- Webinar, I'm Amy Wheeler-Sutton
from the Vermont PBIS state team,
and here today with Anne Dubie and Kym Asam,
who is a Vermont PBIS coach and also works for NFI.
And Kym is gonna lead our webinar this morning
on universal screening.
And we will put the link to the materials in the chat box.
There's quite a few materials to reference
probably at a later date, and I will turn it over to Kym.
- Thanks, Amy.
Good morning, everyone.
I'm gonna share my screen, and we'll get started
as soon as I find my share screen little button.
- You're muted, Kym.
- Wow, that's too bad
'cause I was saying really important things.
Sorry.
I was having a hard time getting my,
get rid of that bar so I could share my screen.
So let me just try this again.
My apologies. (voices talking from background)
This is not going well.
Sorry, one more time.
Here we go.
Third time's the charm.
- [Amy] There might be an icon down at the bottom
that allows you to share in full screen too,
like the one near the Zoom.
Sorry, like zooming in button.
- I don't know why that bar won't go away.
- [Amy] And there should be an option somewhere
to like hide everything.
- All right.
Thanks for your patience.
Right, so there you go, I'm Kym Asam.
So really quickly as Anne said, or Amy said,
all your, the resources associated
with our time together today are in the chat box
in the link,
We're gonna ask that you stay muted during the session,
but please feel free to unmute if you have a question
or you can always type a question into the chat box.
We'll do our best to monitor the chat box.
And as far as, you know, your video,
hiding it or showing it,
that's really up to your own comfort level.
Periodically we may all come back to the room,
and during that time,
if you wanna turn on your video,
it's always wonderful to see everyone's faces.
So today we're gonna think about what's the,
why do we wanna understand and identify students
who are at risk for social emotional behavioral challenges.
We're gonna take a look
at some informal and formal screening tools.
You also have resources
for accessing many different resource screening tools
and a lot of information about those.
We're gonna talk about the systems that would be optimal
for implementation of universal screening.
And then we're gonna talk about what do you do
with what you find?
So how are you gonna match the results
with proactive and preventative practices,
and then quickly examine the systems in place
to collect and analyze and act upon the data
that you have and that you're gonna use.
And just as a reminder, the recovery plan that was developed
and people are doing due diligence in implementing
also identified universal screener
as a method to integrate kids back into school
and to help them with engagement
and to better understand their needs
as a result of the pandemic and other issues, of course.
So hopefully today we'll give you some information
that can help you
if you're not already using a universal screener,
help you make some decisions about next steps.
So we're just gonna start with how are you feeling today?
So take a look at the sheep on your screen there,
and go ahead and type in the chat box,
which sheep do you think best represents
how you're doing right now?
And if you wanna say why, you can say why,
and I can tell you that I wish I were sheep, little,
that little lamb, number nine, jumping for joy.
But I think I'm more like a seven right now,
a little pensive.
Doing a training I always get a little nervous.
So go ahead and type in the chat box,
which sheep do you think best represents you?
Five for the weekend.
Okay, great, Nicole.
Three, number five, I love it.
Number three, okay.
One, I got a lot going on.
Yep, eight, very busy.
Four, maybe a little hectic.
Great, okay.
Number eight for Pam.
Thanks, Pam.
Three, just kind of a hot mess, okay, Lisa, sorry.
Laura Lee's a five,
kind of tired Laura Lee with your cold, huh?
Okay.
Thanks for indulging me.
Sometimes I use a squirrel scale,
but today I thought a sheep scale for some reason,
because of wool being warmer.
All right.
So as I said today,
we're gonna be talking about universal screeners.
And one of the things I identify
is internalizing and externalizing behaviors,
and what we know from the research and the data
is that approximately 12% of all school age kids
have some kind of internalizing issues.
For example, being shy or withdrawn
or acting out behaviors such as aggression or both,
both internalizing and externalizing issues.
And of those 12%,
20% of those range from mild to severe.
So this becomes a concern for all educators
because less than 1% of those kids
that are identified as having internalizing
or externalizing or both challenges
go on to receive special education services.
So a commitment to a tiered system
becomes really, really important.
Again, this becomes everybody's problem.
It doesn't just get addressed
by referring kids to other supports and services.
It gets addressed by implementing
a multi-tiered system of support.
And you think about it,
what are our systems doing to support practices
across all tiers
to support all students
with internalizing or externalizing behaviors?
So we really wanna shift to a systems perspective,
not an individualized kid perspective,
and universal screeners can help us do that.
So we also wanna make sure that we're noting
that we recognize that there are ongoing challenges
and concerns in the Vermont school systems.
We know that COVID data has shown that
or actually exacerbated and highlighted
that there's racial disparities in Vermont,
and teachers are struggling right now,
as are administrators.
Being in a public school right now is hard,
with all of the constant pivoting to remote
and closing down classrooms,
and sometimes closing whole schools.
So we wanna name that, and also name that
that can activate some of our implicit bias.
So we really wanna be paying attention
to what COVID has done to us as a group of people
and what we can learn from it as well.
And also the recent stats,
I'm sure that you've all heard about the gaps
that have been identified as a result of having to pivot
to remote learning and then again,
pivoting back and forth between remote and building-based
has exacerbated these challenges as well.
