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.

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.  

The purpose of this document is to provide content-specific examples of how to structure educator-level and/or systems-level coaching as a mechanism to ensure ongoing professional learning to support tiered intervention. This document provides examples of coaching supports, models, and functions within the context of tiered intervention (e.g., RtI, PBIS, MTSS) and data-based decision making (e.g., data-based individualization [DBI]) for educators who already have foundational knowledge and/or experience with coaching.

In this article, Dr. Carrie Thomas Beck from the Oregon Department of Education discusses the dyslexia law in Oregon, the role of intensive intervention in Oregon’s dyslexia initiative, and provides advice for states defining their dyslexia frameworks.

For children with the most severe and persistent academic and/or behavioral challenges, parent and family involvement is vital. School teams can use this guide to better understand intensive intervention and how to engage parents and families with the process.

In this webinar held September 12, 2018, Dr. Kathleen Lane and Amy Peterson, explore current practices on behavioral screening within the context of a tiered system of support and provide an overview of NCII’s new behavior screening tools chart.

Support from leaders is essential for effective DBI implementation. This resource illustrates how DBI can help principals and local level administrators leverage existing resources, integrate supports for academics and behavior, define Tier 3, align special education and MTSS, establish effective data meetings, and improve outcomes for students who are at-risk for poor learning outcomes. In addition, the resource shares strategies and resources available to support implementation

Teams are a vital part of an effective multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) across both academics and behavior as well as special education. Making connections across the across the various teams used in MTSS and special education can be challenging. This resource from NCII and the PBIS Center, provides information about how DBI can support IEP implementation and provides a table with key considerations for teams working across the MTSS system.

In this article, Dr. Jennifer Ledford shares information about single-case design research and how it relates to intensive intervention as well as resources from the Council for Exceptional Children Division for Research (CEC DR).

In this article, Mr. Paul Elery addresses the question: “If a new administrator is implementing intensive intervention in their school or district, what advice would you give them?”