School-related associations and stakeholder groups may also be interested
School-related associations and stakeholder groups may also be interested in this report.
NCIER®
Conjecture claims
Every claim in the map classified as conjecture, in report order.
Claims
State-level BTAM policies are likely helping schools implement BTAM
State-level policies related to BTAM, whether through legislation or non-codified policy, are likely helping schools implement BTAM.
Progress may be due to earlier access to training and funding
This progress may be due to earlier access to training and funding.
State-level support appears to play a key role in advancing BTAM practices
State-level support appears to play a key role in advancing BTAM practices.
Responses suggest schools scope BTAM programs to the most severe, high-risk cases
Responses suggest that schools are appropriately scoping their BTAM programs to focus on the most severe and high-risk cases of student behavior.
Inconsistency suggests many BTAM programs are not yet fully integrated or institutionalized
This inconsistency suggests that many BTAM programs are not yet fully integrated or institutionalized, highlighting the need for clearer tools and resources to support systematic and effective team operations.
Lack of consistency can affect quality and effectiveness of interventions
This lack of consistency can affect the quality and effectiveness of interventions, especially as many schools have only recently adopted BTAM.
Rapid expansion introduced variability in models, practices and training, which may undermine consis
However, the rapid expansion of BTAM has also introduced significant variability in terms of the models schools are using, operational practices, and training, which may undermine the consistency and effectiveness of these efforts across schools.
Three state categories help show whether early encouragement might relate to practices and outcomes
Grouping states into the three aforementioned categories allowed us to understand whether early encouragement or legislation by states to implement BTAM in schools (potentially associated with stronger funding, training, or other support for BTAM) might be related to the practices and outcomes reported by principals today.
If grouped by mid-2025 policy, more states would be in the legislation category
If states were to be grouped according to policies in place as of this writing in mid-2025, more would be included in the “legislation” category.
2019 grouping still useful to show how early state support may have affected BTAM implementation
Nevertheless, understanding the implementation of early legislation by some states in 2019 is still useful for the purposes of this current analysis, insofar as it helps demonstrate how early state support in 2019 may have affected BTAM implementation over time across different state policy contexts.
First limitation: self-reported data may be affected by social desirability bias
First, as is true of any survey that relies on self-reported data, certain biases—such as social desirability bias—may influence results, should respondents provide answers that they believe are more socially acceptable or favorable.
Biases can affect data accuracy, especially on sensitive topics like behavioral threat assessment
Biases can affect data accuracy, especially in areas related to such sensitive topics as school behavioral threat assessment.
Second limitation: findings may not fully capture variety across sizes, regions, and demographics
Second, although our survey aimed to be representative of administrators in K–12 public schools across the country, our findings may still not fully capture the variety of experiences across different school sizes, geographical regions, and student and community demographics.
Local policies, resources, and community factors can limit generalizability to all U.S. schools
Differences in local policies (below the state level), available resources, and community factors can also influence safety practices, potentially limiting the generalizability of our results to all schools across the United States.
State policy context likely affects whether and how rapidly schools implement new practices
Although individual schools may adopt new school safety approaches individually or at the district level, the state policy context—that is, whether schools are subject to legal requirements or receive incentives to adopt BTAM—likely affects the extent to which and how rapidly schools implement new practices.
States mandating BTAM might fund state agencies for training or publish guidelines
States that mandate BTAM in schools, for example, might fund their state-level school agencies to provide BTAM-specific training to schools at no cost, or publish guidelines to aid implementation.
High school principals seemed more skeptical about the usefulness of external teams
High school principals, in particular, seemed more skeptical about the usefulness of these external teams.
State policy is not expected to be the primary determinant, but encouragement or funding could promo
Although we do not expect state policy context to be the primary determinant of schools’ decisions about which safety measures to implement (see Chapter 7 for a discussion of the primary drivers for initial BTAM implementation in schools), encouraging the use of BTAM or providing other supports, such as funding to state-level school safety agencies specifically for BTAM could promote adoption or influence how schools form BTAM teams and scope their responsibilities.
