehensive plans, but
the following activities are important for all schools to make the most
of their plan:

-   **Make a long-term commitment.** Most likely, it will take several
    years to have all components of the plan in full operation. The team
    should set a reasonable timeline for reaching its goals and
    objectives.

-   **Obtain district approval.** The team\'s goal is to obtain more
    than plan approval; it is to institutionalize change. This requires
    formal approval, which may require a vote by the school board. In
    addition, someone in a leadership role needs to champion the plan.
    This individual should ensure that there is sustained buy-in and
    support from the school community.

-   **Provide sufficient training.** All team members\--including staff,
    students, families, and community members\--should receive training.
    After the initial training, all team members should be provided with
    ongoing relevant training and support. Training assists the school
    in developing the capacity of staff, students, and families to
    intervene. Examples of training methods include the following:

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-   In-service training for all faculty and staff.

-   Written manuals, pamphlets, or flip charts.

-   Practice responding to imminent warning signs of violence.

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-   Seek parental approval and involvement. Families must be involved in
    implementing the plan. There should be open lines of communication
    throughout the process.

-   Seek support and involvement. The team should ensure that every
    member of the school accepts and adopts the violence prevention and
    response plan. This buy-in is essential if all members of the school
    are expected to feel comfortable sharing concerns about children who
    appear troubled. Too often, caring individuals remain silent because
    they have no way to express their concerns.

-   Secure resources. Teams will require human, information, and fiscal
    resources to implement their plans. The teams should consider the
    anticipated costs of activities.

-   Specify evaluation procedures. Evaluation is a critical component of
    the comprehensive school safety plan. It increases the effectiveness
    of management and administration of the plan. Evaluation data should
    be used when renewing the plan. When planning the evaluation
    component, the team should consider the following principles:

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-   There should be measurable goals, objectives, and benchmarks.

-   The assessment should be based on objective data.

-   Realistic timelines should be set, observed, and communicated to the
    larger community.

-   The team should be held responsible for regular (preferably
    quarterly) evaluation of the prevention and intervention plan.

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-   Present the plan. The team may present the plan in various ways:
    events, town meetings, discussion groups, written products, and
    press releases.

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-   The team may need to use multiple strategies to reach a large number
    of people. Each school will have a preferred strategy for presenting
    the plan. The team should keep the following general guidelines in
    mind:

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-   Ensure that presentations are made available in the native languages
    of family members and the community.

-   Schedule events at a convenient time for family members and
    community members.

-   Provide logistical support (e.g., child care, transportation) to
    enable more people to participate.

-   Make the communication process ongoing, structured, and detailed to
    ensure long-term community support.

**Comprehensive Schoolwide Plan: An Example**

1.  Establish effective behavioral support team.

2.  Design curriculum for teaching students to be caring self-managers.

3.  Train staff.

4.  Monitor behavior using a referral form.

5.  Evaluate the program using a survey.

6.  Adjust the program (e.g., create a method for addressing individual
    student needs).

This is an abbreviated example of a comprehensive implementation plan
developed by the Patterson Elementary and Family School in Oregon from
1996 to 1999.

**Other Considerations**

Despite prevention efforts, even the most effective schools will
experience some form of crisis, whether it takes the form of violence,
tornadoes, fires, or death of a student or a staff member. The immediate
response to and long-term handling of the crises will affect the
adjustment of students, school staff, and families. Schools that are
best prepared will develop a multicomponent plan that addresses the
physical and psychological well-being of students and school staff. With
support from community agencies and the school system, the Schoolwide
Team should design a crisis response plan. The plan should be shared
with all members of the school. The components of the crisis response
plan include:

-   Specific procedures for internal and external communication.

-   Evacuation protocols to protect students and staff from harm.

-   A process for securing immediate external support from law
    enforcement officials and other relevant community agencies.

-   A process for dealing with long-term effects of the crisis.

**Conclusion**

Although most schools are safe, they all can be safer. Improving school
safety requires the strategic investment of time and dollars\--scarce
resources for which there are competing demands. Fortunately, schools
that strategically coordinate schoolwide efforts are more likely to
improve academic performance as well as reduce behavior problems.

This *Action Guide* builds upon the *Early Warning Guide*. It provides a
comprehensive model that can lead to safer schools. The model
incorporates prevention, early intervention, and intensive interventions
in a manner that will help schools improve long-term academic,
behavioral, social, and emotional outcomes for all students and their
families. The *Action Guide* identifies mechanisms for implementing the
plan (the Schoolwide Team and the Student Support Team) and also
describes the processes that these teams can employ to improve school
safety.

Finally, the guide provides information about technical assistance
centers and evidence-based resources that schools can draw upon to
develop a comprehensive plan that addresses the particular needs and
builds upon the strengths of their school and their community.

