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Tier 1b Implementation practice environment

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The Backpack Connection Series was created by TACSEI to provide a way for teachers and parents/caregivers to work together to help young children develop social emotional skills and reduce challenging behavior. Teachers may choose to send a handout home in each child's backpack when a new strategy or skill is introduced to the class.

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Video: Connecting Program-wide Expectations and Classroom Rules

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Video: Connecting Program-wide Expectations and Classroom Rules

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CSEFEL - Module 1, Video 11: Reciting the Rules

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Backpack Connection: How to Use Visual Schedules

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Backpack Connection: How to Use Visual Schedules

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Backpack Connection--How to Help Your Child Transition

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Backpack Connection--How to Help Your Child Transition

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Backpack Connection--How to Help Your Child Transition Smoothly Between Places and Activites.pdf

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Challenging Behavior Incident Observation Card

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Challenging Behavior Incident Observation Card

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CSEFEL - Module 1, Video 8: 5 Minute Glove

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Video: Support transitioning  to less preferred activity  

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Video: Support transitioning  to less preferred activity  

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CSEFEL - Module 1, Video 6: Transition cue

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OCDEL/PA Guidelines to Support Implementation of  Announcement on Suspension and Expulsion 

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OCDEL/PA Guidelines to Support Implementation of  Announcement on Suspension and Expulsion 

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OCDEL/PA Guidelines to Support Implementation of Announcement on Inclusion

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OCDEL/PA Guidelines to Support Implementation of Announcement on Inclusion

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Guidelines to Support Implementation of OCDEL Annoucement on Inclusion.pdf

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OCDEL/PA Tipsheet: Developing Suspension and Expulsion Policies

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OCDEL/PA Tipsheet: Developing Suspension and Expulsion Policies

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ACEs and Resiliency

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PA/OCDEL Announcement on Suspension & Expulsion

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PA/OCDEL Announcement on Suspension & Expulsion

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Announcement-Reduction of explusion and suspension in EC programs in PA.pdf

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Announcement-Inclusion of All Children in Early Childhood Programs in PA.pdf

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What to do While Waiting for Help to Arrive.ppt

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Video: Using a social story to support child with challenging behavior at circle time

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Video: Using a social story to support child with challenging behavior at circle time

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CSEFEL: V3b 5 Responding with Scripted Story

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Supporting an Effective Workforce

This webpage describes what ECMHC is, who is eligible for this service, and how to apply for support. ECMHC project (external link)

Take a look at some of the ECMH articles included on the ECMHC webpage for practical strategies that your staff can put to use immediately

Teaching Social Skills

A short video highlighting ways that teachers can support children in learning how to use problem solving to deal with the upsets, conflicts and other social problems that may occur in a preschool classroom.Visit "Problem Solving in the Moment" to view this video. (external link)

While there be sure to check out:

Tips for Teachers (external link)

Short video presenting a four-step guide for teacher planning to teach behavior expectations in a preschool classroom. Visit "Stating Behavioral Expectations" to view this video. (external link)

While there be sure to check out:

Activities with Families. This will provide a resource with ideas for partnering with families

Using visual supports to create a classroom Problem Solving Kits is a way to teach children how to begin to solve problem skills. Each visual should be specifically taught during a large or small group time. Visit Head Start's Visual Support page to learn more. (external link)

while there be sure to check out:

Build Social Skills, Dragon Brain, Emotional Regulation, Friendship Kit, Problem Solving, and Voice Volume Charts.

Engaging Families

This article from NAEYC's Young Children journal describes what makes the difference when early childhood programs build successful, collaborative relationships with families. The article includes how Strengthening Families Illinois took steps to support staff's desire to change practices that may be subtle barriers to closer staff-family connections. Describing how Strengthening Families Illinois had made a difference, one program director said, "When a parent was chronically late, we used to look at our watches at pick-up time and complain to each other about how inconsiderate she was. Now, we say to each other, 'I wonder what's going on with her and how we could help.'" NAEYC article (external link)

While there be sure to check out:

"You're Welcome" Parent Leaders Speak Out on What it Takes to Promote Real Parent Engagement (external link)

Use this checklist as part of your program's comprehensive system for fostering family engagement. Complete it as a staff team exercise; ask each staff member to complete the form, and discuss the responses at a staff meeting. Revisit the checklist on a regular basis to check on your progress. Self-Assessment Checklist (external link)

While there be sure to check out:

Principles of Effective Practice (external link)

Nurturing Relationships/Supportive Environments

Short articles and handouts that address classroom specific problems and provide clear, easy solutions to try in your classroom. Topics include, but are not limited to: Building Positive Teacher Child Relationships, Expressing Warmth and Affection to Children, and Understanding Temperament in Infants and Toddlers. Check out the "What Works" page on the CSEFEL website to learn more. (external link)

While there be sure to check out:

Brief 24 Attachment: What Works?