Some of the work that we're doing at,
the best team right now is focusing on
is increasing our efforts
in equitable and inclusionary practices.
So we've been doing some work with various national leaders
on equity and inclusion,
including Ruth Payno-Simmons,
Ruthie Payno-Simmons, excuse me.
And she shared with us these core constructs of equity
that we're really trying to implement and utilize
in our work, in our trainings, as well as our practices.
And she talks about these four core constructs.
And by the way, MAP stands for
Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center.
So, you know, just really briefly,
when we're thinking about
inclusionary and equitable practices,
we wanna make sure that all students
have entrance and involvement with the full benefit
of quality learning experiences, that's really access,
and that we're using the data
to invite their voice into the room
so that we truly have thorough
and a representative representation,
all kids' voices in the room,
regardless of whether they're (background noises)
Thank you for muting.
You know, whether they're a student that's excelling
in all areas or they're a student that's really struggling.
We wanna make sure that kids are empowered
and that they're accessing their agency
to really contribute in effectual ways.
It doesn't become a perfunctory activity checklist.
We have a kid involved, so that's all we need to do.
We wanna really make sure that their voice is in the room
and that they are active members of teams
and active members of evaluating data
and active members of making decisions.
And finally, it's not just access that we want kids to have,
but we wanna have really good outcomes.
So we wanna identify the need for the data
with kids' voice in the room,
have efficacious interventions that contribute
to positive outcomes.
And to summarize these core constructs,
and I'm just gonna read this.
"Educational equity exists
"when educational policies, practices, interactions,
"and resources are representative of, constructed by
"and responsive to all people so that each individual
"has access to, meaningfully participates in,
"and has positive outcomes
"from high quality learning experiences,
"regardless of their individual characteristics
"and group memberships."
So it means that every child receives
whatever she, he, they need
to develop to her his, their full academic,
social, excuse me, and emotional potential,
and to thrive in all of those arenas.
So every child, every day, really important.
And when we talk about universal screeners,
it helps to promote and increase
equitable and inclusionary practices.
And of course we have to show our triangle.
So this is just another way of looking at
how we provide access and equity to all.
A multi-tiered system of support,
that positive intervention support framework
is a consistent responses for students and staff,
which contributes to equity.
We have the same language.
We have the same practices,
and it helps us to step away from our assumptions
and our biases, our implicit biases
of how we might assign gender
or we might assign cultural behavior characteristics
to kids, it's a clearly articulated framework and a plan.
So regardless of the intervention on the student needs,
we have a clearly articulated,
consistent and predictable framework.
And even if a student is getting intensive supports,
all students continue to have access to universal support.
So we never take that away.
We never say this is someone else's problem.
We're also involved in making sure
that students are successful.
And we take a look at data, right?
Data systems and practices.
We take a look at data
to demonstrate success and challenges.
And we wanna look at the data
through the lens of equity and inclusion.
We wanna pay attention to things like disproportionality.
We wanna pay attention to how are disaggregating data.
And I'll spend a couple more minutes
on some of those constructs in a moment.
And then finally, we really wanna be conscious
of how are we talking about kids,
avoiding reification, right?
That we're not labeling the kids,
but we're talking about their behavior.
So we use a lot of shorthand sometimes.
We say things like, oh, the targeted kids
or the intensive kids.
But I would argue that I have yet to hear anyone
describe a kid as a universal kid.
So what we really wanna think about is saying things
like labeling the behavior not the student,
talking about this is a kid
who is receiving targeted support,
or this is a kid who's receiving intensive supports.
And we also, as I mentioned earlier,
when we do universal screening,
we're identifying kids
who tend to be more internalizing with their behaviors
and/or more externalizing the behavior.
So we wanna avoid language like,
oh, that's the internalizer,
or that's an externalizer, right?
Because we lose the child to the label.
We lose the whole child
to either the label or the diagnosis.
We wanna make sure that we're keeping the whole child
in the picture
when we're thinking about intervention strategies.
So if you wouldn't mind
just putting in the chat box quickly,
what's some of the data that you collect/use to assess
the social, emotional behavioral strengths and challenges
at your school.
And also how do you use that data for decision-making?
So again, what's some of the data
that you're using and collecting,
and how do you use that data for decision making?
I'm just gonna stop sharing for a moment,
and we can look in the chat box
to see what people are letting us know
about their incredible work.
So what data are you currently using,
and how are you using that for decision-making?
And just go ahead and type in the chat box,
that would be great.
Data observation forms, CHICO, FBA nurse visits.
Excellent.
Thanks for using data observation forms.
That's exciting.
SWIS, used to provide support to students.
Super, Kosha.
Thank you.
Collecting data to track access to resources
at the school building level
are represented in a variety of ways
to make decisions on how we need to adjust support.
Great.
Thank you so much.
Is that Michelle?
Yeah, and Nicole, SWIS, Climate, CHICO.
Right, thanks, Nicole.
And hi, Nicole.
Nice to see you.
Martha talks about SWIFT, staff observation, nurse visits,
academics, debt, academic dats.
I think you mean academic data.
Great, thank you, Martha.
Being new to the district, Pam says, and the state,
in the past, I have used Sociograms,
student self-assessment, FBAs, discipline referrals.