**Resources**

**Online Resources**

The resources in this *Action Guide* were designed to provide schools
and communities with links to useful information. These are just some
examples of programs, organizations, and centers that have been
identified by the Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice, an
organization operating under a cooperative agreement with the U.S.
Department of Education.

While the Internet gives schools and communities an amazing opportunity
to access information, at the same time the content of the Internet is
difficult to control. It is therefore important to note that the U.S.
Departments of Education and Justice do not endorse these Web sites, nor
the programs listed here.

**School Safety-Related Sites**

**Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice**

http://cecp.air.org

**Hamilton Fish Institute for School and Community Violence**

http://hamfish.org

**National Association of School Psychologists**

http://www.naspweb.org

**National Mental Health Association**

http://www.nmha.org

**Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory**

http://www.nwrel.org

**National Resource Center for Safe Schools**

http://www.safetyzone.org

**School Safety and Violence Prevention**

http://cecp.air.org/guide

**Student Support and Classroom Management Sites**

**The Behavior Home Page**

http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/behave/homepage.html

**Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support**

http://www.pbis.org

**Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders**

http://www.ccbd.net

**Prevention and Early Intervention: Collaboration and Practice**

http://cecp.air.org/prev-ei

**Prevention Strategies That Work**

http://cecp.air.org/preventionstrategies/Default.htm

**Wraparound Planning**

http://cecp.air.org/wraparound/default.htm

**Federal Sites**

**U.S. Department of Education**

http://www.ed.gov

**Office for Civil Rights**

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCR

**Office of Special Education Programs**

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP

**Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program**

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS

**U.S. Department of Health and Human Services**

http://www.hhs.gov

> **Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,\
> Division of Violence Prevention**

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/dvp.htm

**Center for Mental Health Services**

<http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs>

**National Institute of Mental Health**

http://www.nimh.nih.gov

**U.S. Department of Justice**

http://www.usdoj.gov

**Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention**

http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org

**Justice for Kids and Youth Homepage**

http://www.usdoj.gov/kidspage

**Organization Sites**

**American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry**

http://www.aacap.org

**American Academy of Pediatrics**

http://www.aap.org

**American Association of School Administrators**

http://www.aasa.org

**American Counseling Association**

www.counseling.org

**American Federation of Teachers**

http://www.aft.org

**American Psychiatric Association**

http://www.psych.org

**American Psychological Association**

http://www.apa.org

**American School Counselor Association**

http://www.schoolcounselor.org

**Council of Administrators of Special Education**

http://members.aol.com/casecec

**Council of the Great City Schools**

http://www.cgcs.org

**Council for Exceptional Children**

http://www.cec.sped.org

**National Association of Elementary School Principals**

http://www.naesp.org

**National Association of School Nurses**

http://www.nasn.org

**National Association of Secondary School Principals**

http://www.nassp.org

**National Association of State Boards of Education**

http://www.nasbe.org

**National Education Association**

http://www.nea.org

**National Middle School Association**

http://www.nmsa.org

**National School Boards Association**

http://www.nsba.org

**National School Public Relations Association**

http://www.nspra.org/entry.htm

**Police Executive Research Forum**

http://www.policeforum.org

**School Social Work Association of America**

http://www.sswaa.org

**Family Information Sites**

**The Beach Center on Families and Disability**

www.beachcenter.org

**Boys Town USA**

http://www.boystown.org

**Federation of Families for Children\'s Mental Health**

http://www.ffcmh.org/

**National Parent Network on Disabilities**

http://www.npnd.org

**National PTA**

www.pta.org/

**Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) Center**

http://www.pacer.org

**Project for Parents of Children with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders**

http://www.pacer.org/parent/ebd.htm

**Additional Resources**

The programs in this *Action Guide* are examples of many results-based
programs that have been favorably reviewed by agencies or federally
sponsored technical assistance centers.

The programs cited here in the *Action Guide* were identified under a
U.S. Department of Justice grant to the Hamilton Fish National Institute
on School and Community Violence with assistance from the Vanderbilt
Institute for Public Policy. The programs were also identified under a
U.S. Department of Education cooperative agreement with the Center for
Effective Collaboration and Practice.

**Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports**

5262 University of Oregon

Eugene, OR 97403-5262

Phone: (541) 346-3560

Fax: (541) 346-5689

E-mail: PBIS@oregon.uoregon.edu

Web site: www.pbis.org/

**First Step to Success**

Published by Sopris West, Inc.