Brief, 15-minute online professional development that uses videos and articles to support practitioner learning in building relationships. Topics include fostering connections, being aware of children's needs and creating a caring community. To view some of these videos and articles, go to this Teaching and Learning page. (external link)

Practice guides for classroom practitioners to self-assess and develop skills in topics such as early peer interaction. There are two resources that can be used with this: Peer Interaction PDF and Peer Interactions Videos. (external link)

Addressing Challenging Behaviors

For Trainers/Coaches

Coaching Kits guide coaches from assessment to strategies for teaching and providing feedback on various topics. Check out the Teaching Friendship Skills and Problem Solving kits. (opens in a new tab)

We are developing additional kits to support your work. Keep coming back to check for new coaching kits!

Social Emotional Resources for Families

Social Emotional Resources for
Home-based Programs

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This webpage describes what ECMHC is, who is eligible for this service, and how to apply for support.

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HHS-US Dept of Ed--Policy Statement ece expulsions suspensions.pdf

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Early Intervention Technical Assistance Online Learning Portal

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Inclusion - Early Intervention Technical Assistance Online Learning Portal

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CARA's Kit provides tools and resources to guide you through the process of making adaptations for individuals or groups of children who are experiencing challenges during every day routines and activities. This resource provides guidance for working with both toddlers and preschool-age children. As you explore various classroom situations you will find that they are ...

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Purpose of The Guide

Suspensions and expulsions of young children are not developmentally appropriate practices. Yet, recent data indicate that suspension and expulsion occur regularly in early childhood settings. These exclusionary practices, which disproportionately impact children of color, deprive children of valuable learning experiences and have a negative impact on children's development that extends into grade school and beyond. Eliminating all forms of exclusion is urgent and vital to preparing all children for success. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of Education (ED) have made this a key priority and issued a Joint Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension Policy in Early Childhood Settings. View the video below for an introduction to the issue and this guide.

The purpose of this guide is to provide relevant, specific recommended policies and practices that are actionable and address the underlying root causes and provide effective alternatives. The recommended policies and practices are based on the most important research for eliminating suspensions and expulsions in early childhood settings and were developed with guidance from a panel of national experts.

Using the interactive guide, program leaders can find resources on supporting social-emotional development, reducing challenging behavior, recognizing the role of cultural differences and implicit biases, and more.

The guide is intended for those most likely to make an impact and with a great need for resources: early education program leaders in center-based settings who implement policies and procedures and promote practices; however, anyone seeking to learn more about strategies for eliminating suspension and expulsion in early childhood settings can benefit from using the guide.

Get Started

Roadmap to Navigating the Guide

What recommended policies and practices are most important for you and your program? To help you prioritize, take the optional self-assessment that will provide you with a tailored roadmap to navigating the guide.

Start the Self-Assessment

The Introduction describes the contents of the guide and provides tips for how to get the most out of the guide. The guide can be read from start to finish, or the individual recommended policies and practices can stand alone. We recognize that implementing all recommended policies and practices may be overwhelming and that programmatic changes often need to occur in stages.

To help you prioritize what recommended policies and practices are most necessary and timely to implement in your program, we have developed a self-assessment. The self-assessment is an optional tool that includes a brief questionnaire to help you reflect on your program's policies, practices, and needs. The results of the self-assessment will help you reflect on your strengths and needs and provide you a roadmap to navigating the guide.