Great, thanks, Pam, and welcome to Vermont.
Okay.
And we're also tracking absenteeism.
Yes, Kosha, really important.
Thanks, that's such an important thing
because if we're thinking about academic data,
behavioral data, if a kid is absent a lot,
it's really hard to just put,
well, they're not doing well academically.
Well, why?
Maybe because they're experiencing extreme absenteeism.
So that's a data point we wanna pay attention to.
Super, okay.
So talked a little bit
about some of the informal screening data sources
that you're already using.
So here's a non-exhaustive list
of some informal school-based screening data.
And I love this quote,
"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion."
So we really try to talk about moving from what we call
hunch points to data points.
You may have a suspicion or a concern about a student,
and you can pay attention to that concern,
but use data to then inform and develop a hypothesis
about what next steps you might wanna take.
And sometimes we can feel a little confounded by data.
How do we get it?
What are we looking for?
But again, these are examples of data
that should be readily available and easily accessible
to all of you.
And another way of just organizing that data
is by tiers, right?
So at the universal level,
we can look at these various data sources.
Targeted, we can look at SWIS,
the Tiered Fidelity Inventory, et cetera.
And the more data you have,
the more questions you will ask,
and a better rounded and comprehensive picture you'll have
about a student or a trend of behaviors in your school.
And I mentioned earlier about disproportionality
and disaggregation, so very important too
when you're thinking about your data
to consider disaggregating the data,
to be sure it's representative of the student body.
So for example, let's say you have 47% of your students
identify as male,
41% is female, and 2% are non-binary.
And when you look at your data, if you see that, you know,
47% of your population is identifying as male,
but 80% of your kids
getting targeted interventions are male,
you wanna disaggregate that.
You wanna think about the why of that.
What's going on in our universal interventions
that's causing more of our male students to struggle
than our female students or our non-binary students.
And other examples of data that we wanna consider
to paint a really big picture
is data outside of your school.
So community data like mental health, substance abuse,
food pantry visits, poverty rate, socioeconomic status,
drug addiction rates, crisis services, ER visits,
et cetera.
So it's just another way again
to categorize it across tiers, but just to emphasize
the more information you have about your school community,
your school groups, and your individual students,
the more informed you'll be
to make a really evidence-based decision,
data-informed decision about intervention strategies.
Excuse me.
So screening data helps us ask the right questions,
but it doesn't provide answers.
So we think about database decision
across multiple levels.
Excuse me, I'm just gonna take a sip of water.
So at the macro level,
we're thinking about the whole school,
or maybe the whole SU.
At the mezzo level, we might be thinking about
certain classrooms or certain groups of students.
And at the micro level,
we're thinking about individual student's concerns.
And when you think about data
and asking the right questions,
you really wanna start with an outcome.
What are you hoping to achieve?
You wanna create a statement with a goal summary,
gather data, implement interventions,
and then revisit the data.
How are we doing?
Are we meeting the needs?
Are the needs decreasing?
Are we implementing our intervention strategies
with fidelity?
So what is social/emotional/behavioral screening?
When we think about social/emotional/behavioral screening,
it differs somewhat from other assessments,
assessments of like attitudes and feelings
such as school climate surveys,
in that the social/emotional/behavioral screening
focuses on an individual student's level
of social/emotional/behavioral health.
So we'll talk a little bit later
about how every kid should have this screening done.
That's an issue of equity,
and it gives you a full picture of how your school is doing.
School climate surveys typically yield data
that is aggregated across groups
to indicate a given school safety
and social/emotional/behavioral health
as perceived by a lot of different people,
a lot of different stakeholders like families,
like faculty and staff, the students as well.
And it's important information for sure
to get your finger on the pulse of the overall health
of your school.
And it can also help you discover some of the strengths
of your school, right?
What are the things that are going well?
So we really wanna be thinking about screening
as a way to detect early signs of risk
and also a mechanism for identifying intervention strategies
that can help students
and making sure that we're identifying
evidence-based intervention strategies such as PBIS.
And we have two methods of screeners and surveys.
So informal screeners are just ways to check in every day
with kids.
They can provide valuable data
for getting important feedback,
as well as assessing connections and engagement
that students have with their school
or some of the adults in their school.
It also, as I said earlier, increases staff's opportunity
and ability to move from a hunch point,
like I think, I guess, I wonder to a data point.
Here's my concern, and here's the data I have
to demonstrate that concern.
And then we know
with formal social/emotional/behavior learning screeners,
that it's well-established as a valid
and a reliable method for determining students
with elevated levels of risk.
And we also just wanna name in this webinar today
that we recognize that because of the unrelenting stress
that COVID has caused,
even though many of us are all building-based again
and pivoting back and forth between building-based
and virtual based, that the rates and norm data
may be skewed, and we do have our national partners
working really hard and making sure that our screening tools
are normed to these type of conditions.
So if you're doing a comparison of years before
and years now, you wanna take into consideration
the additional stressors that families
and staff and students are under right now.
And use that as a method also
to assess what you're discovering.
So spend a little time on informal screeners,
kind of the why and the what of informal screeners.
We know that in order for kids to feel safe,
we need to feel safe, right,
for them to be able to access their learning.
