Student Wellness & Support Services Dept.

TFI 3.3 TEAMS: Screening

Tier 3 team uses decision rules and data (e.g., ODRs, Tier 2 performance, academic progress, absences, teacher/ family/student nominations) to identify students who require Tier 3 supports.

DATA to Support Decision Making

Data are used to develop plans and actions that respond to what is really occurring in the school rather than reaching at straws and making assumptions. Data that are kept current provide a real-time look at your school climate. Data is used to select, monitor, and evaluate outcomes, practices and systems.

TFI 3.3 Big Ideas

In element, TFI 3.3, the Tier 3 Systems Planning Team will establish key indicators to identify students who may benefit from Tier 3 Support.

How Many Students Should we Expect - Tier 3

At the beginning of each school year, Tier 3 Teams should determine the approximate number of students who may need access to Tier 3 Supports. This will help the Tier 3 Team to determine if they should be analyzing additional data sources to ensure they find all students who could benefit from Tier 3.

Based on the PBIS pyramid:

80 - 90% of students will be successful with Tier 1 support.

5 - 15% of students will need Tier 2 Support.

1 - 5% of students will need Tier 3 Support.

Sample School:

SWSS Academy, total student population = 1000

It is possible that 10 (1%) - 50 (5%) students may need the most intensive level of support, a General Education Tier 3 Behavior Support Plan(T3BSP)/Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) or Special Education Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), over the course of the school year.

Identifying Students for Tier 3 Supports

Each Tier 3 Team will establish a process to identify students who will benefit from this level of support. Teams should consider:

What existing school data the Tier 3 Team will review in order to identify students with chronic and/or intense behavior,

How the Tier 2 Team will refer students, and

How staff, caregivers, and students will nominate students.

Teams will either create or adopt (see document to the right) a document to define their Tier 3 screening process. This document should include, at minimum:

The type of existing data the Team will review along with trigger points (i.e., >7 office referrals, >10 absences, etc.)
The types of Tier 2 interventions attempted along with trigger points (i.e., questionable or poor response to the intervention AND the total number of weeks the intervention was implemented)
The staff, caregiver, student Nomination process

Screening Process Document

Review Existing School Data (Tier 3 Team) - Chronic/Intense Behaviors

Prior to reviewing existing data, Tier 3 Teams must come into agreement on what it means to display 'chronic' and 'intense' behaviors. Both terms should be used by the team when analyzing data and making decisions on which students should be considered for Tier 3.

What is Chronic Behavior

What is a Chronic Behavior? Chronic behavior can be described as:

“persistent, unlikely to be temporary.” (K. McIntosh, 2011)

"repeated or recurring over a period of time." (Goodman, 2011)

Most students with chronic behaviors will first qualify for Tier 2 supports/interventions, and should that prove to be insufficient, data decision rules for nonresponse to Tier 2 support/intervention will be applied. In these instances referrals for Tier 3 will come from the Tier 2 Team.

If a student's chronic behavior is impeding the learning of the student and their peers, consider by-passing the Tier 2 process (see Intense Behaviors below).

What is Intense Behavior

“Behavioral intensity is a subjective yet, a very important variable for developing an intervention plan to address noncompliant behavior. Intensity refers to the extent to which the behavior impacts the classroom. If the behavior significantly disrupts classroom instruction so that instruction cannot continue, or if there is concern for the safety of students and staff, then the behavior is deemed very intense.” (Colvin, 2009)

The impact a student's behavior has on the learning environment can be determined by asking four questions:

Is the student’s behavior impacting only the student?

Is the student’s behavior impacting the student and/or the learning environment for a few other students/the entire class?

Is the student's behavior imposing a safety concern for themselves and/or their peers?

Is the student's behavior causing a danger to themselves and/or their peers?

Work of the Tier 3 Systems Planning Team: Create a process to identify students whose behaviors are deemed to be chronic and/or intense.