Citation

Suggested citation for this guide:

Schachner, A., Belodoff, K., Chen, W-B., Kutaka, T., Fikes, A., Ensign, K., Chow, K., Nguyen, J., & Hardy, J. (2016). Preventing Suspensions and Expulsions in Early Childhood Settings: An Administrator's Guide to Supporting All Children's Success. SRI International: Menlo Park, CA. Accessed from http://preventexpulsion.org

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Preventing Suspensions and Expulsions in Early Childhood Settings | An Administrator's Guide to Supporting All Children's Success

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Suspensions and expulsions of young children are not developmentally appropriate practices. Yet, recent data indicate that suspension and expulsion occur regularly in early childhood settings. These exclusionary practices, which disproportionately impact children of color, deprive children of valuable learning experiences and have a negative impact on children's development that extends into grade school and beyond.

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"Fairness, equity, and continuous improvement" in early childhood programs are crucial for improving school climate and school discipline, say the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. All programs need to set their own goals, monitor data to assess progress, and modify practices as needed to reach their fairness, equity, and improvement goals.

Collecting data to monitor your progress about disciplinary policies and practices can help in a number of ways:

Data can help you understand how exclusionary discipline is used at your school and help you see areas of policy and practice in need of change. In order to track a reduction in the use of suspension and expulsion, you must first clearly define what they are (e.g., suspension can be asking parents to pick up early, as well as asking the child to stay home for a number of days). Then you must keep records of how frequently and under what circumstances these practices are used. If programs do not pay regular attention to their discipline data, it will be hard to build on what works well or change a policy that does not work as well as hoped.

Data will let you track progress as you try new policies. Data can help you see whether you really are using less exclusionary discipline and applying discipline fairly across groups of children.

Finally, more transparency about how your program handles discipline can help the program/school community build trust, among staff, and with families and children. To do this, programs need to separate out discipline data by subgroups, including by race, gender, and children with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) or Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). These data should be publicly available. The data should include information about the characteristics of children in your program and disciplinary activities. This should include

the percentage of children who are White, Black, male, female;

the percentage of children who have an identified disability or IFSP/IEP; and

how many children of each group are suspended or expelled within a certain time frame.

Review of these data lets you and your program staff clearly see how often children are disciplined for various behaviors. These data also show whether there is disproportionality, meaning that certain groups of children are disciplined more or less often than other groups of children for the same types of behaviors.

How do I do this?

Use a standard format to document discipline (such as a behavior incident report form). Write down factors related to disproportionality for the children involved, such as their race, gender, and whether they have an IFSP/IEP. Also include time, place, antecedents, teacher or staff involved, and any disciplinary action taken, including suspension and expulsion. You may want to have teachers record efforts to use positive management strategies as well, so that they can focus on improving prevention support to reduce the need for exclusionary discipline.

Looking for a behavior incident report form template? Here are two options:

Train staff on when and how to use the form. Create a systematic process for recording discipline. This will encourage staff to be accountable for how they respond to children's behaviors. This will also help staff be transparent. Stress that the information gathered will be used to make your program better and not to evaluate staff, and then stick to your word.

Create processes for entering and analyzing the data. Choose a staff member who will serve as "data champion." This person will be responsible for entering and analyzing the data. Support this person in gaining the skills and the time necessary to do this work, such as learning to use Microsoft Excel for entering and managing the data. Set a timeline for how often data should be entered and analyzed, such as once a week, or twice a month.

Examine the data with staff in an open and constructive way. Aim to identify patterns in behavior incidents by child and by subgroups of children. For example, choose one child who struggles with behavior, and try to find out if the child is usually involved in incidents at the same time of day or with the same peer. Also examine whether there is disproportionality in discipline in your program/school. For instance, are certain groups (e.g., Black boys) being disciplined more often or more harshly than other groups for the same types of behaviors, or are some providers/teachers disciplining children more than others are?

Acknowledge challenges, set goals for improvement, and identify steps for achieving these goals. For example, if the data show that exclusionary discipline is often used as a response to children's challenging behaviors, set goals to reduce suspensions and expulsions by a specific amount within a certain time frame. If the data show there is disproportionality, set goals to reduce this as well. Work with staff to write a plan with explicit steps for reaching these goals, including using strategies described under the other recommendations on this site, such as building cultural understanding between families and staff in order to minimize misconceptions and implicit biases that contribute to disproportionality in use of exclusionary discipline.

Continue to collect and analyze data as a way to see whether you are making progress toward these goals.