4093 Specialty Place

Longmont, CO 80504

Phone: (800) 547-6747

Fax: (303) 651-2829

**Created by the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior**

1265 University of Oregon

Eugene, OR 97403

Kennedy Middle School

2200 Bailey Hill Road

Eugene, OR 97405

Phone: (541) 687-3241

Fax: (541) 686-2379

E-mail: mehas@4j.lane.edu

Web site: http://www.4j.lane.edu/schools/middle/kennedy.html

**Kids in Community Schools**

Martin Luther King Elementary School

Westchester Jewish Community Services

Kids in Community Schools Program

135 Locust Hill

Yonkers, NY 10701

Phone: (914) 376-0723

**Lafourche Parish School-Based Mental Health Program**

110 Bowie Road

Thibodaux, LA 70301

Phone: (504) 447-8181

Fax: (504) 446-1577

E-mail: cwilmoth.pac@lafourche.k12.la.us

**Lane School**

1200 Highway 99 North

P.O. Box 2680

Eugene, OR 97402

Phone: (541) 334-4796

Web site: http://www.lane.k12.or.us

**Positive Adolescent Choices Training**

Center for Child and Adolescent Violence Prevention

Wright State University, School of Professional Psychology

9 North Edwin C. Moses Blvd.

Dayton, OH 45407

Phone: (937) 775-4300

Fax: (937) 775-4323

E-mail: betty.yung@wright.edu

**The Positive Education Program\'s Day Treatment Programs**

Positive Education Program

3100 Euclid Avenue

Cleveland, OH 44115

Phone: (216) 361-4400

Fax: (216) 361-8600

E-mail: infopep@pepcleve.org

Web site: http://www.pepcleve.org

**Project ACHIEVE**

Institute for School Reform, Integrated Services, and Child Mental
Health and Education Policy

School Psychology Program

The University of South Florida

4202 E Fowler Ave.

Tampa, FL 33620-7750

Phone: (813) 974-3246

Fax: (813) 974-5814

**Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies**

Pennsylvania State University

University Park, PA 16802

Phone: (814) 865-2618

E-mail: mxg47@psu.edu

http://www.psu.edu/dept/prevention

Publisher: Developmental Research and Programs

Phone: (800) 736-2630

E-mail: drpmain@drp.org

Web site: www.drp.org/paths.html

**Resolving Conflict Creatively Program**

RCCP National Center

40 Exchange Place, Suite 1111

New York, NY 10005

Phone: (212) 509-0022

Fax: (212) 509-1095

E-mail: rccp@rccp.org

Web site: http://esrnational.org

**School-Based Wraparound in LaGrange, Illinois**

LaGrange Area Department of Special Education

1301 West Cossitt Avenue

LaGrange, IL 60525

Phone: (708) 354-5730

Fax: (708) 482-2665

**Second Step Curriculum: A Violence Prevention Curriculum**

Committee for Children

2203 Airport Way South

Suite 500

Seattle, WA 98134

Phone: (800) 634-4449 or (206) 343-1223

Fax: (206) 343-1445

Web site: http://www.cfchildren.org

**Index**

(Note: Page numbers refer to printed and Adobe Acrobat versions only)

Academic Instruction, 3, 7, 12, 15, 29

Alternative Programs, 33

Case management, 35-36

Center for Mental Health Services, 50

Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, 13, 50, 53

Consultation, 10, 13, 19-23, 33, 35, 41

Crisis Response Planning, 47

Early Intervention, 1, 4, 6, 13, 17, 19-20, 22, 24, 26-28, 31, 36, 41,
48, 50

*Early Warning Guide*, 1, 7, 17-18, 48

Early Warning Signs, 2, 4, 6, 17-22, 31, 41

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), 19

Families, 1, 4, 6, 7, 10-13, 18-20, 22, 24, 31-33, 36, 38, 41, 46-48

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 21

First Step to Success, 26, 53

Gun-Free Schools Act, 19

Identification, 18-19, 24

Immediate Interventions, 13, 20

Imminent Warning Signs, 19-20

Individualized Mental Health Services, 35-36

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 6, 24-25, 32

Intensive Supports, 3, 31

Interventions

Early intervention strategies, 27-28, 31

Immediate interventions, 13, 20

Intensive interventions, 3-5, 8, 31, 35, 38, 41, 48

Kennedy Middle School, 43, 53

Kids in Community Schools, 32, 53

Lafourche Parish School-Based Mental Health Program, 31, 54

Lane School, 34, 54

Laws

Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 19

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 21

Gun-Free Schools Act, 19

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 6

Mental Health, 6, 31-33, 35, 49-50

Comprehensive School-Based Mental Health Programs, 31-32

Individualized Mental Health Services, 35

Multisystemic Therapy, 36-37

Parents (see families)