Schools in early-legislation or early-encouraging states might be further along in refining practice
As a result, schools in states with early BTAM-specific legislation or in states that encouraged BTAM earlier than others might be further along today in refining their practices for their specific school context.
Rural schools 78 percent official BTAM teams vs 84 percent suburban and 86 percent urban
Sample (column N undeterminable) · School-locale subgroups (urban, suburban, rural)
BTAM teams may also be slightly less common in rural settings: 78 percent of rural schools reported having official BTAM teams compared with 84 percent of suburban schools and 86 percent of urban schools.
Footnote: a state could be coded as requiring threat assessment without a multidisciplinary team
For example, a state might be categorized by these authors as having a law, regulation, or policy requiring threat assessment even if the requirement did not involve that threat assessment being done by a multidisciplinary team (which is core to virtually all framings of behavioral threat assessment).
Both data sources suggest a significant increase in BTAM implementation in the past five years
Specifically, both data sources suggest a significant increase in BTAM implementation in approximately the past five years.
Example: school may find BTAM not serving a specific student population effectively
For example, a school might conclude that its BTAM program is not serving a specific population of students effectively: An example of such a situation could be students in special education programs being assessed as posing significantly different levels of threat compared with general education students exhibiting similar concerning behavior.
School might add a special education professional, collect data, or create decision aids
In this case, a school might determine that changes need to be made to their threat assessment process, for instance, by adding a special education professional to the BTAM team; collecting additional data to support assessments; or creating new decision aids that can help the BTAM team be more consistent, fair, and effective across all referred cases.
Data could help the roughly one in five schools that might still adopt avoid past challenges
First, these data could help the roughly one in five schools that might still adopt and implement an official BTAM program avoid challenges schools have experienced in the past.
Early-challenge data alongside later challenges can show how struggles change as programs mature
Second, presenting data about early implementation challenges alongside data on later challenges can shed light on how schools’ struggles with BTAM might change over time as programs become more established.
Data suggest schools can implement a BTAM model successfully with modest support
These data suggest that schools can successfully implement a BTAM model with modest support—even when adapting it to local contexts.
Survey suggests most principals believe implementation proceeded smoothly
Overall, our survey suggests that most principals believe that implementation of their school BTAM program proceeded smoothly.
Smooth implementation could help explain the increase in BTAM adoption over the past decade
The trend could help explain the significant increase in BTAM adoption witnessed over the past decade.
For recent adopters, enough time may not have passed to overcome initial challenges
For schools that adopted BTAM more recently, enough time may not have passed yet for schools to overcome any initial implementation challenges such that their teams are functioning effectively.
Some respondents may have viewed criminal-nexus cases as outside their BTAM team's jurisdiction
As a result, some of our respondents may have viewed such cases as outside the “jurisdiction” of their BTAM team and overall program because of their criminal nexus.
cite page 38 Ch 4: What Is the Scope of Schools' BTAM Programs?
Principals' responses suggest lower-level concerns are appropriately handled by other teams
Principals’ responses suggest that these lower-level behavioral concerns are appropriately addressed by other teams schools may have in place, such as MTSS or PBIS teams that operate alongside, but separate from, the school BTAM team.
cite page 39 Ch 4: What Is the Scope of Schools' BTAM Programs?
Official BTAM teams appear to be focused on the most serious concerns
Official BTAM teams appear to be focused on the most serious concerns.
cite page 39 Ch 4: What Is the Scope of Schools' BTAM Programs?
Principals' uncertainty is somewhat concerning; leader often not aware of policy document's content
This is somewhat concerning; if these schools do have policies in place related to BTAM, principals’ responses suggest that the school leader is often not aware of the policy document’s content.
Same pattern for all health professional positions suggests school staffing shapes team inclusion
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.
Authors infer larger districts might have greater capacity for specialized roles or delegation
We infer from these patterns that larger districts might have greater capacity for specialized roles or delegation of specific individuals to be involved in BTAM, given they tend to employ more school- and district-level administrators.
Caveat: some schools may involve multiple people in the same role
We acknowledge that some schools may involve multiple people in the same role: For example, a BTAM team might include several instructional staff.
Principals' reports suggest principals and counselors are most commonly represented roles
Principals’ reports suggest that they and their school counselors are the most commonly represented roles on school BTAM teams.