For a template form to track monthly program actions related to behavioral incidents and concerns, see this template from TACSEI.

Build in a process for follow-up support for children involved in behavior incidents. In addition to standardizing how you document incidents, standardize steps taken to support the child following an incident. This might include holding a parent meeting, referring to specialists when necessary, and having a behavior support plan in place (see Recommendations 3.1 and 3.2).

What Barriers Might I Run Into and What Are Solutions?

Potential Barrier: My staff may not have the time, resources, and skills needed to collect and analyze data.
Solution: We recognize that these are difficult challenges to overcome. Simple things such as asking teachers to take turns in entering discipline data, or asking an administrative assistant to act as "data champion" may help. Addressing them may also require getting creative and seeking resources in the community, such as local university students, who may be able to provide support and guidance on collecting and analyzing data. If you are able to put a data system in place, your efforts may be rewarded through beneficial "side effects," such as increased adult accountability (due to having clear guidelines around what counts as a behavior incident that must be documented, including documenting the role the adult played) and some level of legal protection due to the existence of formal records that capture staff efforts. To easily enter, summarize, and look at graphs of data related to behavior incidents and program actions, use this Excel document created by TACSEI that is set up to do just that automatically.

Potential Barrier: Many providers/teachers and administrators base their decisions on their experience, intuition, and professional judgment, not on information that is collected systematically.
Solution: Inspire a change in perspective by educating staff about the benefits of data-driven (rather than intuition-driven) decision-making. These include avoiding biased judgments, being more consistent across staff and situations, and being able to measure change over time. Make the use of data as nonthreatening as possible by being transparent at every step. Talk with staff about how data can be used to complement and support their professional judgment, not replace it.

Potential Barrier: Some providers/teachers may not see or fully appreciate how their own behaviors and actions impact the behaviors and actions of the children they work with, which leads them to overlook useful data.
Solution: Again, inspire a change in perspective by educating staff about how their own behaviors and actions are related to those of the children they teach because of the back-and-forth nature of social interactions. How staff interact with children and address challenging behavior is an important aspect of the behavior incident that must also be examined, learned from, and improved on.

Potential Barrier: Data on disproportionality in suspensions and expulsions may be considered sensitive. Staff may have fears that information will be used politically or punitively, making staff mistrust or avoid data.
Solution: This is an understandable fear. Care must be taken to build trust among staff and administrators and to use findings from analyses only to improve the practice and support staff. Policies about data collection and use should be set through a collaborative process and then applied equally to all staff, regardless of role. For example, all staff will use a standardized behavior incident report to record incidents they are involved in. All staff will receive feedback on their approaches to addressing challenging behaviors and how often they used exclusionary discipline to respond to a child's challenging behaviors in a certain time frame.

Where do I go for more resources?

New Resource: See this fact sheet from the Pyramid Equity Project on different ways that programs can look at disproportionality in discipline and behavior incidents.

For a behavior incident report form template and guidance about how to use BIR data for decision-making, see the Data Decision-Making and Program-Wide Implementation of the Pyramid Model brief from the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI)-the guidance is useful even if you aren't using the Pyramid Model.

To track monthly program actions related to behavior incidents and concerns, see this template from TACSEI.

To easily enter, summarize, and look at graphs of data related to behavior incidents and program actions, use this Excel document created by TACSEI that is set up to do just that automatically.

To learn more about Evidence Based Decision-Making, view this summary and guidance document.

Want tips on how to share data effectively with your staff and families? Check out the DaSy Data Visualization Toolkit.

For videos of family, practitioner, and administrator data use, see the Perspectives on Data Use videos from the DaSy Center.

Watch this 4 min. video of real teachers discussing how using data is just part of good teaching and how they benefit from using data.

This report from the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands (REL NE) identifies considerations for conducting analysis of child/student-level disciplinary data. These include the data elements to be used in the analysis and establishing rules for transparency. The report also covers examples of descriptive analyses that can be conducted by programs/districts to answer questions about the use of the disciplinary actions.

References

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Education. (2014). Policy Statement on Expulsion and Suspension Policies in Early Childhood Settings. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/policy-statement-ece-expulsions-suspensions.pdf

Skiba, R. J. and Losen, D. J. (Winter 2015-2016). From recreation to prevention: Turning the page on school discipline. American Educator (pp. 4-11). Retrieved from http://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/ae_winter2015skiba_losen.pdf

Have questions? Want to provide feedback?

