Building Skills Related to Managing Emotions, Establishing and Maintaining Positive Relationships, and Responsible Decision-Making

Programs listed below help students develop the skills necessary to support student academic success. Skill-building lessons included in these programs help students gain the ability to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Programs and practices on this list help educators to boost conditions for learning in a school.  The list includes additional registries for deeper learning about evidence-based resources and practices.

Schools can help students build important personal-interpersonal-emotional-behavioral and responsible decision-making-related competencies through targeted classroom lessons or by developing schoolwide policies and practices infused into every part of the student’s daily school experience. Measures are available to help students and educators gauge progress.

Children’s emotions in school are connected to their learning and academic achievement.  There is a large and growing body of evidence as well as available programs to integrate into classrooms to teach these competencies.

Below are approved building skills related to managing emotions, establishing and maintaining positive relationships, and responsible decision-making trainings, frameworks, interventions, registries, and supplemental programs. Intended audiences and resource type definitions are also listed below.

Program Name (in ABC order with website hyperlink)

Description

Type of Resource

Audience

3 Bold Steps in Action

Activities and tools show how 3 Bold Steps can help create positive, lasting change to
    o prevents bullying,
    o promotes social emotional learning in early childhood,
    o promotes student mental health, and
    o prevents youth substance abuse

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

ACT on FACTS: Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention  

From the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide:

  • Two-hour online interactive training program, designed in a series of modules
  • Addresses responsibilities of educators in the process of identification and referral of potentially suicidal youth
  • Focuses on practical realities and challenges inherent in the school setting through various training formats
  • Program highlights four categories of youth who may be at elevated risk for suicide: youth involved in bullying, who self-identify as LGBTQ, identified as gifted and talented, and/or students returning to school after a suicide attempt 
  • Training includes optional content that addresses suicide in elementary and middle schools
  • Additional module includes the stories of individual survivors of suicide loss as well as a high school that experienced an episode of contagion
  • Focus in telling these stories is to highlight the importance of emphasizing resilience and protective factors after a loss event

Training

Educator

 PSC

SSS

 Administrator

 BHC

All Stars (v. 3)

  • School-based program for middle school students (11-14 years old) designed to prevent and delay the onset of high-risk behaviors such as drug use, violence, and premature sexual activity.
  • Focuses on five topics important to preventing high-risk behaviors: (1) developing positive ideals that do not fit with high-risk behavior; (2) creating a belief in conventional norms; (3) building strong personal commitments to avoid high-risk behaviors; (4) bonding with school, prosocial institutions, and family; and (5) increasing positive parental attentiveness such as positive communication and parental monitoring.
  • Curriculum includes highly interactive group activities, games and art projects, small group discussions, one-on-one sessions, a parent component, optional online activities and worksheets, and a celebration ceremony.
  • Consists of thirteen 45-minute class sessions delivered on a weekly basis.
  • All Stars Booster is an optional program designed to be delivered 1 year after the core program and includes nine 45-minute sessions reinforcing lessons learned in the previous year.
  • All Stars Plus includes twelve 45-minute lessons designed to expand instruction to include three additional topics--decision making, goal setting, and peer pressure resistance skills training--and is intended as an option for the third year of the intervention.
    Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

ASK about Suicide to Save a Life Gatekeeper Training

  • This program teaches people to do the following:
  • Understand suicide and suicidal behavior
  • Identify the risk and protective factors and warning signs
  • Apply basic suicide prevention skills (ask about suicide, know where and how to refer a person for help)
  • 1¼-hour video training that provides certification for teachers in Texas
  • 1-hour video training for informal settings where certification is not needed
  • 1½ to 4-hour workshops taught by certified trainers for community members and others
  • Virtual training now available
  • AS+K Advanced Training Fall 2020 will include specific, actionable steps to support school personnel; suggestions for involving parents and guardians in suicide prevention; tips for managing student re-entry after a mental health crisis; and guidance for addressing in-school suicide attempts and supporting the school community following a suicide loss

Training

Educator

 PSC

SSS

 Administrator

At-Risk (Kognito) Training

  • Interactive professional development program that uses virtual role-play to help school faculty, staff, and administrators learn common signs of psychological distress and how to approach an at-risk student for referral to the school counselor.
  • 1 hour on-line

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

 

Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development

  • Identifies, recommends, and disseminates practices/programs for youth, families and communities that, based on scientific evaluations, have strong evidence of effectiveness.
  • Practices/programs rated as either Promising, Model or Model Plus.
  • Provides interactive search function that enables you to search based on specific criteria and then browse through a wide range of practices/programs that match those criteria.
  • Each result will indicate the practice/program rating.

