All behavior serves a purpose or function—typically to access or avoid something. Thus, it is important to figure out the function of a student’s behavior to develop a plan with likelihood for success. To help determine function, school teams should start by collecting data on the A, B, Cs of behavior: Antecedent (A): anything that happens immediately before the behavior occurs Behavior (B): the action a student demonstrates that can be clearly defined and measured Consequence (C): any event (positive or negative) that occurs after a student demonstrates a behavior Once the function is determined, strategies or interventions can be put into place.

This guide is a set of strategies and key practices with the ultimate goal of supporting students with the most intensive behavioral needs, their families, and educators in their transitions back to school during and following the global pandemic in a manner that prioritizes their health and safety, social and emotional needs, and behavioral and academic growth.

The National Center on Intensive Intervention and the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports have partnered to present a webinar series focused on providing educators with tools to support secondary students during virtual learning and the return to in-person learning. This series is intended for educators at the state and local level who work with students with intensive behavioral needs in secondary school settings. Webinar 1: Check and Connect: Implementation and Adaptation in a Virtual Environment At the core of Check & Connect is a trusting relationship between the student and a caring, trained mentor who both advocates for and challenges the student to keep education salient. Relationships are more important than ever given that current status of education and ongoing virtual learning.

Are you confused about how to support the social-behavioral needs of your learners as you return to school this fall? How can you ensure that all students, including those with intensive needs, have access to instruction regardless of virtual, in-person, or hybrid learning? In this webinar, Dr. Teri Marx and Stacy Hirt from the National Center on Intensive Intervention and Dr. Leanne Hawken, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah, highlight strategies schools should consider in relationship to their implementation of social-behavioral supports across the continuum of tiers in a multi-tiered system of support framework as they return to school during COVID-19 restrictions.  

Progress monitoring is an essential part of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) and, specifically, the data-based individualization (DBI) process. It allows educators and administrators to understand whether students are responding to intervention and if adaptations are needed. In addition, these data are often used to set high-quality academic and behavioral goals within the individualized education program (IEP) for students with disabilities. With the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and administrators need to rethink how they collect and analyze progress monitoring data in a virtual setting. This collection of frequently asked questions is intended to provide a starting place for consideration.

Rhode Island's Intensive Intervention Implementation Story Since 2012, RIDE has learned alongside local education agency personnel (at both district and school levels) about what it takes to implement data-based individualization (DBI) within a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). Early on in the work, two LEAs were deeply engaged in DBI implementation: Bristol Warren Regional School District and Coventry School District. After witnessing positive student outcomes for learners with severe and persistent academic and/or behavioral needs through DBI implementation, RIDE opted to invest more deeply in scaling both MTSS and DBI through the following initiatives: State Systemic Improvement Plan and BRIDGE-RI (the Home of MTSS in Rhode Island).