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1.1: Collect and examine data on behavior incidents to make disciplinary practices and policies more fair for all children

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"Fairness, equity, and continuous improvement" in early childhood programs are crucial for improving school climate and school discipline, say the U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. All programs need to set their own goals, monitor data to assess progress, and modify practices as needed to reach their fairness, equity, and improvement goals.

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Putting a universal screening and assessment process in use can support programs to foster children's positive social-emotional development in order to prevent suspensions and expulsions. Universal screening is a fast and efficient way to identify children with potential areas of need or concern. Early identification through universal screening also helps programs match at-risk children with the services that benefit children and their families. This practice can result in stronger family partnerships (see Recommendation 1.2). It can also help establish formal collaborations with community partners to support the inclusion of young children with disabilities in your program. Targeted and intensive intervention services can help children who need them to begin and sustain positive relationships with their peers and with adults, possibly preventing and addressing the challenging behaviors that may lead to suspension and expulsion. For instance, many Head Start centers complete a social-emotional screener on all enrolled children within 45 days of the program start date. Screening is also a critical component of a multitiered system of support (to learn more, see Recommendation 1.8). To be most useful and beneficial to you and your program, it is important to use a universal screening and assessment tool that will provide accurate and specific information about what children know and are able to do.

A universal screening and assessment tool is characterized as a brief, cost-efficient tool that:

Is given to all children

Is accessible to all children (e.g., given in the child's primary language)

Assesses critical skills and concepts

Is easy to administer and score

Has quick turnaround time so the information can be shared with teachers and relevant staff

Is reliable

Accurately describes children's skills and competencies.

Accurate information about children's social-emotional competencies and skills come from

multiple methods of assessment (e.g., direct observation and teacher ratings of behavior) and

multiple sources of information (e.g., number of absences from administrative records; medical records) that is gathered from

multiple informants (e.g., examining the correspondence between parent and teacher ratings and reports of behavior).

How do I do this?

Step 1. Select a screening tool. When you select a screening tool, consider

1. the appropriateness of the screener for your context,

2. the technical adequacy of the screener, and

3. the usability of the information generated by the screener

Consider the following questions to determine the appropriate screener for your program:

When is the ideal time to assess children? How often should the tool be used?

What can we learn about children's areas of concern and strengths by using this tool?

Have the format and content of the tool been used in past research and/or evaluation? What did other researchers and professionals learn about children from using the tool?

Is the assessment contextually, culturally, and developmentally appropriate? Does it make sense to use for the children in our program?

Looking for instruments to consider for universal screening and summaries of their technical adequacy and usability? Jump down to the lists and compilations in the Resources section.

Step 2. Determine the process for implementing the screening tool. This universal screener should be administered at the beginning of the school year to assess the achievement of developmental milestones for all children currently enrolled in the program. You will need to decide

when that screener will be administered and

by whom.

In general, administering the assessment with fidelity should be straightforward (e.g., it does not have a complex scoring procedure, or the complex scoring procedure should be streamlined). It would also be helpful to partner with local early intervention or early childhood special education programs to support your screening efforts. They may also offer practical advice, including suggestions for selecting screening tools, items, or tasks.

Step 3. Consider logistics and infrastructure needs. The assessment should not place a large burden on staff time or your program's financial resources.

Consider that administering the assessment may require that children and, to a greater extent, providers/teachers will be taken out of instruction and care time.

Data collection, management, and interpretation require qualified staff, as well as tools that range from analytical software and a quiet testing space to personnel who can accommodate non-English speakers.

Additional personnel may be required. See section.

See the resources section for lists and compilations that summarize key characteristics such as the purpose of the instrument, cost of purchase, qualifications/training necessary to administer the tool - and can help in decision-making.

Step 4. Create staffing and implementation procedures. When preparing to put the screener in place, consider:

Staff selection. Select staff to administer the screening tool who have the qualifications and training required (if any) for the tool. If qualifications are not specified, think about who has the skill sets needed to:

Time to practice and debrief. If training is not required, it may be helpful for staff to practice giving the screener to each other or to a child who does not attend the program.