 

Registry

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Blues Program

  • The Blues Program is a school-based prevention program for adolescents with depressive symptoms or adolescents who are at risk of onset of major depression. 
  • The program is delivered by 1 or 2 Facilitators who are familiar with cognitive behavioral methods of prevention and treating depression.
  • The program is delivered to groups of 4-8 adolescents, in one-hour sessions over 6 weeks with home practice assignments included. 
  • Group sessions include: building group rapport, increasing participant involvement in pleasant activities, learning and practicing cognitive restricting techniques, and developing response plans in future life stressors. 
  • Please note, if a youth’s assessment reveals current major depression and/or serious suicidal ideation, he/she should be referred for appropriate treatment.

Intervention

BHC

PSC

Bounce Back

  • School-based group intervention for elementary students exposed to stressful and traumatic events.
  • Teaches students ways to cope with and recover from traumatic experiences, so they can get back to doing what they want to do and need to do.
  • Based on the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS).
  • Includes 10 group sessions, 1-3 group parent sessions, and 2-3 individual student sessions.
  • Appropriate for children and families of diverse ethnic and social backgrounds.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare

  • Mission of the CEBC is to advance the effective implementation of evidence-based practices for children and families involved with the child welfare system.
  • Searchable database of child welfare related programs.
  • Description and information on research evidence for specific programs.
  • Guidance on how to make critical decisions regarding selecting and implementing programs
  • Tools and materials to provide support for choosing, implementing and sustaining a program.

Registry

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Caring School Community

  • Caring School Community is a comprehensive, research-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program that builds school-wide community, develops students’ social skills and SEL competencies, and enables a transformative stance on discipline.
  • This CASEL SELect program promotes positive behavior through direct teaching of responsibility, empathy, and cooperation, creating settings where students feel heard, known, and cared for.
  • Students become intrinsically motivated to contribute productively to a community they feel invested in, and where they know they matter.
  • Caring School Community is built around the following principles:
  • A focus on the whole school community: Community must include everyone: students, parents, school leaders, teachers, custodians, cafeteria staff, yard supervisors, and support staff.
  • Relationships matter: Relationships underpin teaching, learning, and prosocial development. Building relationships and fostering a sense of community are hallmarks of the program.
  • Comprehensive leadership guidance: The program includes everything a leader needs for a successful implementation, including step-by-step guidance and resources to help plan for, launch, and support implementation.
  • A unique stance on discipline: No more gold stars. A focus on community, not compliance. Caring School Community builds on the powerful insight that when students have strong relationships within their community, they are more likely to acquire self-discipline and feel a sense of responsibility to themselves and to others.
  • A year’s worth of teacher-friendly, easy-to-implement, grade-specific instruction: A full 30 weeks of daily, grade-specific lessons across K–8 that only require 30 minutes a day, with a comprehensive scope and sequence to build relationships, social skills, and competencies intentionally over time.
  • Creating calm, orderly learning environments: Through consistent use of effective classroom management practices and structures that build relationships, the program helps teachers create calm, safe classrooms that are more conducive to learning.
  • Robust content for middle school: Grade 6–8 is not an afterthought. The program provides comprehensive Advisory Period lessons as well as guidance for integrating SEL across all subject areas. Lessons address developmentally appropriate and urgent topics for middle school.

Supplemental

Educator

PSC

SSS

 Administrator

CASEL Program Guides (Social Emotional Learning)

  • Provides a systematic framework to rate and identify well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs with potential for broad dissemination to schools across the United States.
  • The primary goal of the Guide is to give educators information for selecting and implementing SEL programs in their districts and schools.
  • 2015 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs—Middle and High School Edition:
  • Identifies school-based programs that have been evaluated with middle and high school students and that promote students’ personal and social competence.
  • Current best practice guidelines for education at the middle-school level recognize the diverse developmental needs of this age group and the importance of promoting both academic and personal development, including social and emotional competence.
  • The importance of SEL for high school is also growing considering its link to college and career readiness and dropout prevention.
  • The knowledge, skills, and attitudes within the CASEL five competency clusters are especially critical during adolescence because youth at this stage are going through rapid physical, emotional, and cognitive changes which create unique opportunities for personal and social skill development.
  • Adolescents also engage in more risky behavior than younger students and face a variety of challenging situations, including increased independence, peer pressure, and exposure to social media.
  • Longitudinal studies have shown that increased social and emotional competence is related to reductions in a variety of problem behaviors including aggression, delinquency, substance use, and dropout.

