Knights Armour

The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Educational Partnership awarded grants to highly military impacted school districts through the Fiscal Year 2016 Grants to Military-Connected Local Educational Agencies for Academic and Support Program (MCASP). A $250,000 5-year grant was awarded to Copenhagen Central School District to enact Knights Armour.

Copenhagen Central School will partner with Syracuse University/SUNY Oswego enacting Knights Armour and will address the socio-emotional needs of military-dependent students via direct services and behavior management programs. Student progress will be tracked using a valid, reliable measure of behavior that includes scales of social and academic functioning. Strategies included: a) providing direct student services to all military-dependent children via a dedicated School Counselor; b) enacting a school-based mental health project including Responsive Classroom and Positive Behavior Intervention and Services (PBIS) to provide early intervention for children and adolescents exhibiting signs of school adjustment or other difficulties (such as those related to deployment).

Impact will be demonstrable, measurable and specific to military-dependent students. The Behavior Intervention Monitoring Assessment System (BIMAS™) will be used to screen all students in the planning year and data used to identify students needing direct student services. BIMAS is a measure of social, emotional and behavioral functioning in children and adolescents ages 5 to 18 years and includes 34 change-sensitive items that are used for universal screening and for assessing response to intervention. Subsets of the BIMAS will then be used to assess students’ progress on areas of need. Valid (Responsive Classroom/Positive Behavior Intervention & Services) and innovative approaches (tailored, personalized services matched to student needs) are proposed as aligned with a rigorous review of the effects of school-based interventions on military-connected students and a careful analysis of Copenhagen’s military-student’s behavior and academic data. Staff will be trained to utilize and interpret data generated by way of the The Behavior Intervention Monitoring Assessment System (BIMAS™) and significant numbers of teachers will be trained to implement Responsive Classroom and Positive Behavior Intervention Services (PBIS). Additional training and implementation support will be provided in Years II-V.