Each Tier 3 Team will determine the types of existing data they will review monthly to identify students for Tier 3 supports. In order to identify which data sets should be used, the Tier 3 Team should do the following:

Make a list of all available academic & behavioral data sets

Define Proficient, At-Risk, High-Risk for each data set

Select the 1-5 data sets the Tier 3 Team should consider

Determine who will collect data to bring to the Tier 3 Team meeting

Determine how often each data set will be reviewed

The total number of data sets selected and whether to identify At-Risk or High-Risk students for Tier 3 supports will vary from site to site. When developing this process, it is important for the Tier 3 Team to work with the Tier 2 Team as this same process was established to identify students for Tier 2. The goal is to identify 1-5% of the student population who display internalizing and externalizing behaviors so the Tier 3 Team can quickly get them the Tier 3 support they need.

The students identified through this process will circumvent the Tier 2 Team process and lead directly to a Tier 3 referral.

Referrals from the Tier 2 Team - Students Non-responsive to Tier 2 Supports

As part of the Tier 2 system, student progress toward behavior goals in targeted interventions is monitored, and data is collected, graphed, and reviewed regularly to make decisions. When Tier 2 Teams will consider students for Tier 3 support based upon a Questionable or Poor response to their Tier 2 intervention.

Work of the Tier 3 Systems Planning Team - Meet with the Tier 2 Team to understand their process:

What data does the Tier 2 Team use to identify students for supports/interventions (i.e., Attendance, Office Referral, Suspension, Panorama, etc.)?
What type of data does the Tier 2 Team collect to progress monitor students receiving interventions (i.e., Daily Progress Report - DPR)?
How often does the Tier 2 Team review each student's progress toward their goal?
What decision rules have been established to determine if the students response to the intervention is Questionable or Poor?
What modifications and/or intensifications were made to the intervention to support the student prior to the Tier 3 referral?

Work with the Tier 2 Team to establish a process to refer students for Tier 3 Support. Include the following:

How will the Tier 2 Team determine which students are responding questionably or poor to Tier 2 supports/interventions?

How will the Tier 2 Team rule-out fidelity of implementation (for each support/intervention) prior to determining a student's questionable/poor response to the supports/interventions?

What will the formal referral to Tier 3 consist of?

It may benefit the Tier 3 Team to have 1 member attend the Tier 2 Team meetings.

Nominations from Staff, Caregiver, and Student - Internalizing Behaviors

Internalizing behaviors are actions that direct problematic energy toward the self. Students who direct problems inward may appear as depressed or anxious (Lane, Kalberg, Lambert, Crnobori, & Bruhn, 2010).

Students demonstrating internalizing behaviors may not warrant major or minor documentation (i.e., does not spend time with peers, cries, frequent visits to the nurse or counselor).

Because students who demonstrate internalizing behaviors may not be identified from the typical data sources (i.e., Office Referrals, Suspensions, etc.) it is important that the Tier 3 Systems Planning Team develop a process to identify these students.

Staff members and caregivers who have concerns about a student’s emotional and/or behavioral well-being need a process to refer these students to the Tier 3 Systems Planning Team. It is also important for students to have a process to self-refer. This creates a safety net to identify students who may otherwise be overlooked.

Work of the Tier 3 Systems Planning Team: Work with the Tier 2 Team to develop a Staff, Caregiver and Student Nomination Form to trigger the development of a Tier 3 Unique Student Support Team and Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA).

How to Score 2 Points on TFI 3.3

To receive a 2 Point Score Teams must be able to say yes to the following set of questions.

a) We have a documented screening process

b) We use at least 2 sources of data to identify students for Tier 3,

c) Decision rules have been outlined identifying Tier 3 trigger points for each data source selected, and

d) We adopted a Tier 3 Nomination Form,

e) All STAFF (certificated/classified) can easily access the Tier 3 Nomination Form,

f) All STUDENTS can easily access the Tier 3 Nomination Form,

g) All CAREGIVERS can easily access the Tier 3 Nomination Form, and

h) Once a Tier 3 nomination has been made, a member of the Tier 3 Team informs the person who completed the Nomination Form that their request has been received.

2 Point:

Written data decision rules used with multiple data sources for identifying students who qualify for Tier 3 supports, and evidence the policy/rubric includes option for teacher/family/student nominations.

1 Point:

Informal process or one data source for identifying students who qualify for Tier 3 supports.

0 Point:

No decision rules for identifying students who should receive Tier 3 supports.

Information adapted from: MO-SWPBIS Handbook/Tier Three Implementation Guide; Center on PBIS/PBIS.orgImages obtained from Google Images and/or created by J. Patrick