Intervention fidelity is the extent to which an individual- or systems-level student intervention is delivered comprehensively in a manner aligned with the initial plan. This first installment in a three-part series on intervention fidelity highlights the importance of ensuring classroom supports are implemented as intended and introduces…

Students cannot experience the full potential benefits of an intervention unless they are receiving the intervention. This is the second installment in a three-part series on intervention fidelity designed to highlight the importance of ensuring classroom supports are implemented as intended. This article provides guidance related to measuring and…

Schools are currently facing significant success gaps for students with disabilities, particularly those students with intersectional, marginalized identities. Establishing systematic, collaborative tiered supports is essential to reduce student success gaps and simultaneously prevent staff burnout. Yet, the required system change varies across…

Most supervisors lack training in best practices in clinical supervision (Newman et al., 2019). However, supervisees report more positive supervision experiences from supervisors who have received training (Brott et al., 2016). To address this need, a group of university educators and an experienced field supervisor collaborated with the Illinois…

All interventions -- whether academic, behavioral, or social-emotional -- should be consistently delivered as planned to realize desired student outcomes. In other words, they should be delivered with fidelity. School psychologists can address this concern by monitoring fidelity and providing support for intervention implementation. In this final…

There is a critical need to address educator health and well-being, yet only an average of 31% of schools offer workplace health and wellness promotion programs. As part of the Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace -- a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health®…

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated school, state, and federal responses to curb infection and resultant fatalities, including extensive school closures and reliance on distance education for a substantial portion of the academic year. This article considers the equity issues laid bare by COVID-19, followed by the implications for MTSS, with a…

In a collaborative partnership between a public school district in the northeast United States and university faculty, social-emotional/behavioral (SEB) screening was implemented across the district at three elementary schools serving students in kindergarten through second grade. Although both parents and teachers served as informants in SEB…

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is the norm and expectation for providing interventions in school psychology. However, there are two major hurdles to be addressed before EBP can be a true improvement in providing educational and psychological interventions to children and families. The first challenge is that the standard of clinical research limits…

Growing evidence of the prevalence of and educational consequences related to childhood trauma exposure has led to a national focus on equipping schools to support the specific needs of students who have experienced trauma. As the trauma-informed care movement gains momentum, educators, practitioners, and researchers are collaborating to…

For many years, directly addressing the mental and behavioral health needs of students was not a primary role I (Katie Dockweiler) played in the schools where I worked within the Clark County School District (CCSD), Nevada. Over my 14-year tenure, I have served as a bilingual school psychologist consulting with nearly 100 schools on second…

The final Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability regulations were issued November 2016. Draft regulations were released in the Spring 2016, and the Department of Education received comments and feedback from over 21,000 individuals and organizations. The final regulations provide specific details regarding the implementation timeline,…

Efforts to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) are well underway, as states submitted their state plans to the Department of Education in September 2017. The entire education policy and advocacy community has been combing through the state plans to get an idea of how states will tackle efforts to improve student outcomes under the new…

Restraints and other aversives continue to be an active area of legal activity, particularly for students with disabilities. The March/April 2016 issue of Communiqué provided an update of the case law specific to school district use of restraints (Zirkel, 2016). Since then, various sources have provided successive snapshots of state restraint and…

Many students in schools have experienced traumatic events and struggle to deal with emotional, social, behavioral, and learning problems. School psychologists can be effective leaders in the school to establish trauma-informed practices within schools. By promoting awareness of trauma and its impact on students, school psychologists can help…