Uncertainty in education, both general and special, has long troubled educational researchers, reformers, and practitioners. Responding to students with special (atypical) educational needs is an example of decisions that are prone to error. Although some efforts to reduce uncertainty in education are reasonable and helpful, efforts to eliminate…

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) recently launched the mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) Minimum Service Package (MSP). The MSP can address the MHPSS needs of populations affected by humanitarian crises by helping stakeholders coordinate MHPSS responses within and across sectors, addressing gaps, advocating for needs, and…

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…

The California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (Chancellor's Office) Rising Scholars Network was established to make college accessible to currently and formerly incarcerated community college students. Key partnerships with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the Foundation for California Community…

Project Cal-Well is a cross-agency mental health initiative led by the California Department of Education focused on building capacity for sustainable school-based mental health systems in local educational agencies (LEAs) throughout California. As part of a series highlighting the work of Project Cal-Well partners in Cohort 2 (2019-2024), this…

Student mental health needs continue to rise across the United States and many students and families rely on schools to provide services to meet these needs. Yet, an overwhelming number of available frameworks and approaches to school mental health (SMH) and overlapping terminology surrounding SMH supports like trauma-informed (TI) approaches,…

This qualitative study delves into the perspectives of school leaders in a Canadian province, exploring their views on student suspensions and alternative approaches to school discipline. Amid a provincial advocacy organization's call for a review and reduction of suspensions in that jurisdiction, the study captures both constructive and critical…

School psychologists and researchers trained in school mental health, are worried about undergraduate and graduate students. Even pre-COVID-19, college mental health issues had already risen to crisis levels (Becker, 2020); reports early in the pandemic only further demonstrated elevated levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and a need to…

Teachers and clinicians report feeling underprepared to implement evidence-based behavior supports. As such, effective models of professional development that lead to improved outcomes for all individuals are required. Critical components of high-quality professional development include explicit instruction, modeling, practice, direct feedback,…

Current literature exists centered on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) framework, its components, and ways in which MTSS is intended to support all students. Yet, there is a gap in the literature that examines how elementary schools are implementing it. This dissertation study sought to understand what the MTSS framework implementation at…

Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) is a widely implemented, evidence-based Tier 2 behavior intervention used primarily in schools implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The purpose of this national extant study was to examine implementation patterns using an extant database of 24,425 students within 1,766 schools across 40 U.S.…

Thirteen per cent of all 16-24-year-olds in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET). This equates to nearly one million young people who are not currently learning or earning. The long-term scarring impact of being NEET for a sustained period of time on young people, society, and the economy, is well known. It is therefore of…

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…

The third in a series of three evaluation briefs, this brief describes how a district in receivership (state takeover) invested in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to: (1) enhance their systems to support staff; (2) implement evidence-based practices to support students; (3) use data to guide their implementation; and (4)…

This mixed methodology phenomenological case study, which included an explanatory sequential research design, explored the behaviors principals employ when promoting fidelity to universal Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B), otherwise known as Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The target population consisted of…