Step 5. Use the results to inform supports and services. When preparing to use the ratings and results from the screener to identify children in need of additional supports and services, consider:

Transforming scores into informed action. Once scores have been interpreted, they should be shared with providers/teachers, IDEA service providers, and families. If appropriate, a monitoring and follow-up procedure should be put in place.

What Barriers Might I Run Into and What Are Solutions?

Potential Barrier: How do we tell the difference between a rough week and clinically significant problems?
Solution: We recommend that you use a standardized, validated tool that is psychometrically/technically sound. Such instruments provide specific guidance or interpretation of what scores mean, including the threshold for clinical significance. There are multiple benefits to using a standardized instrument, such that

individual items have been closely studied to determine whether the tool meets the technical standards established through research, and

scores are computed based on nationally representative samples, allowing good comparisons with other children of the same age.

To make a determination about a child's risk status, it is useful to compare performance or behavior relative to a similar group of peers (e.g., Does this child perform or behave similarly to other English language learning boys his age?). Local (school-, district-, or state-level) or national norms can also be used. Local norms may be especially useful for identifying the lowest performing children, but national norms tend to be more stable across subgroups over time.

Potential Barrier: My program is worried about misidentifying children.
Solution: When children are misidentified, it can lead to missed opportunities for instruction and intervention services or reduced opportunities for learning and growth. False positives and false negatives can also be prevented through initial and ongoing training for staff on how to implement the tool with fidelity.

Invest the time to participate in the training recommended by the tool developers.

Arrange for your staff to have opportunities to practice administering the tool to children before the screener is formally implemented.

Provide a mechanism for those administering the screening to check in with each other, as well as with an expert in the tool or expert in assessment (e.g., program/school psychologist, psychologist through local university). These meetings help ensure that screening administrators are scoring consistently with each other and their actions and interpretations are in-line with the guidelines provided by the manual or best assessment practices.

For example, a staff member may have a question about whether or not a child's behavior should be interpreted as aggressive. This question could be posed to the group, who may also witness such behavior. The group, ideally led by an expert or master teacher/practitioner or coach, should come to a consensus about whether that behavior should be considered aggressive.

Potential Barrier: How can my program make sure the screening results and data are used in a meaningful way?
Solution: It is important that you hear the reactions and requests of providers/teachers and other staff who work with the children on a day-to-day basis on what information and data would be useful to them in their work.

For example, consider sharing the screening options with your staff and having a conversation about the pros and cons of each tool. Consider structuring the conversation using the following prompts:

Is this information useful? Why or why not? If not, what would make this information more useful?

Can you see yourself using such information in your day-to-day work (e.g., planning group work or activities; diagnostic criteria)?

Can you think of an example of when this information will be used or useful?

Providers/teachers are more likely to participate in screening when the data

help to solve a high-priority problem or question,

do not require excessive effort to administer, and

are central to the core mission and values of the program/school.

Potential Barrier: My program doesn't have the resources or funding to conduct universal screening.
Solution: Your local Child Care Resource and Referral agency can help you find local free and low-cost training opportunities. They can also help you find grants for additional funding and resources.

You can locate Child Care Resource and Referral agencies in your area through Child Care Aware's search tool. Its State by State Resource Map can point you in the right direction for local resources on child care, health and social services, financial assistance, support for children with special needs, and more.

Another approach is to refer that child and their families to local early intervention service (EIS) providers or to the local school district. Your local EIS or school district will contact the family to arrange for an evaluation to determine if a child is eligible for infant and early intervention or preschool special education services.
The Birth to Five website summarizes the general steps that should be followed when a child is being considered for early intervention services.

Potential Barrier: My program doesn't have the right staff or enough staff to do universal screening.
Solution: Consider building partnerships with your local universities and/or colleges. They may have the human resources necessary to implement screening into your program. Colleges of Education as well as Psychology Departments are filled with undergraduate and graduate students who would benefit from internships that will help them to translate academic knowledge from coursework into relevant professional skills. Having preservice teachers administer the assessment for course credit is cost-effective and provides students with the opportunity to work one-on-one with a child in a program setting. Educational psychologists would also benefit from such experiences, given the centrality of assessment in their training.

Where do I go for more resources?