So by identifying kids who have needs,
by checking in every single day,
getting our finger on the pulse of how kids are doing,
we're doing this informal screening
and hopefully developing an environment of safety
so they can really actively engage in their life learning.
We wanna have them involved.
When I talked about those equity constructs,
that we wanna make sure that they feel empowered,
that they're activating their agency,
that they have ownership in being able to describe to you
in some fashion, whether confidential or not,
how they're doing on a day to day basis.
We wanna also be aware of the kids
that have experienced extensive loss as a result of COVID.
Maybe it's their caregivers have lost jobs,
or they've had more food insecurity or housing insecurity,
those that have a history of trauma or chronic stress
or other preexisting mental health conditions.
So being, again by checking in daily with kids
with an informal screener process, we're checking,
saying checking in again,
we're putting a finger again, on the pulse
of being able to first normalize
kids being able to describe to us how they're doing,
but also making sure that we understand how they're doing.
And then thinking about the most efficient way
to use the amazing staff that you have
that are charged with supporting the mental health needs
of kids in your school, such as your school psychologist,
your school counselors,
or maybe you have contracted services
from your designated agency,
they're providing supports and services,
and really emphasizing at what level are those folks
working with kids.
And I'm hoping that we're really encouraging people
to do more pushing in the classrooms,
to be able to observe kids who are struggling
in the context where the stress occurs
and pushing in to do informal screening processes
versus pulling kids out of the classroom
and taking them away from their community.
And out of the context of the stress.
It doesn't mean that you never take a kid
out of the classroom to provide support to them,
but using that expertise that you have to do observation
and to notice and to name and to then maybe make suggestions
about some classroom strategies that might be used
to support kids that are struggling.
So what are some methods of informal screening?
I think this is just a really good slide
of how we can demystify it.
They're very simple.
We can do surveys.
So there's something called Closegap that you can use.
And there's a list of screeners that's in the tools
that you can look at as well.
And the title of the document is called
"Social Emotional Behavioral Surveys and Screeners."
So you can use surveys.
I know that in, I think it was greater Rutland,
one of their BCBAs created a fairly simple
three question survey to ask about how kids are doing
in the morning.
It can be on the side of their desk.
It can be electronic if you want.
You can do restorative circles or you can do, you know,
just morning meeting circles or use the advisories,
making phone calls to families.
I think a lot about families now
who have their kids home for 10 days
because they've been in close contact,
and then the kids go back and how stressful that is
to have that sort of uncertainty and unpredictability.
We can use a lot of the virtual platforms
that we've all become so fluent in
to get our finger on the pulse of how families are doing
and how kids are doing, and we can use our existing data.
So it's really demystifying.
We have all of these informal screeners in place already,
and we can just take advantage of the knowledge that we have
to understand better how our kids are doing.
And I'll talk a little bit more about existing data
over the next couple of slides for informal screening.
So here's an example of screening using existing data.
So in this particular example,
the school is looking at how they're doing academically,
their GPA and their, if they're failing any courses,
what's their level of absenteeism.
And they're looking at the concerning behaviors,
and the concerning behaviors are identified
or defined by the school-wide expectations.
So when we look at this chart of informal screening,
we might say, oh my gosh,
I have some significant concerns about Jacob
because his grade point average is pretty low,
and he's clearly had support around concerning behaviors,
12 times in this particular time period.
He's also been absent 11 days,
so accessing education must be really challenging for him
if he's missing that many days at school.
So I'm gonna get more curious about Jacob
and look at some other data as well.
I'm also really curious about Mary.
So Mary is doing excellently, excellent academically,
and she's not been absent at all,
and she doesn't have any concerning behaviors.
So I'm really curious about how Mary is being so successful.
And I'm also really curious about Jacob
and why he's having so many struggles.
And so I'm gonna make a hypothesis,
and I'm gonna dive deeper into the data
and use a multidisciplinary team
to help me discover more about Jacob
and provide more supports for him.
You can also use, for those of you who identified SWIS
in the chat box earlier, your SWIS data
to be an informal screener.
So we know from the research
that when kids hit that threshold
of about two to five behavior observation data forms,
or what we used to call observation,
ODRs, office discipline referrals,
when they're engaging in behaviors that require more support
than just classroom-based intervention.
So maybe they have to go to the office
or they're going to a planning room,
or they're going to another adult to get support.
And that's a good indicator
that we should be looking at
potential targeted interventions for them.
And you can see the kids that are having,
have more than five concerning behaviors
that require additional supports
other than a classroom intervention,
we might be thinking about,
do we need to look at perhaps intensive supports for them?
So your student information system, whatever you're using,
whether it's SWIS or maybe you're using PowerSchool,
and this is another great source
of an informal screening tool.
So you wanna be again, looking at the behaviors
and then hopefully looking at the function of the behavior,
and then look at all the data that we discussed
in the earlier slides to see if we can get
a more comprehensive picture about how kids are going,
how kids are doing.
And then here's some survey resources.
I mentioned Closegap, it's a wellness check.
It's really easy to use.
It's an electronic version, so kids go online to fill it.
So it can, you can have anonymity with it.
I don't know how many people are familiar
with some of Harvard's work
about making caring common.
