What is COST?

A Coordination of Services Team (COST) is a site based multidisciplinary team composed of service providers, school administration, and school staff. Weekly COST meetings provide a regular opportunity to triage intervention requests, assess student needs, and develop and monitor interventions to ensure those needs are met. Ultimately, the goal is to streamline the various intervention processes used at a school site to strengthen the lines of communication between students, their families, and staff members. There is a lead facilitator of the group and an Intervention Request form (different from a discipline referral) for staff to use to request services for a student expressing a need in one of the following areas: Social-Emotional/Health, Behavior, Academics, and Attendance.

Who attends COST meetings?

COST members include principals, assistant principals, school counselors, school nurses, mental health therapists, special education staff, title one teachers, student support providers, community providers providing on-site services, After school providers, Intervention teacher leads, Child Welfare and Attendance staff, SROs, parent liaisons/outreach workers, etc. One person can represent multiple programs as long as there is an understanding of which students are involved in their programs currently as well as the process for taking referrals. There should be a mechanism for communicating between meetings (email, follow-up with COST Coordinator) when members need to miss a meeting.

How is COST different from SST?

COST focuses on individual student needs and leverages a continuum of resources to meet them. As such, referrals for SST for an individual student can be processed through COST. However, COST is not an alternative or replacement for a formal Student Success Team meeting involving the parent, student, classroom teacher, and administrator, at minimum.

What are the goals and outcomes of COST?

COST provides a platform to deliver and coordinate community resources at school sites and facilitates communication and relationships between school staff providers to link students/families with a continuum of integrated services and supports which are designed to increase health and wellness, reduce distress, and remove barriers to learning. This coordination eliminates service gaps, reduces duplication, and ensures service integration and progress monitoring.

Additional COST Resources:

• Overview of COST: Video

• Staff Handout Explaining COST

• Sample Staff Presentation on COST

• COST Resources from Center for Healthy Schools

TIERED TEAM ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• • Tier I Teams

  • TFI Criteria and Benchmark Expectations (suggestion)

  • Tier II Teams (Coordination of Services Team)

    • Coordination of Services Team Overview

    • Sources for Identifying Students for Tier II Supports

  • Tier III Teams

    • Request for Behavior Services

IDENTIFYING STUDENTS FOR TIER II SUPPORTS

• • Academic Indicators

  • Behavioral Indicators

  • AUSD PBIS-FLOW CHART FOR TIER II SUPPORT

  • DESCRIPTION OF TIER II INTERVENTIONS

• PROGRESS MONITORING

• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

• RESOURCES AND INFORMATION