Lessons Learned from District- and School-Site Leaders Conducting Systematic Screening

Educational leaders are firmly committed to detecting students at the first sign of concern for both major disorders of childhood: internalizing (e.g., extremely shy, anxious, withdrawn) and externalizing (e.g., noncompliant, aggressive, disruptive). Input from educators who have been engaged in the universal behavioral screening process contains valuable information that can help district and school leaders identify priority areas to allocate more resources and create future professional learning opportunities. This brief highlights results of an online survey of 165 leadership team members from 27 elementary schools representing five school districts from three geographic regions across the United States. All schools were at different stages of implementing an integrated tiered system of support. information is organized into four topics: (1) educators' general level of understanding of behavior screening practices; (2) perceived usability of behavior screening practices; (3) perceived strengths and barriers of universal behavior screening; and (4) priority directions for professional learning. Guiding questions and practical tips are provided for each topic for educators to consider. [For additional information on the full study, see EJ1349308.]