33 claims on pp. 7–132 (fact 22, statement 1, evidence 6, conclusion 2, conjecture 2).
Survey results show that schools prioritize such interventions as mental health counseling, building trusted relationships with adults, and skill-building services over restrictive measures.
Other states that required BTAM in schools as early as 2019, such as Kentucky, Nevada, and Oregon, also specifically stress the importance of multidisciplinary teams in the threat assessment process, with added emphasis on the role of mental health professionals.
schools’ BTAM teams would respond to other serious concerns, such as students at risk of self-harm or suicide or students with fixations on past school violence incidents or interest in violence or extremist movements.
cite page 39 Ch 4: What Is the Scope of Schools' BTAM Programs?
Most commonly, BTAM models or implementation guidance recommend including individuals from school administration (e.g., a principal or assistant principal), mental health services (e.g., a counselor or school psychologist), and public safety (e.g., a school resource officer [SRO] or another individual with security expertise).
Sample (N = 1408) · Schools with an official BTAM team (82 percent of sample)
Other individuals were also commonly included on BTAM teams, such as school psychologists (49 percent), instructional staff (45 percent), and special education specialists (43 percent).
Principals’ responses indicate that BTAM teams are overwhelmingly composed of individuals internal to the school (i.e., who are on staff or are located at the school).
Sample (N = 1408) · Schools with an official BTAM team (82 percent of sample)
For example, 49 percent of schools had a psychologist on their BTAM teams.
Sample (N = 1408) · Schools with an official BTAM team (82 percent of sample)
The majority of schools with a psychologist on their teams indicated they had a psychologist on staff at school either full time or part time (43 percent of schools overall)
Sample (N = 1408) · Schools with an official BTAM team (82 percent of sample)
Only 6 percent of schools noted that they had a psychologist on their BTAM teams but not on staff at their schools
this indicates that these schools made the extra effort to ensure that these disciplines were represented on the team, even though it required them to draw personnel from outside their current staffing.
We saw this same pattern with all the health professional positions we asked about, suggesting that schools’ access to school-based mental and physical health staff usually shapes whether their BTAM team includes such personnel.
This is noteworthy because schools have differential access to various types of school-based personnel, and accessing those disciplines from outside the school can be challenging, especially when it comes to individuals with specialized expertise.
For example, schools in higher-income neighborhoods were more likely to have school psychologists than schools serving lower-income neighborhoods.
Federal government data from the 2021–2022 school year paint a somewhat different picture, showing that high-poverty schools were actually more likely than low-poverty schools to have both diagnostic mental health assessment services and mental health treatment services (NCES, 2024).
The composition of schools’ BTAM teams is likely related to which personnel are present at school—either employed directly by the district or as part of a contract agreement.
That is, schools with regular access to specialized staff are more likely to include these staff on their BTAM teams, compared with schools that lack such regular access.
Sample (N = 1746) · All principals, staff available at school question
Unsurprisingly, we found that some types of staff were much more common than others, with principals reporting as follows: school counselor (89 percent), school nurse (89 percent), school psychologist (67 percent), sworn law enforcement officer (58 percent), social worker (56 percent), and security guard (22 percent).
Meanwhile, low-poverty schools were more likely than their middle- and especially high-poverty counterparts to have social workers and school psychologists.
Rural schools were also less likely to have mental health personnel available, but they were more likely to have sworn law enforcement officers (including SROs).
For psychologists, counselors, and social workers, we directed principals to include both school-based and external personnel.
Sample (N = 1384) · Teams answering intervention/safety plan components question
For example, 47 percent of schools said their BTAM teams often refer students to mental health counseling or care.
cite page 64 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Sample (N = 1384) · Teams answering intervention/safety plan components question
Mental health counseling or care | 1 | 3 | 46 | 47 | 2 | 98 | 97
cite page 65 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
For example, mental health counseling through a private provider has a cost, and how much a family might have to pay to access such services will be determined by whether they have financial means or relevant medical insurance coverage.
cite page 67 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
As shown in Figure 9.1 mental health counseling or care is the most frequently used intervention in the broader list of intervention options and also potentially one of the higher-cost intervention options recommended by a BTAM team.
cite page 67 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Sample (N = 1374) · Appendix A table base (respondents answering the table question; see note for tables)
mental health counseling or care to students free of charge, either at school or by placing the student in an outside program.
Why inferred The sentence crosses a page break: this quote is the page 68 part and the sentence begins on page 67. Full sentence (pages 67–68): “Three-quarters of principals indicated that their schools’ BTAM program provides mental health counseling or care to students free of charge, either at school or by placing the student in an outside program.”
cite page 68 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Sample (no n: a percentage change, not a share of a sample) · a percentage that is not a share of a sample (e.g. a percentage-point change or a weighted estimate of the population)
Federal government data for the 2023–2024 school year show that 84 percent of public schools provided mental health interventions for students, and 63 percent of schools used district or school funding to support these mental health services.
cite page 68 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Sample (no n: a percentage change, not a share of a sample) · a percentage that is not a share of a sample (e.g. a percentage-point change or a weighted estimate of the population)
However, only 9 percent of schools “strongly agree” that they are able to effectively provide these services for all students in need (NCES, 2025).
cite page 68 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Sample (N = 148 total; column N not printed) · Scenario D respondents (observations)
For certain scenarios (such as Scenario D [explicit threat, history of academic issues, withdrawal or depression] and Scenario E [violence fixation, history of academic issues, withdrawal or depression, concerning home context] at the elementary school level), about a quarter of principals identified school counselors as the first decisionmaker.
cite page 77 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Similarly, assessing the need for or starting mental health counseling and care was a top intervention choice for principals across most scenarios.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
This is somewhat unsurprising given heightened rates of depression and anxiety among youth following the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated rise in students seeking mental health services (Mahnken, 2023).
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Mental health counseling or care | [unlabeled] | [unlabeled]
cite page 92 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Sample (N = 1384) · Principals at schools with a school- or district-level BTAM team answering Table A.40 (intervention/safety plan components)
Mental health counseling or care | 1.9 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 46.5 | 47.1
Sample (N = 1601 | 1374 by column) · Table A.41 columns: Official BTAM teams and other school-based teams | Official BTAM teams only
Mental health counseling or care | 74.2 | 75.1
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