How are Secondary Interventions Implemented?

Secondary interventions are intended for those students who need more support than is provided by universal interventions. While these students benefit from explicit teaching and reinforcement of appropriate behaviors at the universal level, they continue to exhibit inappropriate behavior as evidenced by repeated office discipline referrals in a short period of time (e.g., 3 or more office discipline referrals in a month or marking period). The purpose of secondary interventions is to provide students behaviorally at-risk for increasingly restrictive interventions with additional structure, supports and instruction to 1) prevent them from exhibiting more intensive and pervasive behavior problems and 2) help them navigate their social environments successfully. Secondary interventions employ many of the same practices as individualized interventions (e.g., assessment, determination of function, proactive and instructional interventions) but are typically provided at a much less intensive level.

Core Features of Secondary Interventions

    •  Establishment of screening process and criteria to identify appropriate students

    •  Coordination and implementation typically occurs within the school's pre-referral 

        process (e.g., I&RS)

    •  Interventions that are function based (i.e., addresses why the student exhibits

        inappropriate behavior)

    •  Continual progress monitoring to make data-based decisions regarding the

        continuation, modification or cessation of the intervention

    •  Typically, uses a small group format but may also be provided individually

Examples of Secondary Interventions

Behavior Skills Support Program (BSSP) is a small group intervention that focuses on skill instruction, goal-setting and mentorship to facilitate socially appropriate behavior among students at-risk for developing chronic behavior problems.

Key Features of BSSP:

Assessment to intervention link : the BSSP includes brief staff and student questionnaires to assess the hypothesized function of student behavior (e.g., escape-motivated behavior, attention-motivated behavior)

Goal setting : students generate a personal goal plan in which they identify behavioral goals as well as strategies/skills they can use to achieve these goals. The skills taught often focus on social skills and include identifying emotions, relaxation strategies, problem-solving, social skills, and perspective taking.

Function-based skill instruction : using scripted lessons (typically six, 1 hour lessons in a series) skill selection and instruction are guided by an understanding of behavioral function. Scripted lessons include:

   Session 1: Introduction and Emotions

   Session 2: Triggers

   Session 3: Relaxation and Thinking Skills

   Session 4: Problem-Solving

   Session 5: Skills to Request Needs Appropriately

   Session 6: Requesting Needs Appropriately & Personal Goal Plan

Mentorship : provides students with positive adult interactions and ongoing behavioral support

Training on the BSSP :

Upcoming trainings on the BSSP are held at the Regional Learning Resource Centers. Dates and contact information for those trainings are posted on the Upcoming Events page of this website.

The Behavior Education Program (BEP) consists of a daily check-in/check-out system for students who engage in repeated problem behavior. The purpose of the BEP is to provide students with clearly defined behavioral expectations, frequent positive attention, immediate feedback and reinforcement about behavior, and prompts about expectations throughout the day.

Students briefly check-in at the beginning of the day with a staff member on the BEP team during which the student receives prompts to follow behavioral expectations and a Daily Progress Report. The Daily Progress Report is filled out by the student's teacher(s) at the end of an activity/subject (elementary school) or period (middle school) so the student is able to receive immediate feedback about their behavior. At the end of the day, the student checks-out with a BEP team member who briefly reviews the student's behavior for that day and delivers reinforcement to the student for achieving their behavior goal. Parents are provided with daily reports about student behavior to further reinforce appropriate behavior.

For more information about the BEP check out Crone, D. A., Horner, R. H., & Hawken, L. S. (2004). Responding to Problem Behavior in Schools: The Behavior Education Program. New York : Guilford Press. This manual provides instructions and guidelines for implementing the BEP.