Physical Environment, 2, 11, 14

Positive Adolescent Choices Training, 26, 54

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), 13, 50, 53

Positive Behavior Support, 3, 7, 11

Positive Education Program (PEP), 34, 54

Prevention, 1-2, 4-5, 9, 13-14, 17, 26, 28, 31, 36, 41-42, 44-47, 50

Principals, 5

Problem Identification, 24

Problem-Solving, 3, 8, 22-23, 26, 34, 38, 41

Program Evaluation Criteria, 8

Project ACHIEVE, 13, 22, 54

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies, 9, 55

PTA, 42, 45, 52

Referral Process, 20-21

Resolving Conflict Creatively Program, 9, 55

Safe Schools Characteristics, 2, 7, 12-14

Schoolwide Foundation, 3, 7-15

creating a safe physical environment, 14

schoolwide behavior systems, 11

staff support, 10

staff training, 10, 20

Schoolwide Team, 5-6, 11, 14, 20, 41-44, 46-48

Second Step Curriculum, 10, 55

Special Education and Related Services, 32

Staff Support, 10

Staff Training, 10, 20

Student Support Team, 5-6, 20-22, 24-25, 27

Systems of Care, 33, 35-36

Teachers, 1, 4-5, 9-13, 15, 17-20, 22, 25-27, 32, 36, 38-39, 41, 51

Teams

Logistics, 41, 44

Organization, 33, 42

Roles, 35, 42-43

Schoolwide Team, 5-6, 11, 14, 20, 41-44, 46-48

Student Support Team, 5-6, 20-22, 24-25, 27

Three-Level Approach, 2-3

Timelines, 45-47

Treatment Foster Care, 37-38

Wraparound, 4, 36, 38-39, 50, 55

**Contributors to the Action Guide**

Many individuals contributed to the development of the Action Guide.
Some provided materials, others reviewed drafts, still others provided
input through participation in focus groups or at workshops. The
following list represents only a portion of those who contributed to the
Action Guide.

**Howard Adelman**

University of Southern California

**Leigh Armistead**

Charlotte-Mecklandsburg Schools, North Carolina

**Sharon Adams-Taylor**

American Association of School Administrators

**Lisa Barrios**

Center for Disease Control and Prevention

**George Bear**

University of Delaware

**Renee Brimfield**

Montgomery County Schools, Maryland

**Fred Brown**

Elementary and Secondary School Principals Association

**Stephanie Bryn**

Maternal and Child Health Bureau

Health Resources and Services Administration

**Douglas Cheney**

University of Washington

**Gwendolyn Cooke**

National Association of Secondary School Principals

**Betty Fitzpatrick**

Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado

**Jacquelyn Gentry**

American Psychological Association

**Brenda Greene**

National School Boards Association

**Charles Greenwood**

Juniper Gardens Children\'s Project

**Renelle Grubbs**

Kentucky Community Crisis Response Board

**Pat Gutherie**

Council of Administrators of Special Education

**Cheryl Haas**

American Counseling Association

**Gabriella Hayes**

National PTA

**Rob Horner**

University of Oregon

**Marjorie Hudson**

Connecticut Department of Public Health

**Karen Jacobs**

American Occupational Therapy Association

**Michael Kane**

American Institutes for Research

**Karen Kleinz**

National Public Relations Association

**Howard Knoff**

University of South Florida

**Judy K. Montgomery**

Council of Administrators for Special Education

**Ron Nelson**

University of Nebraska

**Trina Osher**

Federation of Families for Children\'s Mental Health

**Cathy Paine**

Springfield Schools, Oregon

**Michael Rosenberg**

Johns Hopkins University

**Jeff Sprague**

University of Oregon

**Pam Stein**

Polk County Schools, Florida

**Peter Sheras**

University of Virginia

**Betty Stockton**

Jonesboro Public Schools, Arkansas

**Carlos Sundermann**

National Resources Center for Safe Schools

**George Sugai**

University of Oregon

**Betsy Thompson**

Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado

**Teri Toothman**

Mountain State Parents Children & Adolescent Network

**Richard Verdugo**

National Education Association

**Hill Walker**

University of Oregon

**Eileen Weiner-Dwyer**

Montgomery County Federation of Families for Children\'s Mental Health

**Diana Wright**

California Department of Education

**Jon M. Yeakey**

National Resource Center for Safe Schools

**Project Staff and Administration**

**The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice**

Project Director: David Osher

Principal Investigator: Kevin Dwyer

*Action Guide* Task Leader: Stephanie Jackson

*Action Guide* Writing Team: Kevin Dwyer, Matthew Green, Stephanie
Jackson, Kimberly Kendziora, Fred Krieg, Brenda Mejia, Eric Mesmer,
David Osher, Debra Pacchiano, Mary Quinn, Cynthia Warger

**U.S. Department of Education**

Project Officer: Tom V. Hanley

Task Officer: Sara Strizzi

**U.S. Department of Education**

400 Maryland Avenue, SW

Washington, DC 20202-0498

http://www.ed.gov/

**U.S. Department of Justice**

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530-0001

http://www.usdoj.gov/