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Guide to Safe Schools: What To Do - Intervention: Getting Help for Troubled Children
Prevention approaches have proved effective in enabling school communities to decrease the frequency and intensity of behavior problems. However,
prevention programs alone cannot eliminate the problems of all students. Some 5 to 10 percent of students will need more intensive interventions to decrease
their high-risk behaviors, although the percentage can vary among schools and communities.
What happens when we recognize early warning signs in a child?
The message is clear: It's okay to be concerned when you notice warning signs in a child-and it's even more appropriate to do something about those
concerns. School communities that encourage staff, families, and students to raise concerns about observed warning signs--and that have in place a process
for getting help to troubled children once they are identified--are more likely to have effective schools with reduced disruption, bullying, fighting, and other
forms of aggression.
Principles Underlying Intervention
Violence prevention and response plans should consider both prevention and intervention. Plans also should provide all staff with easy access to a team of
specialists trained in evaluating serious behavioral and academic concerns. Eligible students should have access to special education services, and classroom
teachers should be able to consult school psychologists, other mental health specialists, counselors, reading specialists, and special educators.
Effective practices for improving the behavior of troubled children are well documented in the research literature. Research has shown that effective
interventions are culturally appropriate, family-supported, individualized, coordinated, and monitored. Further, interventions are more effective when they are
designed and implemented consistently over time with input from the child, the family, and appropriate professionals. Schools also can draw upon the
resources of their community to strengthen and enhance intervention planning.
When drafting a violence prevention and response plan, it is helpful to consider certain principles that research or expert-based experience show have a
significant impact on success. The principles include:
- Share responsibility by establishing a partnership with the child, school, home, and community. Coordinated service systems should be
available for children who are at risk for violent behavior. Effective schools reach out to include families and the entire community in the education of
children. In addition, effective schools coordinate and collaborate with child and family service agencies, law enforcement and juvenile justice systems,
mental health agencies, businesses, faith and ethnic leaders, and other community agencies.
- Inform parents and listen to them when early warning signs are observed. Parents should be involved as soon as possible. Effective and safe
schools make persistent efforts to involve parents by: informing them routinely about school discipline policies, procedures, and rules, and about their
children's behavior (both good and bad); involving them in making decisions concerning schoolwide disciplinary policies and procedures; and
encouraging them to participate in prevention programs, intervention programs, and crisis planning. Parents need to know what school-based
interventions are being used with their children and how they can support their success.
- Maintain confidentiality and parents' rights to privacy. Parental involvement and consent is required before personally identifiable information is
shared with other agencies, except in the case of emergencies or suspicion of abuse. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a
federal law that addresses the privacy of education records, must be observed in all referrals to or sharing of information with other community
agencies. Furthermore, parent-approved interagency communication must be kept confidential. FERPA does not prevent disclosure of personally
identifiable information to appropriate parties--such as law enforcement officials, trained medical personnel, and other emergency personnel--when
responsible personnel determine there is an acute emergency (imminent danger).
- Develop the capacity of staff, students, and families to intervene. Many school staff members are afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing when
faced with a potentially violent student. Effective schools provide the entire school community--teachers, students, parents, support staff--with training
and support in responding to imminent warning signs, preventing violence, and intervening safely and effectively. Interventions must be monitored by
professionals who are competent in the approach. According to researchers, programs do not succeed without the ongoing support of administrators,
parents, and community leaders.
- Support students in being responsible for their actions. Effective school communities encourage students to see themselves as responsible for their
actions, and actively engage them in planning, implementing, and evaluating violence prevention initiatives.
- Simplify staff requests for urgent assistance. Many school systems and community agencies have complex legalistic referral systems with timelines
and waiting lists. Children who are at risk of endangering themselves or others cannot be placed on waiting lists.
- Make interventions available as early as possible. Too frequently, interventions are not made available until the student becomes violent or is
adjudicated as a youthful offender. Interventions for children who have reached this stage are both costly, restrictive, and relatively inefficient. Effective
schools build mechanisms into their intervention processes to ensure that referrals are addressed promptly, and that feedback is provided to the
referring individual.
- Use sustained, multiple, coordinated interventions. It is rare that children are violent or disruptive only in school. Thus, interventions that are most
successful are comprehensive, sustained, and properly implemented. They help families and staff work together to help the child. Coordinated efforts
draw resources from community agencies that are respectful of and responsive to the needs of families. Isolated, inconsistent, short-term, and
fragmented interventions will not be successful-and may actually do harm.
- Analyze the contexts in which violent behavior occurs. School communities can enhance their effectiveness by conducting a functional analysis of
the factors that set off violence and problem behaviors. In determining an appropriate course of action, consider the child's age, cultural background,
and family experiences and values. Decisions about interventions should be measured against a standard of reasonableness to ensure the likelihood that
they will be implemented effectively.
- Build upon and coordinate internal school resources. In developing and implementing violence prevention and response plans, effective schools
draw upon the resources of various school-based programs and staff--such as special education, safe and drug free school programs, pupil services,
and Title I.