BTAM team composition likely related to which personnel are present at school
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.
Principals' responses suggest specialized personnel are not added in any obvious order
Principals’ responses suggest that these personnel are not added to teams in any obvious order.
Survey results suggest non-school-based law enforcement rarely present on school BTAM teams regardle
Our survey results also suggest that non-school-based law enforcement is rarely present on school BTAM teams, regardless of size.
Officers may also provide police or criminal justice information, such as juvenile justice resources
They may also be able to provide police or criminal justice information as part of assessments (e.g., knowledge about resources available, if appropriate, through the juvenile justice system)
Principals suggest they view law enforcement members primarily as sources of expertise
Rather, the specific activities and responsibilities that principals see as most important for the law enforcement members of their BTAM team suggest they view them primarily as sources of expertise (see, e.g., McKenna and White, 2018).
BTAM-specific training may be important for foundational knowledge and team relationships
This finding means that BTAM-specific training may be important for providing a foundation of BTAM-specific knowledge across all members and as a mechanism for building working relationships within the team.
Authors hypothesize the difference might reflect resources in districts with multi-level teams
We hypothesize that this difference might reflect the level of resources available in districts that maintain teams at multiple levels.
Some districts might have a dedicated budget line to support BTAM implementation
Some districts might also have a dedicated funding line in budget to support BTAM implementation.
Others might seek funds externally via grants
Others might seek funds externally via grants.
Schools adopt BTAM mainly for a few reasons: best-practice belief and state or local requirements
Taken together, these patterns suggest that schools are primarily adopting BTAM programs for a small number of reasons—most notably their belief that it is a best practice for school safety and because of state or local requirements.
cite page 54 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Violent incidents and community encouragement may be fringe reasons, likely not driving factors
We interpret these results as an indication that other factors—such as experiencing a violent incident or school community encouragement—may be fringe contributing reasons but are likely not the driving factors for BTAM adoption.
cite page 54 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Schools or districts likely made a decision about whether and which BTAM model to adopt
Before formally adopting a BTAM model, it is likely that schools (or districts) engaged in a decisionmaking process about whether to do so and, having decided to move forward, about which specific model to adopt.
cite page 55 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Small districts (fewer than 10,000 students) approached adoption somewhat differently
With the caveat that principals in large districts were more likely to report not knowing about the specific actions their school or district took in the lead up to BTAM implementation, principals’ reports suggest that small districts (those serving fewer than 10,000 students) approached adoption somewhat differently from large districts (see Figure 7.2).
cite page 56 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Small and large districts may have sought buy-in or collaboration from differing groups
Taken together, these findings suggest that small and large districts may have sought buy-in or collaboration from differing groups before adoption.
cite page 56 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Smaller districts may seek buy-in outside their school community; larger ones use internal resources
This could also suggest that smaller districts are having to look outside their immediate school community for buy-in and support, relative to larger districts that are able to draw and depend more on internal resources.
cite page 57 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Many schools did some planning but few pursued a comprehensive set; potential readiness gaps
These data suggest that while many schools did engage in some pre-implementation planning, few pursued a comprehensive set of activities, indicating potential gaps in readiness or variability across districts.
cite page 57 Ch 7: Why Did Schools Adopt Specific BTAM Models?
Types further down the table are more likely to produce consistent results and maintain performance
Drawing on the research literature on program implementation and quality improvement, operational types that are further down the table reflect modes of BTAM implementation that are more likely to produce consistent results case by case and maintain performance over time, thanks to their standardization (see, e.g., Bohanon, Caputo Love, and Morrissey, 2021).
Survey results suggest teams use a variety of information sources to assess risk
Our survey results suggest that BTAM teams use a variety of information sources to assess the risk of harm posed by students referred to the team.
Principals' responses suggest teams use a variety of data sources to inform risk-level assessments
As shown in Figure 8.1, principals’ responses suggest that BTAM teams use a variety of data sources to inform their assessments of risk level.
Results suggest teams use other types of records at least some of the time
Results also suggest BTAM teams use other types of records at least some of the time.