Registry

Educator

C.A.T. Project

  • A 16-session program for adolescents with anxiety.

Core Components:

  • Psychoeducation
  • Exposure tasks
  • Somatic management
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Problem solving
  • Weekly 50-minute sessions with homework each week.
  • Optional "Parent Companion" which informs the parent of preferred/optimal ways to respond to the anxious teen
  • Greater increases in number of children returning to within normal anxiety levels
  • Reductions in severity of anxiety at post-treatment
  • Greater likelihood of being in remission at follow up
  • Fewer problems with substance abuse at long-term follow up
  • Stronger therapeutic relationships predicted positive treatment outcome
  • Intervention combined with medication resulted in strongest gains

Intervention

BHC

CBITS – Cognitive-Based Intervention for Trauma in Schools

 

  • School-based, group and individual intervention.
  • Designed to reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and behavioral problems, and to improve functioning, grades and attendance, peer and parent support, and coping skills.

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Changemakers: A Social and Emotional Curriculum

  • Changemakers utilizes free-standing lessons and teaching practices to promote social emotional learning in students.
  • The Momentous Institute, whose mission is ‘working side by side with children, families, and communities to build and repair social emotional health,’ created Changemakers.
  • The program offers differentiated curricula for grade Prek-2. Each grade level curricula contains 35-52 lessons (depending on the grade) organized into sub-units (or 2-5 relating to five overarching themes: Safe Relationships, Self-regulation, Awareness of Self, Understanding Others, and Changemaker.
  • Each lesson is designed to last 20-30 minutes and the program recommends doing at least one lesson per week.
  • The curriculum’s overall aim is teaching kids the connection between their brains and their emotions, drawing from neuroscience, and utilizing a trauma-informed lens.
  • Each unit contains 2-3 lessons. Each unit is prefaced with a Teacher Practices section, providing a deep dive into the topics covered and instructional strategies to employ.
  • This section gives the teacher essential knowledge relating to the theory and purpose of a given unit.
  • Additionally, each unit provides an ‘Equity Lens’ or ‘Trauma Lens,’ giving teachers insight into how to customize/adjust lessons (and their general instruction) to be responsive to students’ past experiences and unique identities.
  • Each lesson divides itself into three sections: Present, Practice, and Process (wrapping up). Each lesson provides teacher scripts, activities for each section, and a list of needed materials.

Training

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Check and Connect

  • Check & Connect is an intervention used with K-12 students who show warning signs of disengagement with school and who are at risk of dropping out. At the core of Check & Connect is a trusting relationship between the student and a caring, trained mentor who both advocates for and challenges the student to keep education salient. Students are referred to Check & Connect when they show warning signs of disengaging from school, such as poor attendance, behavioral issues, and/or low grades.
  • In Check & Connect, the "Check" component refers to the process where mentors systematically monitor student performance variables (e.g., absences, tardies, behavioral referrals, grades), while the "Connect" component refers to mentors providing personalized, timely interventions to help students solve problems, build skills, and enhance competence.
  • Mentors work with caseloads of students and families for at least two years, functioning as liaisons between home and school and striving to build constructive family-school relationships.
  • Demonstrated outcomes of Check & Connect include:
  • decrease in truancy, tardies, behavior referrals, and dropout rates;
  • increase in attendance, persistence in school, credits accrued, and school completion; and
  • impact on literacy.