They use relationship mapping as a tool,
which is really important,
particularly when we talk about
using a formal universal screener.
You can do check-in, check-out surveys,
satisfaction surveys.
WestEd has a lot of learning from home surveys.
And even though we're all building-based again,
as I said, we're pivoting back and forth.
And then Panorama has a huge array of
question bank of surveys for students, educators,
and for families.
And like I said, the document that I referenced
that's in the resources, in the link in the chat box
has lots of different resources that you can access.
So we talked about a lot of different data.
I'm just really curious.
Is there other data sources that I missed
that your team might be looking at to determine supports
that are needed?
And I'll stop sharing and see if anything pops up
in the chat about that.
So did we miss anything?
Do people have some data sources that are creative
and innovative that I'd love to add to this webinar.
I'll just give you a moment.
Great, the VYP Survey.
Kosha, you're gonna have to help me, Vermont?
Would you mind unmuting?
I'm sorry, VYP, Vermont youth?
- [Kosha] Yeah, it's the Vermont Youth Project.
- Project, thank you so much.
- [Kosha] Yeah, which collects data on substance abuse
and relationships with parents and things like that.
- Super, that's a great, a great data source.
Thank you, and then Ashley talks about,
how they're about to launch Closegap
with your middle school.
That's great, Ashley.
Yeah, that's really helpful data.
I was thinking about
the Vermont Youth Behavior Risk Survey too.
I know that's every two years,
but that could be data that you could access as well.
Okay, well, thanks everyone.
All right.
So, come back to the share button.
So how do we formulate an accurate measure of risk?
With the number of behaviors that can occur in a classroom
on a daily basis at any particular moment in the classroom,
sometimes it's difficult to formulate
an accurate measure of the real challenges and needs
if we relies solely on anecdotal, gut reactions,
observations, et cetera.
It's also sometimes challenging to figure out where to start
when there can be so many variations
in the type of behaviors,
and back to the issue of equity,
when we're just using sort of this observation
sort of hunch point, anecdotal gut reactions,
we have to be cognizant of our implicit biases, right?
So they may be activated and that might influence
some of the interventions we use
that could contribute to more disproportionality
in how we're treating certain groups of students,
kids of color, kids that are a certain gender,
kids that are non-binary, things like that.
So we wanna be thoughtful about recognizing
that there are challenges,
and there are a lot of challenges in this cartoon, for sure,
but using data to really have an accurate measure
of the risks that might be existing in our classrooms.
So why do we wanna use a formal universal screener
or screening?
Well, we know that it's a validated instrument
that focuses on the social, emotional and behavioral risks
and strengths.
It's a reliable method of determining students
with elevated risk.
So it's a valid, these are validated instruments, right?
They have reliability measures as well,
and we're already doing a multitude of screenings
in schools, right?
So we do academic screening.
We do hearing screening,
I assume, vision screening is getting done.
So we're trying to get a comprehensive picture
of how each of our students are doing in our schools.
This is just another resource and another tool.
And it helps us to be objective.
And as I said many times,
it helps to, it helps us to step away from our implicit bias
in order to achieve equity.
And I am very cognizant that there are families
that have concern
about social, emotional, behavior screening.
And I just really encourage folks
that are on this call today,
just think about ways to normalize it.
And I'm going to introduce a resource
that has lots of really great information
and ideas and strategies to use to get consent from families
and to help to, again, normalize
that this is just another way for us to understand
how your child is doing,
the same way we want to understand
how they're doing academically.
The same way we wanna understand how they're doing,
what they're hearing, et cetera.
It paints a whole picture.
And we also, the reason we wanna use a universal screener
is that we wanna be able to match interventions
to what's going on with the student.
We just, again, we don't wanna just guess,
so a simplistic example would be
that we might support a shy, somewhat withdrawn student
with a standard check-in check-out intervention, right?
So we're gonna use the data of a universal screener
to identify that this is a kid
who tends to have internalizing behaviors.
Then we're gonna look at a repertoire of interventions
or evidence-based interventions
and match that intervention to the need.
So if you're going to screen,
you need to be ready to intervene.
And we'll talk a little bit more about that.
The other thing that's really important to name,
and I'm sure so many of you already know this,
but kids who have internalizing behaviors
are not gonna be as visible to us
as kids that have externalizing behaviors, right?
And so a universal screener can sometimes uncover
and detect kids that maybe seem a little quiet,
but they seem like they're doing okay,
but really underneath they're struggling
with significant anxiety or worry.
We wanna be able to help them with that.
We also know that the earlier we intervene,
the more likely we're able to mitigate
some of these potential challenges
when we don't intervene because of not being able
to identify risks.
So we know that all of these things can happen to kids
if we don't get in there early and help them.
And also some recent stats from 2020,
and there as recent of stats that I could find
is that the emergency department visits have increased.
And I know that's been on the news here in Vermont too,
and increased by 24% for five to 11 year olds,
and 31% for 12 to 17 year olds,
and parents are reporting that their child
has experienced declines in their mental health in 2020,
25% of families reported declines.
And there's a lot of kids,
there's a really interesting article on loneliness and worry
which I didn't put in the resources.
And I regret doing that now,
but just talking about how kids reported losing more sleep,
feeling really lonely, feeling unhappy,
feeling depressed, loss of confidence in themselves.