BTAM decisions are high stakes, so questions may arise about correctness and fairness
Because the decisions made by BTAM teams can be high stakes for both the students involved and individuals concerned by student behavior and those potentially affected by any threats, questions may arise about whether decisions made by the team are correct and whether they appropriately and fairly balance student and school community safety needs.
Given data sensitivity, it can be difficult for the process to be transparent enough to satisfy ever
Given the sensitivity of the data and decisionmaking involved in behavioral threat assessment, it can be difficult for the process to be transparent enough to satisfy everyone in all cases.
Relying on members might produce inconsistent decisions if key members are absent or turnover is fre
Notably, such practice also relies heavily on having the right people “at the table” for every case; if key BTAM team members are regularly absent from meetings or team meetings are unplanned or a team is affected by frequent staff turnover, a school’s BTAM program might reach inconsistent decisions about which interventions to use from case to case.
cite page 63 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Structured planning with tools and inventories may help ensure fairer and more consistent outcomes
Compared with more ad hoc approaches, structured intervention planning—supported by tools and inventories—may help ensure airer and more consistent outcomes across students.
cite page 63 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
More secondary than elementary schools have substance use treatment, likely because illicit use rise
Unsurprisingly, more secondary schools have access to substance use treatment options than elementary schools, likely because the percentage of youth reporting they use any illicit substance increases with age (National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA], 2023).
cite page 64 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Differences in frequency are likely related to the types of cases referred to BTAM teams
These differences in frequency with which schools use specific interventions are likely related to the types of cases referred to BTAM teams—that is, incidents that involve substance use may be rarer as part of the case types referred to BTAM teams, therefore leading schools to only rarely include such treatment as part of an intervention plan.
cite page 64 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Most frequently reported interventions could be considered support-focused or supportive discipline
could be considered support-focused or supportive discipline interventions meant to modify student behavior (see, e.g., Jackson et al., 2025).
cite page 64 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Patterns give some initial confidence schools scale interventions to incident types and severity
confidence that schools are scaling their interventions to the types and severity of incidents under the purview of their BTAM teams.
cite page 66 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Responses suggest teams rarely use exclusionary discipline, especially at elementary level, but do s
Although principals’ survey responses suggest that BTAM teams rarely use exclusionary discipline measures—especially at the elementary level—they show that teams do still use these options (see Figure 9.1).
cite page 66 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Exclusionary discipline appears more common than referral to law enforcement
Our results also suggest that exclusionary discipline practices are more common than referrals to law enforcement (i.e., arresting or prosecuting students for their threatening or concerning behavior).
cite page 66 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Schools might suspend students for shorter amounts of time that might still be considered exclusiona
However, schools might suspend students for shorter amounts of time that still might be considered exclusionary.
cite page 66 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Presumably cost influences the likelihood a student receives an intervention
Presumably, the cost of an intervention will influence the likelihood of a student receiving that intervention, especially if borne by the student and the student’s family, and could be an insurmountable barrier for some families.
cite page 67 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
If services are free, student uptake may be higher, increasing the likelihood of meeting needs and s
If services are provided at no cost through the school or other community sources, student uptake may be higher, increasing the likelihood that intervention efforts will successfully meet their needs and school safety goals.
cite page 67 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
Substance use treatment is likely especially costly for students and families (NIDA, 2024)
Relative to other intervention options, substance use treatment is also likely especially costly for students and their families (see, e.g., NIDA, 2024).
cite page 68 Ch 9: How Do BTAM Teams Develop Intervention Plans?
District-level teams seem most likely to rely on staff outside the BTAM team
District-level teams seem most likely to rely on school staff outside the BTAM team.
cite page 70 Ch 10: How Do BTAM Teams Monitor Intervention Plans?
Presumably district teams prefer school-level staff for monitoring
Presumably, these district-level teams prefer to rely on school-level staff for monitoring, given their more regular, day-to-day contact with the student.
cite page 70 Ch 10: How Do BTAM Teams Monitor Intervention Plans?
One-third receive reports from outside providers, likely because they are in fewer cases
Sample (N = 984) · Teams that monitor some or all students progress after intervention plans
Only one-third receive periodic reports from outside service providers, likely because outside providers are involved in comparatively fewer cases relative to school personnel.
cite page 71 Ch 10: How Do BTAM Teams Monitor Intervention Plans?
