Behavioral Interventions in Schools

This book is a how-to manual for school mental health professionals, educators, and administrators that discusses a series of steps that can be used to proactively manage and prevent many different types of behavioral problems in a positive manner. It incorporates both the high structure and high behavioral expectations that are crucial for school success, but also describes following this structure in such a way that students feel included, important, and respected. Rather than requiring the mental health providers to investigate the research themselves and come up with a behavioral problem solving model, this book includes step-by-step guides on how to implement school-wide and classroom-wide interventions in a response-to-intervention format. For those students who demonstrate more behavior problems, more intensive interventions are included to help alleviate those problems.

The first section of the book discusses Tier I interventions and assessments designed to ensure that the school is effectively implementing a high quality, research-based behavioral management system. The next section covers Tier II interventions, those used for students who do not respond adequately to those of Tier I. These interventions are research-based, rigorous, and designed to address a broad range of behavior problems. Finally, the last section discusses Tier III interventions for students in need of highly individualized and intensive interventions to manage behavior problems.