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Strengthen Behavioral Intervention Resources: 5 Strategies for Schools
Creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment for all students requires a proactive approach to behavioral intervention. Students who struggle with behavior often require additional support and resources to help them navigate challenges and develop essential life skills. When schools invest in strengthening their behavioral resources, they help foster student well-being, improve academic outcomes, and establish a positive school climate. In this blog, we’ll explore five strategies schools can implement to enhance their behavioral intervention support systems.
1. Invest in Training
School staff play a frontline role in identifying and addressing behavioral challenges. By providing teachers, counselors, and support staff with training in evidence-based practices, such as positive behavior support and trauma-informed care, schools can equip their teams with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively address behavioral challenges. It can be helpful for schools to provide training in the following areas:
- Understanding Trauma-Informed Practices: Adverse childhood experiences can impact behavior. Trauma-informed approaches help educators build relationships and respond with empathy.
- Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports: This framework establishes proactive, school-wide systems to promote positive behavior and prevent challenging behaviors.
- De-escalation Techniques: Training staff in de-escalation strategies helps manage behavioral crises safely and effectively.
2. Foster Collaboration between School, Home, and Community
Behavioral interventions are most successful when there’s a strong partnership between schools, families, and community resources. Schools can work closely with parents and guardians to develop consistent expectations and strategies for addressing behavioral concerns both at school and at home. Additionally, partnering with community organizations can help to expand the range of resources and support available to your students and their families. Strategies to consider to enhance collaboration include:
- Family Engagement: Open communication channels with parents/guardians. Offer workshops on supporting positive behavior at home.
- Community Partnerships: Connect families to mental health services, social-emotional learning programs, youth development programs, social service providers, and other community resources to help them get behavioral help outside of school when needed.
3. Expand Tiered System of Support
According to EducationWeek, a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a comprehensive framework that helps schools identify and address the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of all students. By implementing an MTSS, schools can provide targeted interventions and support at varying levels of intensity, depending on each student’s individual needs. This tiered approach allows schools to efficiently allocate resources and ensure that students receive the appropriate level of support to succeed. Schools can consider implementing tiers such as:
- Tier 1 – Universal Support: These interventions help support all students and create a positive school-wide environment. These interventions focus on promoting desired behaviors and preventing negative behaviors from occurring in the first place. Key components of Tier 1 support include, setting school-wide expectations, providing positive reinforcement, creating social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, and implementing effective classroom management strategies
- Tier 2 – Targeted Interventions: This tier is designed for students who need additional support beyond the universal strategies provided in Tier 1. These students may have persistent or more severe behavioral concerns that require more targeted interventions. Tier 2 support may include offering small group instruction, implementing a Check-in/Check-out (CICO) mentorship system, developing behavior contracts for students, and providing targeted counseling.
- Tier 3 – Intensive Interventions: Tier 3 interventions are designed for students with the most significant or persistent behavioral concerns, who require intensive, individualized support. These interventions are typically developed in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team, including the student, family, teachers, and specialized support staff. Components of this tier of support include conducting Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA), creating Individualized Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP), providing students with specialized therapies, and referring students to outside services when needed.
4. Data-Driven Decision-Making
Data is a powerful tool that can help schools make informed decisions about their behavioral intervention strategies. By collecting and analyzing data on behavioral incidents, schools can identify patterns, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and plan how to allocate resources.
- Behavior Tracking Systems: This can be a simple spreadsheet or a more sophisticated software program that documents specific behavioral concerns in a consistent and organized way. This might include information like the date and time of the incident, the students involved, the specific behavior that occurred, and any consequences or interventions that were applied.
- Data Analysis: Regular review of the data you are collecting to identify trends and patterns, like which types of behaviors are more common at certain times of day, mayhelp you target your interventions more effectively, allocate resources where they are needed most, and evaluate the effectiveness of your interventions over time.
5. Allocate Adequate Funding and Staffing
Implementing effective behavioral intervention programs requires more than just good intentions – it also requires dedicated resources. Schools need to prioritize funding and staffing to ensure that these programs have the support they need to be successful. To help ensure adequate funding and staffing, schools can consider the following strategies:
- Budget Prioritization: It’s important for schools to recognize that investing in behavioral interventions can have a significant impact on student outcomes. Schools should allocate funding for training, intervention materials, and specialized staffing to ensure that these programs have the resources they need to be effective.
- Find Specialized Personnel: Consider employing school psychologists, behavior specialists, or social workers who have expertise in working with students with challenging behaviors. These professionals can provide individual or small group interventions, consult with teachers on classroom management strategies, and help develop individualized behavior plans for students who need more intensive support.
By considering these proactive strategies, schools can take steps toward enhancing their behavioral intervention strategies and creating a more supportive learning environment for all students. This investment in your school’s behaviorial resources helps to ensure that all of your student have access to the support they need to thrive both academically, interpersonally and emotionally.
Partner with Amergis for Educational Staffing Help
If you are looking to enhance your behavorial intervention resources, but don’t have the time or resources to find qualified professionals, you can partner with Amergis Educational Staffing for help. We understand the importance of having strong behavioral resources available in schools and our team of experienced educators, licensed professionals, and expert recruiters can help your school create a comprehensive behavioral support system. The benefits of working with Amergis include:
- Recruitment of qualified school-based professionals: Our massive database of candidates allows us to find professionals who are skilled and experienced in behavior interventions and social-emotional learning.
- Training: We offer proprietary expert led trainings, like our crisis prevention training created by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), that provide school-based professionals with the latest crisis behavior response and behavior analysis strategies. This ensures the professionals we provide are equipped to handle any behavioral situation they experience in the school setting.
Need help with boosting your behavioral intervention resources? Contact Amergis today to learn how we can help you create a thriving learning environment.
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