Findings suggest most schools track progress but methods and intensity vary widely
These findings suggest that while most schools are taking steps to track progress after interventions are implemented, the methods and intensity of monitoring vary widely.
cite page 72 Ch 10: How Do BTAM Teams Monitor Intervention Plans?
Structured goals, case reviews and tracking systems may be better positioned to adjust early
Schools using structured goals, routine case reviews, and formal tracking systems may be better positioned to adjust interventions early and improve long-term outcomes.
cite page 72 Ch 10: How Do BTAM Teams Monitor Intervention Plans?
Broader adoption of consistent monitoring strategies may support greater effectiveness
As BTAM practices mature, broader adoption of consistent monitoring strategies may support greater effectiveness.
cite page 72 Ch 10: How Do BTAM Teams Monitor Intervention Plans?
More variation expected in responses to medium-level scenarios
For the medium-level scenarios, we expected more variation in principals’ responses about whether they would refer such incidents to their school’s BTAM team and the types of interventions that might be implemented in response to the student’s behavior.
cite page 74 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Some scenario categorizations may be ambiguous or open to interpretation
We also note that some of these categorizations may be ambiguous or open to interpretation, which we believe also accurately reflects the experiences of today’s schools.
cite page 75 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Initial decisionmaker was expected to differ by scenario and school
Given different circumstances across the schools in our sample, we expected that the person or group making that initial decision could differ from scenario to scenario and school to school.
cite page 75 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
BTAM team might be expected to recommend substance use treatment only if use is known or suspected
For example, we might expect a BTAM team to only recommend substance use treatment in cases in which they know or suspect that a student is using or abusing alcohol or drugs.
cite page 81 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Bringing parents in may be the number one action schools take in response to any incident
This suggests that bringing parents into the process of responding to student behavioral concerns is the number one action schools take in response to any type of incident, whether it be low-level behavior issues or very serious threats.
cite page 82 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Function of a home visit and who performs it may differ across incident types
The function of a home visit and who performs that visit may differ across incident types.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
For lower-risk incidents parental consultation might be a phone call by the principal
For lower-risk incidents with limited indicators of potential violence and no concern about weapon access, parental consultation might be a phone call made by the principal.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
In high-risk incidents a home visit might be made by law enforcement to assess weapon access
In high-risk incidents with substantial concerns about violence, a home visit might be made by a law enforcement officer to assess whether the student has access to firearms or other weapons in the home.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Patterns suggest schools tailor interventions and supports to the student and incident
Broadly, these patterns suggest that schools are tailoring interventions and supports based on specific information about the student and the incident.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Schools appear focused on supportive rather than restrictive interventions as most frequent steps
Third, schools appear to be focused on more supportive interventions, as opposed to restrictive measures, including exclusionary discipline, at least as the most frequently chosen steps in responding to incidents.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Exclusionary discipline and law enforcement referral are not schools' most common responses
However, the patterns in Figure 11.3 suggest that exclusionary discipline and referral to law enforcement are not the most common way that schools address the behaviors and situations depicted across our scenarios.
cite page 83 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Findings suggest widespread agreement on responses to lowest-level and most severe incidents
Altogether, these findings suggest that there is widespread agreement over how to respond to the lowest-level and most severe incidents and that schools are delineating in their responses to low-level versus severe incidents.
cite page 84 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Footnote: purpose of consultation or home visit may differ across scenarios
As mentioned above, what that consultation or home visit is intended to accomplish may be different in different scenarios.
cite page 84 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Footnote: low-level scenarios likely lack targets or victims of threats or violence
This could very likely be because lower-level incidents depicted in our scenarios, such as disruptive classroom behavior, do not involve targets or victims of threats or actual violence.
cite page 84 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Rising intervention counts with severity not surprising; more intervention expected as concern grows
This pattern is not surprising, because we would expect schools to do more to intervene as student behavior becomes more concerning.
cite page 86 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Footnote on support-focused share: authors expect respondents would not select options their...
