School attendance and absenteeism are critical targets of educational policies and practices that often depend heavily on aggregated attendance/absenteeism data. School attendance/absenteeism data in aggregated form, in addition to having suspect quality and utility, minimizes individual student variation, distorts detailed and multilevel…

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified preexisting challenges for educators as manifested in high rates of work-related stress and burnout, and educators leaving the profession in higher numbers than ever before. In this article, we highlight the urgency for work-related well-being supports for educators, with a particular focus on system changes.…

Adolescents living in both rural and urban settings experience the same mental health care needs at similar rates, but those living in rural environments experience exacerbated consequences because of localized barriers to receiving support. These barriers are often summarized as the three A's: availability, accessibility, and acceptability.…

Students' behavioral and academic needs are interrelated, and educators may maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their classroom practice by intentionally integrating academic instruction and positive behavior support practices within an integrated multi-tiered system of support (I-MTSS) framework. Integrated classroom practices are…

One of the most important factors affecting the use of evidence for policy or practice is the uncertainty of study results. Furthermore, this uncertainty is compounded by our increasing awareness of heterogeneous treatment effects. Here we inform debate about the strength of study evidence by quantifying the conditions necessary to nullify an…

Despite the fact that schools remain incredibly safe spaces for children and youth to spend time, the occurrence of mass school shootings, although rare, is a pressing issue for our society. In this paper we discuss the importance of action, advocacy, and research related to mass school shootings. Specifically, we discuss research-based actions…

With support from a U.S. Department of Education grant, the Portland Public Schools successfully expanded a model program that addresses workforce shortages and disrupts inequities by increasing the number of school psychologists from diverse backgrounds, improving foundational reading skills, increasing multitiered systems of support, and…

Progress monitoring data provide important information on student functioning in response to an intervention. Yet, there are several barriers to effective progress monitoring of internalizing symptoms among youth. To address these concerns, the current paper conceptualized the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) as a service delivery…

In the United States, schools provide a large portion of child and adolescent mental health services; however, systems are restricted by resource and workforce shortages while the need for services steadily increases. This discrepancy leads to unmanageable caseloads for providers and reduced access to quality services for youth, and highlights a…

The Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) process provides for mitigating gaps in our educator preparation programs with respect to providing for the wide array of student learning needs in K-12 classrooms. However, current educator preparation programs do not adequately address the needs of advanced and gifted learners in either undergraduate or…

As the public health framework has been implemented in schools through multi-tiered systems of support, as in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), a prominent interpretation has been that 80% of students will benefit from universal or Tier 1 schoolwide behavior support, around 15% will require added selective or Tier 2 targeted…

Iredell-Statesville Schools was awarded a School Climate Transformation Grant in 2019. INSPIRE: Interventions to Nurture Students and Provide Individualized Responsive Environments, was an innovative approach to improving behavioral outcomes for the district's highest risk students by reshaping schools' culture, staff, and systems through…

We address defining and identifying students with dyslexia within the context of multi-tier systems of support (MTSS). We review proposed definitions of dyslexia, evidence for proposed definitional attributes, and emphasize the role of response to intervention in identifying students with dyslexia. We identify dyslexia as individuals with specific…

School counselors are trained to holistically serve all students' personal and academic development while also fostering college and career readiness (CCR). However, many school counselors inadequately serve students with disabilities due to a lack of training and/or time. Transition specialists are professionals staffed in the special education…

The Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Innovations series aims to help the field imagine new, more expansive and equitable approaches to SEL and wellness to ensure that all children, adolescents, and adults feel safe, supported, and seen so that they can thrive. This is the third report in the series and focuses on building safe and supportive…