And we're also missing a lot of kids.
We're not getting data on a lot of kids
who are just kind of dropping out and stepping away.
So what do we know?
We know that academic successes are linked
with social and behavioral skills.
So again, using a universal screener
to identify where kids are struggling
and provide interventions and resources to fill those gaps.
Again, early intervention is critical
to mitigating some of these challenges that might occur
as a result of unrecognized, undiagnosed
and untreated social, emotional, behavioral challenges,
and preventive supports reduce the need
for more intensive supports later.
So again, the earlier we intervene,
the less likely that we're gonna have more kids
receiving intensive behavior support plans
and other types of supports.
So let's hear from you now,
are you using currently a universal screener in your school
or your SU or your district?
And if so, what are you using?
If you don't mind putting that in the chat box,
I'd really appreciate it.
Let's see, Greg is not using universal screener
at this point.
Thanks, Greg.
Anybody else?
Okay, and Pam, it's not at the SU level that I'm aware.
Individual schools may have something informal
that they're using.
Great, informal screeners are really important.
Martha talks about,
we're investigating different screeners right now.
Super, and I'm gonna share a resource
in a little bit, Martha,
that I think will be really helpful.
Going to be using a few from PBIS and the Closegap.
Great, those are great.
Kosha's looking into them.
Super, great.
Thank you.
All right, so let's just talk a little bit
about some of the logistics of screening.
So when do we screen?
We wanna make sure that we really know the kids
before we screen, so one of the concerns
about the recovery plan,
about recommending a universal screener
is that initially there was a lot of activity around
we need to roll that out right when school starts.
And what we know from the research is that
you need to get to know your kids first.
So the research and the science suggests
that you wait at least six to eight weeks
before you do your first screening
with all of the kids, and the way it works
is that teachers or others
complete a standardized questionnaire
based on the universal screener that you choose,
or a clinical assessment tool on every student.
So again, this is an issue of equity.
At no point do we want people saying,
well, we're not really worried about Anne.
Anne seems to be doing fine,
so we're not gonna do a universal screener for Anne
'cause she's at her camp, and she's happy there, right?
So every single student, we're gonna do a screening on
to make sure we're not missing anything.
And we wanna determine if they're experiencing
or at risk for some social, emotional behavioral challenge.
There is a, as I mentioned earlier, the Harvard website
has something called relationship mapping,
which is a great way to help you
to get to know your student even better.
So it really makes sure that every student
has at least one adult with whom they're connected.
So get to know them really well.
And just again, thinking about how are you moving away from
implicit bias?
Universal screeners can achieve that.
And we know that if screening's done too early
as one of the bullets says,
the results will largely be invalid.
And the treatment directions will be unclear
or incorrectly focused, and time will be wasted.
And I can tell you,
all the work that I've done over the years with schools,
people are so frustrated
when they feel like they've done some sort of survey
or some sort of assessment,
and then they never hear about it, or it wasn't successful.
It feels like a total waste of time
and frustrating because
they were hoping to get some answers.
The worst thing that can happen
is some students may be harmed by not getting anything
or getting the wrong therapeutic services.
Cause we've done the universal screener too soon.
The other thing I mentioned earlier,
if you've been doing universal screening for years,
you consider the as an unnormed event
that's occurring right now
to which screeners haven't been validated to.
And there's a national group of people,
including Kathleen Lane right now
that's working on ensuring screeners are normed
to the pandemic
and also making sure they're normed to race and ethnicity.
So making sure that our validity measures
are working towards those as well.
And so there's a document in your handouts,
it's called "Systemic Screening for Behavior Considerations
"and Commitment to Continued Inquiry."
And it's a really interesting, it's a two-page document,
but it does talk about the national efforts
to make sure that our screening tools, again,
are normed to not only the pandemic,
but all of the concerns and issues
around equity and inclusion
that we have not been as fluent in
or as attentive to as we could be.
So that's the when to screen.
And we talked about this already.
So student, screening can help us really figure out
kids that are struggling with externalizing behavior
or internalizing behavior or both.
And when we think about behavior observation data forms,
when we're writing information
about a student who's struggling
and whose behavior cannot solely be managed
in the classroom,
that gives us a description of behavior incidents
that occurred,
but it doesn't necessarily assess the motivating factors
behind the behavior.
And again, oftentimes misses kids that are,
have a tendency to be more struggling,
struggling more with internalizing behaviors.
And the way that a multi-stage
or multi-gate approach to screening works is, as I said,
everyone gets screened.
Everyone, all of your students get a universal screening.
And then you take a look at the data from that.
If you notice that a student is elevated,
you might do a second level of screening.
So if we think about,
there's one screening tool called Systematic, excuse me,
Screening for Behavior Disorders, the SSBD.
So they use something called a combined frequency index
and a critical behavior index.
That's a second level of screening at stage two.
When you do that, if it's not elevated, you're done.
But if there continues to be elevation
based on that student that you've done a second level of,
or the stage two of screening,
then you wanna look at that data,
and if it continues to be elevated,
then you're going to get a request for assistance, right?
You're gonna look into intervention strategies.