Looking for screening and assessment specific to social-emotional development? The Developmental screening and assessment instruments with an emphasis on social-emotional development for young children ages birth through five compiled by the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center at the University of North Carolina, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. This document contains a helpful list of instruments in a table that is organized by instrument name; provides a brief description, the appropriate age range on which the instrument can be used, the time it takes to administer the tool, how scoring works, and psychometric information (if available); and identifies the most appropriate party to administer the instrument (e.g., parent, practitioner, home visitor).

The Screening for social-emotional concerns: Considerations in the selection of instruments brief developed by the Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention (TACSEI) includes profiles on several validated assessment and screening tools. The profiles include summaries of the properties of each tool:

Utility

Acceptability

Authenticity and equity

Congruence and sensitivity

Collaboration and convergence

Time to administer and score

Age range

Readability

Cost

Data management system

Looking for a comprehensive list of screening tools for young children? Check out Early childhood developmental screening: A compendium of measures for children ages birth to five, developed by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) and Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This document also describes the standards that instruments need to meet in order to be considered "technically adequate" (read: reliable and valid). It also contains profiles of 16 individual measures. Information includes:

Background and purpose of instrument

Availability and cost

Training and other requirements for assessors

Information reporting system

Approaches to family/parent input

Options for use with special and diverse populations

Characteristics of the norming sample

Reliability and validity information

Follow-up guidance

In the process of selecting a developmental and behavioral screening tool to use as part of early childhood mental health consultation? Check out the Early childhood mental health consultation: An evaluation tool kit. The purpose of this tool kit is to increase capacity to evaluate the quality of early childhood mental health programs and services. Appendix C contains a list of outcome measures appropriate for providers/teachers to administer. If you are interested in childhood mental health consultation, please see Recommendation 2.1) of this guide.

Looking for more resources to promote universal screening? Go to the Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! website. Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! is a coordinated federal effort to encourage healthy child development, universal developmental and behavioral screening for children, and support for the families and providers who care for them. There are links to resources for families and different kinds of providers serving infants, toddlers, and young children.

Need training materials for your staff on developmental screening or resources for families? Go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Learn the Signs, Act Early website. This CDC site has resources for tracking children's milestones from birth through age 5, including training modules for staff. If parents have concerns about their children's development, suggested follow-up steps are provided.

Want a way to involve families in early identification of concerns? Easter Seals Offers a Free, Confidential Online Screening Tool: Ages and Stages Questionnaire, Third Edition (ASQ-3). This screening tool will help families guide and keep track of their children's growth and development during the first 5 years. The questionnaire takes 10 to 20 minutes, and families are encouraged to come back and learn about their children's development over time.

If you work alongside a school psychologist or partner with an educational psychologist and are interested in issues related to technical adequacy, please see Principle IV-C2 of the National Association of School Psychologists' Professional Conduct Manual (2000).

If you are interested in reading more about assessments and screening tools, see the NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) blog.

References

American Education Research Association & American Psychological Association. (1999). NCME: Standards for educational and psychological testing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Glover, T.A., & Albers, C.A. (2007). Considerations for evaluating universal screening assessments. Journal of School Psychology, 45, 117-135.

Hepburn, K. S., Kaufmann, R. K., Perry, D. F., Allen, M. D., Brennan, E. M., & Green, B. L. (2007). Early childhood mental health consultation: An evaluation tool kit. Washington, DC: Georgetown University, Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health; Johns Hopkins University, Women's and Children's Health Policy Center; and Portland State University, Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health. Retrieved from http://gucchd.georgetown.edu/products/ECMHCToolkit.pdf

U.S. Department of Education and Health and Human Services (2015). Policy Statement on Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Early Childhood Programs. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/earlylearning/inclusion/index.html

Have questions? Want to provide feedback?

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1.3: Integrate developmental screening and assessment into the program/school

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Putting a universal screening and assessment process in use can support programs to foster children's positive social-emotional development in order to prevent suspensions and expulsions. Universal screening is a fast and efficient way to identify children with potential areas of need or concern.

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Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Request Forms

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Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Request Forms

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ECMH Request for Services Form with Parent Agreement Form.pdf

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OCDEL/PA Implementation Guide for Inclusion

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OCDEL/PA Implementation Guide for Inclusion

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Getting Started with Inclusion--7 Steps.pdf