Violent behavior is a problem for everyone. It is a normal response to become angry or even frightened in the presence of a violent child. But, it is essential
that these emotional reactions be controlled. The goal must always be to ensure safety and seek help for the child.
Intervening Early with Students Who Are at Risk for Behavioral Problems
The incidence of violent acts against students or staff is low. However, pre-violent behaviors-such as threats, bullying, and classroom disruptions-are
common. Thus, early responses to warning signs are most effective in preventing problems from escalating.
Intervention programs that reduce behavior problems and related school violence typically are multifaceted, long-term, and broad reaching. They also are
rigorously implemented. Effective early intervention efforts include working with small groups or individual students to provide direct support, as well as linking
children and their families to necessary community services and/or providing these services in the school.
Examples of early intervention components that work include:
- Providing training and support to staff, students, and families in understanding factors that can set off and/or exacerbate aggressive outbursts.
- Teaching the child alternative, socially appropriate replacement responses-such as problem solving and anger control skills.
- Providing skill training, therapeutic assistance, and other support to the family through community-based services.
- Encouraging the family to make sure that firearms are out of the child's immediate reach. Law enforcement officers can provide families with information
about safe firearm storage as well as guidelines for addressing children's access to and possession of firearms.
In some cases, more comprehensive early interventions are called for to address the needs of troubled children. Focused, coordinated, proven interventions
reduce violent behavior. Following are several comprehensive approaches that effective schools are using to provide early intervention to students who are at
risk of becoming violent toward themselves or others.
Intervention Tactic: Teaching Positive Interaction Skills
Although most schools do teach positive social interaction skills indirectly, some have adopted social skills programs specifically designed to prevent or
reduce antisocial behavior in troubled children. In fact, the direct teaching of social problem solving and social decision making is now a standard feature of
most effective drug and violence prevention programs. Children who are at risk of becoming violent toward themselves or others need additional support.
They often need to learn interpersonal, problem solving, and conflict resolution skills at home and in school. They also may need more intensive assistance in
learning how to stop and think before they react, and to listen effectively.
Intervention Tactic: Providing Comprehensive Services
In some cases, the early intervention may involve getting services to families. The violence prevention and response team together with the child and family
designs a comprehensive intervention plan that focuses on reducing aggressive behaviors and supporting responsible behaviors at school, in the home, and in
the community. When multiple services are required there also must be psychological counseling and ongoing consultation with classroom teachers, school
staff, and the family to ensure intended results occur. All services-including community services-must be coordinated and progress must be monitored and
evaluated carefully.
Intervention Tactic: Referring the Child for Special Education Evaluation
If there is evidence of persistent problem behavior or poor academic achievement, it may be appropriate to conduct a formal assessment to determine if the
child is disabled and eligible for special education and related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). If a
multidisciplinary team determines that the child is eligible for services under the IDEA, an individualized educational program (IEP) should be developed by a
team that includes a parent, a regular educator, a special educator, an evaluator, a representative of the local school district, the child (if appropriate), and
others as appropriate. This team will identify the support necessary to enable the child to learn-including the strategies and support systems necessary to
address any behavior that may impede the child's learning or the learning of his or her peers.
Providing Intensive, Individualized Interventions for Students with Severe Behavioral Problems
Children who show dangerous patterns and a potential for more serious violence usually require more intensive interventions that involve multiple agencies,
community-based service providers, and intense family support. By working with families and community services, schools can comprehensively and
effectively intervene.
Effective individualized interventions provide a range of services for students. Multiple, intensive, focused approaches used over time can reduce the chances
for continued offenses and the potential for violence. The child, his or her family, and appropriate school staff should be involved in developing and monitoring
the interventions.
Nontraditional schooling in an alternative school or therapeutic facility may be required in severe cases where the safety of students and staff remains a
concern, or when the complexity of the intervention plan warrants it. Research has shown that effective alternative programs can have long-term positive
results by reducing expulsions and court referrals. Effective alternative programs support students in meeting high academic and behavioral standards. They
provide anger and impulse control training, psychological counseling, effective academic and remedial instruction, and vocational training as appropriate. Such
programs also make provisions for active family involvement. Moreover, they offer guidance and staff support when the child returns to his or her regular
school.
Providing a Foundation To Prevent and Reduce Violent Behavior
Schoolwide strategies create a foundation that is more responsive to children in general--one that makes interventions for individual children more
effective and efficient.
Effective and safe schools are places where there is strong leadership, caring faculty, parent and community involvement--including law enforcement
officials--and student participation in the design of programs and policies. Effective and safe schools also are places where prevention and intervention
programs are based upon careful assessment of student problems, where community members help set measurable goals and objectives, where
research-based prevention and intervention approaches are used, and where evaluations are conducted regularly to ensure that the programs are meeting
stated goals. Effective and safe schools are also places where teachers and staff have access to qualified consultants who can help them address behavioral
and academic barriers to learning.
Effective schools ensure that the physical environment of the school is safe, and that schoolwide policies are in place to support responsible behaviors.
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Copyright © Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice of the American Institutes for Research in collaboration with the National Association of School Psychologists. Reprinted with permission.
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