Again, pull together a multidisciplinary team
to evaluate the data and start thinking about
what kind of resources do you have in your school
and how are you going to match an intervention or modality
to the need that's been identified.
This is a little bit analogous to hearing screenings, right?
So everyone gets a hearing screening.
If nothing, screening's fine, you're fine.
You go on your business.
If there's some elevation,
you're gonna do a second level of screening.
If not elevated at the second level of screening,
you're gonna stop the screening.
If it continues to be elevated,
then you might do a referral to an audiologist
or something like that.
So what are we gonna do with the data information?
So similar to data from academic screening tools,
data from universal behavior screening tools
can be used in tiered system support to one,
detect students for whom tier one intervention efforts
are not necessarily successful or they're being,
they're insufficient.
It can inform teacher delivered low intensity supports
and connect students with evidence-based practices,
tier two, or tier three practices and programs.
So some, you know, low level teacher delivered changes
that might be made that are more at the universal
that can help with some of these challenges
that might be discovered through universal screenings
are increasing opportunities to respond,
doing some antecedent based intervention strategies
in the classroom, prompting, pre-correcting,
things like that.
This is a screenshot from a school
that took a look at the elementary level,
multiple data sources
in order to create a comprehensive picture of students
for whom they had concern after the universal screening.
So screening data is really important
for supporting teachers as well.
One of the slides I did a while ago
talked about how kids need to feel safe to access academics.
And so do teachers, so do all of you on the call, right?
So universal screening can help support that
by really feeling confident in your knowledge
about how students are doing
across multiple domains of data.
So if more than 20% of kids in a class
are found to have scores on an elevated level
and are found need more than just tier one efforts,
this could be a signal
that a teacher might need additional support
in their classroom, right?
So it's not targeting or blaming the teacher,
it's just saying, hmm, based on what we're seeing,
I wonder if we boosted this particular
in classroom intervention strategy,
or if we had more observation of your classroom,
or if we had a self-assessment tool that you might use
to evaluate your own classroom management practices,
that might be helpful in being more proactive?
So we can increase engagement
and decrease the concerning and challenging behaviors.
And again, if you look at this,
they're getting the AIMSweb reading, math,
they're taking a look, they use the SRSS, that the behavior,
and then they're also categorizing kids
who are struggling with internalizing behaviors,
kids who have gotten support out of the classroom.
They use the language ODR there, or the abbreviation ODR.
They're also looking, as Kosha mentioned,
the absenteeism levels.
So if a kid is missing a lot of academics,
it's gonna have, or a lot of school,
that's certainly likely gonna have an influence
on how they're doing socially, emotionally, behaviorally
as well.
And this is a Dothon Brook example.
So they took a look at their screening data.
And they put it in a pie chart.
They also had a really great Excel spreadsheet
that broke down by grade level,
kindergarten, first grade, second grade, et cetera,
how many kids had internalizing behaviors?
How many kids had externalized
or elevated externalizing behaviors?
How many kids had both?
And then they put this in this really lovely pie chart.
And they designed interventions accordingly.
So it gave them a full, comprehensive picture.
It also gave them a picture of how well
a lot of students were doing.
So it's not just about, oh, we've got a lot of problems.
We're gonna have to do all these different things.
It's also about, oh my gosh, there's a lot of kids
who are doing really well.
What can we learn from their successes
also in order to inform,
increasing our universal strategies?
Or particular classrooms
that might be doing better than others,
what's going on in that classroom
that's helping that teacher be successful?
And you also, based on the screening data,
we wanna be able to connect interventions
to what we discover.
So this is a non-exhaustive list of some intervention tools
that could be used.
And I'll say it again, if you're gonna screen,
you wanna be ready to intervene.
So you wanna make sure
that you have mobilized your resources,
that you've done an inventory of your resources,
an inventory of your interventions,
an inventory of your modalities,
and it's not having a huge, huge list of interventions
as much as it's having an intervention inventory
that you think is gonna match the needs
that you already know exist and what you might discover
because it's a problem if you discover a need
and you don't have something to meet that need.
So you wanna really mobilize your resources,
particularly those that have expertise
in the social, emotional, behavioral realm
to say, hey, we discovered something.
We don't have a resource, and immediately find out
what that resource is and get it in place.
You also wanna make sure
that whatever resources you decide to use,
whatever intervention strategies you decide to use,
that the people that are using them have fluency.
So it's similar to when you decide on are you gonna,
if you decide on and use a universal screener,
you're gonna wanna make sure
that everyone understands how it's used
and what the results are gonna yield
and what you're gonna do with those results.
When you choose any of these, like Second Step
or check in/check out or Coping Cat,
you wanna make sure that those people that are using it
have fluency and have the methods to ensure
that it's being implemented with fidelity
and that you're taking a look at the outcome.
So what are the outcome measures?
There's a couple of tools in the link,
one called "Systematic Screening Tools"
that outlines multiple different screening tools
that you can use,
formalized universal screening tools.
There's also an Inventory of Targeted Supports Table
in there that talks about the function of the behavior,
the referral criteria for the targeted support
that you identify, how are you gonna monitor the progress
of how a student is doing?
What's the fading criteria?
What's the exit criteria?
And what are some possibilities for fading?
