Behavioral Issues and Supports within Cradle to College and Career
1
an IDEA Partnership Collection
Needs of the Field
When stakeholders from an array of roles were asked “What the state of current
practice around the behavioral issues and supports within Cradle to College and
Career?” they replied:
1. What is the vision for the behavioral side of cradle to college and career?
 High expectations for everyone
 There needs to be coordination vs fragmentation
 Student and family driven
 Research-based positive behavior supports are provided for all students in all
schools
 Proactive, strengths-based services are provided based on need with a focus
on prevention and early intervention
 Students with mental health issues are identified early and are a part of the
PBS continuum, individualized from campus to campus
 Student behavioral health needs are provided by an array of individualized
interventions focused on the function of behavior rather than on behavior as a
symptom and are created by an integrated child service delivery system
 Intervention plans are integrated and driven by family/youth across all
stakeholders (IEP, mental health, etc.)
 Teacher pre-service and in-service include training in function of behavior,
rather than symptom of behavior
 Multiple partners work together and youth/families referred to parent
organizations as appropriate
 Collaborative and coordinated partnerships between schools, communities,
and agencies
 Shared accountability
 System for identifying and screening
 Inclusive culture to bring everyone into the discussion about what makes a
healthy school
 Maximization of the use of all related services
 Universal screening to help identify students in need
 Financial support for addressing behavioral/mental health issues is stable and
ongoing
 The inequity between physical and mental health is eliminated; and the
stigma of mental health is reduced
 A comprehensive and coordinated system of professional development,
services and supports is essential
Behavioral Issues and Supports within Cradle to College and Career
2
an IDEA Partnership Collection
2. What is current practice?
 There are pockets of excellence and passion worthy of replication
 Fragmented systems and services exist where students often drop through
the cracks
 Multi-tiered systems of support are inconsistently present across the country
 Current practices are not always evidence-based
 Current practice is often exclusionary working to exclude students with
difficult behaviors from school
 We struggle to provide adequate time to implement effective interventions,
assessments, and to see the desired results
 Lack of sufficient professional development
 Lack of time for collaboration
 There is a limited focus on social/emotional/behavioral learning and brain
research
 Availability of funding, services, and resources is localized
 There is an emphasis on compliance rather than program improvement
 There is little time in the school schedule for collaboration around instruction,
assessment, and transition
3. What are the gaps?
 Information gaps
o Knowledge about available community resources, eligibility criteria,
and function, process, services provided
o Lack of understanding between and among agencies
o Low cross-agency collaboration due to low information
o Communication of available system supports
o Pre-service education
o Shared vision
o Common Core State Standards need to include behavioral standards
o Better understanding of the terminology used in schools and research
o Evidence-based practices and successful intervention strategies
o Importance of education in success of student
o Communication and collaboration between schools, families,
communities, and agencies
o Funding – what is available (i.e. insurance) in plain language
o Need for anecdotal references that can highlight precedent use of
policy and funding; and success stories
o Role clarification
Behavioral Issues and Supports within Cradle to College and Career
3
an IDEA Partnership Collection

Skills gaps
o Fidelity of implementation
o Agreement among stakeholders regarding descriptors and processes
that drive how interventions can happen earlier; “smoke alarm” before
the fire; prevention, not intervention, should be the focus
o Teachers are often “pushing”/providing content/direction and may miss
opportunity to obtain information from student/family/friends in crisis or
other situations
o Social workers and counselors are trained to “pull” information and
would be able to obtain information necessary for whole picture
o Objective, standardized assessments to identify gaps; professionals
that are up to date and qualified to do this
o Skills in communication and collaboration
4. Processes to support acquisition of knowledge and skills
 Agreement among stakeholders
 Cross-training of all school personnel
 Service coordination training and support
 Professional development building awareness of behavioral/mental health
and transition into existing systems like RTI and PBS that an entire school
system is doing
 Bring everyone to the table that is involved (if possible, even moving in
and out of the building)
 Development of policy and procedures that allow flexibility for wrap around
services
 Focus on moving to more evidenced based practices and data driven
systems
 Professional development needs to focus on both content and leadership
 Communication and collaboration between schools, families, agencies,
and communities
.
This document was generated within the IDEA Partnership by cross-stakeholders
representing teachers, administrators, related service personnel, family members and
youth, state education agencies, higher education, and technical assistance providers.