Nevertheless, our expectation is that if their schools did not have or use the options presented, respondents would not have selected them.
cite page 88 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Short-term suspensions may also help ensure immediate safety of the student and broader school...
Short-term suspensions may also help ensure the immediate safety of the individual student and broader school community.
cite page 89 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Scenario analyses suggest K–12 schools are generally using BTAM as intended
Results from our scenario analyses suggest that K–12 schools are generally using BTAM as intended.
cite page 91 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Keeping students in school has substantial educational benefits and is likely more...
Although keeping students in school has substantial educational benefits and is likely more cost-effective than criminal justice involvement overall, some situations could be so serious that leaving student behavior management exclusively to the school would be impossible and inappropriate.
cite page 91 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
For many surveyed schools, police could become involved in a subset of scenarios whether or not...
For many of the schools included in our survey, police officers could become involved in responding to a subset of scenarios whether or not a BTAM team was in place.
cite page 91 Ch 11: How Are Schools Using BTAM to Respond to Student Behavior?
Positive but intermediate safety relationship could suggest schools already relatively safe
The fact that principals perceive a positive (though perhaps intermediate) relationship between BTAM and feelings of safety at school could suggest that schools are already relatively safe spaces, in part, because extreme violent incidents remain rare.
cite page 96 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
Positive relationships could reflect differing safety perceptions of principals, students, staff
Positive relationships could also be attributable to other factors, such as differing perceptions of safety between principals and students, between principals and staff, or between stakeholder groups.
cite page 96 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
Responses suggest a modestly positive relationship between BTAM and school climate on balance
Taken altogether, these responses suggest that, on balance, principals believe that there is a modestly positive relationship between BTAM and improvements in school climate.
cite page 96 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
Finding suggests principals believe BTAM influences violence levels to some extent
this finding suggests that principals believe that BTAM is influencing levels of violence at their schools to some extent.
cite page 97 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
Modest decreases could be because schools are already relatively safe places
Again, this could be because schools are already relatively safe places;
cite page 97 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
Responses from the small subset reporting increases merit additional examination
Although this represents a small subset of schools, such responses merit additional examination to identify what might be driving such changes.
cite page 98 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
At best BTAM helped reduce differences in discipline, potentially increasing fairness
At best, principals perceived that their BTAM programs were helping reduce differences in use of these practices across the student population, potentially increasing the fairness of disciplinary practices overall.
cite page 98 Ch 12: What Do Principals Think Are the Effects of Their BTAM Programs?
Data suggest many schools have sustainability factors in place, but more support could strengthen su
As we discuss in this section, our data suggest that many schools already have some of the suitable factors in place to support the continued operation of their BTAM programs into the future, but there are areas where additional support could strengthen BTAM sustainability and continuous improvement.
cite page 100 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Unknown what informs neutral views; communities may lack knowledge or BTAM may not be pervasive
We do not know what informs these perspectives—it could be that school communities do not know enough about school BTAM programs to have an opinion either way or that the application of BTAM is not pervasive enough to make an impression.
cite page 101 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Highest-poverty school principals least likely to believe program withstands leadership change
Specifically, principals in the highest poverty schools were least likely to believe their BTAM program would withstand a leadership change, suggesting that BTAM sustainability in those schools may be more vulnerable.
cite page 101 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Additional support may be needed for institutional memory and leadership pipelines in high-poverty s
Findings therefore suggest additional support may be needed to build institutional memory and leadership pipelines in high-poverty schools, where BTAM program stability may be more fragile.
cite page 101 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Patterns suggest changes aimed to improve BTAM in context, not respond to threats to its functioning
These patterns suggest that schools made changes to BTAM processes to help improve how BTAM worked in their specific school or community context, rather than in response to challenges that might otherwise jeopardize the effective functioning of a school BTAM program.
cite page 102 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Perhaps unsurprising that early-policy states’ principals reported being affected by policy changes
Given that that group of states put prescriptive policies in place early regarding local use of BTAM, it is perhaps unsurprising that principals in those states told us they were affected by changes in those policies
cite page 102 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
External challenges are outside team or school control, potentially explaining why hard to resolve
rather than issues directly under the control of a school BTAM team or the school more generally, potentially explaining why they may be especially difficult to resolve.