So that's another tool you can use
just to make sure that you have your inventory organized,
and also think about having a place
where everyone can access all of those resources,
like a Google doc or something like that.
This resource I highly encourage you,
if you're considering a universal screener
for your SU or your school to go to,
this resource has multiple, multiple protocols
that you can access,
how much time it takes to administer,
what's the cost, what are the validity measures?
There's lots of short videos
that describe each of the protocols that are there.
So I highly encourage you to go
into the Comprehensive Integrated Three-tiered Model
of Prevention Website or ci3t.org and check it out.
It's highly, highly informative.
We also wanna be thinking about
our systems considerations.
So if you're thinking about doing a universal screener,
again, in your school or SU,
here are some considerations you wanna go through.
And also in the link,
there's a document called
"Social Emotional Behavioral Screening
"Systems Considerations."
It's a checklist to help you kind of organize the steps
that you might wanna take
before you roll out a universal screener.
And you can see that there's multiple steps to this.
You wanna make sure that you have a team in place,
that you have the resources,
which includes the funding that you need for the screener.
You wanna make sure that your tier-one,
your interventions are being done with fidelity.
You wanna have a process in place.
One document that or resource I'm going to introduce
in just a moment will help you take a look at
some of the ethical, legal policies and procedures
that are really important.
Parent consent, parent opt out, things like that.
Make sure you have a team that's ready to act on the data.
Again, if you're going to scream,
screen not scream,
you need to be ready to intervene.
Think about how you're gonna roll that out
and be committed to continued inquiry.
So be curious about what you find and what you learn
and be committed to not only being curious,
but being willing to make changes
based on the discoveries that you make.
So we did that, sorry.
And so this is the resource that I just referenced.
This resource, you can click on the link.
It's also in the link with the docs
that Anne put in the chat box.
It describes universal screening very comprehensively.
It talks about procedural considerations,
how to select a screener
based on your school demographics.
So we wanna think about cultural context
when you're determining a screener,
and it also talks about ethical and legal considerations.
So what's next?
I would think about reviewing
the Screening Assessments Considerations Assessment,
determine where your school or SU is in this process,
and review and select some tools.
I wanna point out that on our Vermont PBIS website,
you will find some more resources
about social, emotional, behavioral screening,
lots of information there,
and some other resources that we used
to put together this presentation are listed on this.
So certainly Casel, Ci3T as I said,
the Center on PBIS, Positive Behavior Intervention Support,
Panorama, as I mentioned,
is one of the informal screener tools.
So I am gonna stop sharing and stop talking
and open it up for questions.
Thanks, Anne, for putting the materials back in the chat.
We've got four minutes left,
so if there's any burning questions
or ideas that people wanna share,
please feel free to unmute and share
or put it in the chat box.
If you wanna put on your video right now,
as we maximize our last few minutes,
or if you're like, I'm done, I'm ready to go.
Feel free to hop off this webinar.
You're welcome, Greg.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, Michelle.
Thanks, Pam.
People are hopping off.
Thanks, Kosha, Ashley, thanks.
Let's hope we can connect, Ashley.
I know we've been emailing back and forth.
Hi, Martha.
- Hi, I have a question,
can I just ask the question?
- Yes, please do.
- So we, like I said,
we're looking at different universal screeners right now,
but there's a bit of anxiety about,
which I think is actually good,
about, you know, then what do we do, you know,
if we decide to implement something,
what are we gonna do?
Do we have the resources
to make sure that we're actually meeting the needs of,
you know, meeting whatever the needs are
that we discover from this.
And so I think that we're trying to find that balance
between, you know, doing something
versus feeling overwhelmed right now as a system.
And so.
- Yeah, yeah, well, Martha, first of all, yeah, I hear that.
I think that's a common concern that you're describing
is that you wanna do something,
and as I said in one of the sides, you know,
the worry that maybe you discover something
for which you don't have a resource,
and that can be concerning.
So, you know, do you have an EST team
or a team right now that's dedicated
to kind of looking at
the social, emotional and academic data for your kids?
Sorta?
- I would say in pockets
that we're trying to bring all of that together,
but it's a big system, lots of silos
and very new to, new to people.
- Sure, so I might start, and Amy,
Amy Wheeler-Sutton's on the call, and she's brilliant.
So she might have some ideas too,
but I might start with trying to organize
those various pockets and get an inventory going.
So what do you currently have in place?
Do you have Second Step?
Are you using PBIS with fidelity?
Are you using other social/emotional/behavior curriculums?
How are you managing your academic data,
other screening data that you're using?
And start to organize that.
What are your targeted supports that you're using?
What are your intensive supports you're using?
And then pull together a team
or pull together some of the people that are in pockets
as another team,
I don't wanna add more to people's plate,
and take a look at that and assess,
does this seem like we're meeting a lot of the needs
that we're seeing currently in our school, right?
So are we seeing a lot of aggression?
Are we seeing a lot of anxiety?
Are we seeing kids who are demonstrating suicidal ideation?
And when you look at your inventory of supports,
do you think that they're gonna address those needs?
And if not, then start to explore what other resources
might be out there.
Oh, there's a resource I'm just blanking on its name.
Shoot.
Sorry, it's a resource that, let's see.
Actually, I might have it in my notes.
Bear with me just.