Why inferred The sentence crosses a page break: this quote is the page 104 part and the sentence begins on page 103 (claim p103-08). Full sentence (pages 103–104): “Importantly, these top two challenges relate to external factors rather than issues directly under the control of a school BTAM team or the school more generally, potentially explaining why they may be especially difficult to resolve.”
cite page 104 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Staff capacity is likely a perennial concern for schools asked to do more to support students
This suggests that staff capacity is likely a perennial concern for schools asked to do increasingly more to support students.
cite page 104 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
School characteristics might be significant in determining the types of challenges schools experienc
This could imply that school characteristics might be significant in determining the types of challenges schools experience when it comes to operating BTAM programs.
cite page 104 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Schools in states without 2019 BTAM legislation or policy more likely to cite training gaps
Schools in states that did not promote BTAM via legislation or non-codified policy in 2019 were also more likely to identify training gaps as an issue, suggesting that some state policies related to BTAM may specifically include providing training to schools at no or reduced cost.
cite page 104 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
More support for continuous improvement activities could help schools achieve better safety outcomes
Providing more support to schools so that they can engage in more continuous improvement activities could help them achieve better school safety outcomes over time.
cite page 104 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
Authors presume larger teams have more capacity to support review activities
We presume that because of their size, larger teams have more capacity to support these sorts of activities.
cite page 105 Ch 13: Sustaining and Improving BTAM Programs over Time
New adopters may need more help sustaining BTAM team function than help getting started
As a result, new adopters of BTAM may need more help to support the continued function of their BTAM team and improve the program’s effectiveness and outcomes over time, as opposed to support from the local community to get a program off the ground.
Discussion: state-level BTAM policies are likely helping schools implement BTAM
State-level policies related to BTAM, whether through legislation or non-codified policy, are likely helping schools implement BTAM.
This could be because schools in these states received earlier training and/or funding
This could be because schools in these states received earlier support in the form of training and/or funding for their BTAM programs.
Principals’ reports largely suggest the overly-wide-net concern has not played out
Reports from school principals largely suggest this concern has not played out.
Survey results suggest BTAM teams stayed focused on potentially serious safety concerns
Instead, our survey results suggest schools’ BTAM teams have maintained a focus on those incidents that align with their core mission of identifying and intervening in potentially serious school safety concerns.
Schools are not planning interventions in isolation; parent buy-in is key to success
This suggests that schools are not conducting intervention planning in isolation and that parent buy-in is key to the success of an intervention plan.
Inconsistent implementation may lead to uneven outcomes and hard-to-measure effectiveness at scale
In particular, inconsistencies in implementation across schools may lead to uneven outcomes and challenges in measuring program effectiveness at scale.
Inconsistent training may hinder competencies in risk assessment, bias and intervention matching
This inconsistency in training may hinder the ability of BTAM teams to develop critical competencies, for instance related to assessing risk, mitigating biases, and appropriately matching interventions and supports to individual student needs—all of which are foundational to effective violence prevention.
Lack of consistency can affect the quality and effectiveness of interventions
This lack of consistency can affect the quality and effectiveness of interventions.
Need may be driven by strong recent adoption, with many schools adopting in the past five years
The need may be driven by the strong recent adoption of BTAM, with a large percentage of schools adopting the practice in the past five years.
Relying on a single continuous-improvement method is unlikely to yield needed information
Similarly, although many schools are engaging in one activity related to continuous improvement within their BTAM program, relying on a single method is unlikely to yield the kind and quantity of information schools need to ensure that their BTAM program is working well and will continue to do so into the future.
Without multiple robust feedback mechanisms, schools risk missing opportunities to improve BTAM
Without multiple robust mechanisms for gathering feedback and assessing outcomes across cases, schools risk missing opportunities to improve the effectiveness of their BTAM programs and ensure that both specific interventions and the program as a whole are yielding the intended impact.
Patterns across school contexts might be driven by principals sharing multiple characteristics
Thus, any patterns observed across multiple school contexts might be driven by principals in the schools that share multiple of these characteristics.
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