Intervention

Educator

PSC

SSS

 Administrator

BHC

Check In - Check Out

  • Improves student accountability
  • Increases structure
  • Improves student behavior and academics when other interventions have failed
  • Provides feedback and adult support on a daily basis
  • Improves and establishes daily home/school communication and collaboration
  • Improves student organization, motivation, incentive, and reward
  • Helps students to self-monitor and correct
  • Internalizes success and accomplishment of goals
  • Students get involved and excited about the program, enjoying the structure, support, and incentives of the intervention
  • Leads to maintenance free responsible behaviors, habits, and effort

Intervention

Educator

 PSC

SSS

Collaborative & Proactive Solutions

  • Non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care that is based on the premise that challenging behavior occurs when the expectations being placed on a student exceed the student’s capacity to respond accordingly.
  • Found to dramatically reduce discipline referrals, detentions, and suspensions in many schools.
    Technology for giving students practice at implementing problem solving skills.
  • Strengths-based, structured, and collaboratively measures progress using youth voice in the intervention.                     
  • According to the website, "There is no minimum educational requirement to become a provider.
  • For a clinician or educator to become certified in the CPS model, they must participate in a 24-week CPS training program. 
  • "The Lives in the Balance website has free resources to help learn about and apply the CPS approach, including streaming video, audio programming, support, and more.
  • Different types of workshops and trainings also exist.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Conscious Discipline

  • Early childhood program that aims to modify teacher and child behavior to create classrooms based on safety, connection, and problem solving.
  • Goal is to create a system-wide, relationship-based, community model for behavior management, called the “School Family”.
  • Promoted through program activities that involve intensive teacher training and self-study; coaching and continuing support for teachers as they deploy conceptual components in the classroom and model behaviors; and exposure of students to various social opportunities, including schoolwide opportunities and practice of skills.
  • Can participate in a 10-session online course, attend a 2-day workshop, or hold workshop at your school. There are also free resources on the website.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Coping Cat

  • A cognitive-behavioral treatment for children in grades 2nd through 8th with anxiety. The program incorporates 4 components:
  • Recognizing and understanding emotional and physical reactions to anxiety
  • Clarifying thoughts and feelings in anxious situations
  • Developing plans for effective coping
  • There is also a family (parents included) treatment section.
  • Weekly 50-minute sessions
  • 16 weeks with homework each week
  • Can be done in groups of 4-5
  • Greater increases in number of children returning to within normal anxiety levels
  • Reductions in severity of anxiety at post-treatment
  • Greater likelihood of being in remission at follow up
  • Fewer problems with substance abuse at long-term follow up
  • Stronger therapeutic relationships predicted positive treatment outcome
  • Intervention combined with medication resulted in strongest gains

Intervention

BHC

PSC

Coping Power

  • For transition from 5th to 6th grade
  • Targets students who are at risk for substance abuse
  • Emphasizes social and emotional skills needed during the transition to middle school

Designed to impact four variables:

  • lack of social competence
  • poor self-regulation and self-control
  • poor bonding with school
  • poor caregiver involvement with child

Child component:

  • 22 group sessions in 5thgrade
  • 12 group sessions in 6thgrade
  • 4 30-minute individual sessions once every two months

Parent component:

  • 11 group sessions during child’s 5thgrade year
  • 5 group sessions during child’s 5thgrade year
  • Reduced substance use
  • Reduced delinquent behavior
  • Reductions in aggressive behavior at home and at school
  • Reductions in aggressive behavior at school - South Southwest MHTTC (Region 6)
  • Improved social competence
  • Better Language Arts outcomes 2 years after completing the program (compared to children of similar risk status)

Intervention

BHC

 PSC

SUPS

Creating Lasting Family Connections

  • The CLFC Program builds family skills and knowledge related to how childhood experiences can influence our behaviors and beliefs as adults; the differences between thoughts, feelings and behaviors; the developmental stages of children; characteristics of healthy families; emotional awareness and healthy emotional expression; developing expectations and consequences in relationships; saying “no” to people we’re close to in a manner that preserves and/or strengthens our relationship with them; our experiences with alcohol while we were growing up; examining the differences between abstinence from alcohol use, drinking alcohol in low risk ways, becoming drunk and developing alcoholism; examining the possibility of drinking responsibly; the characteristics of positive, influential parents and adults; cultural influences on attitudes and behaviors related to alcohol use; how to recognize when someone may be having problems with alcohol (or other drugs); methods for the prevention of, intervention in, and treatment of the development of a substance addiction; how alcoholism affects families; and the view that any substance addiction (including alcoholism) is a disease.
  • It is a structured curriculum for youth ages 9-17 and their parents, guardians, and other family members to improve their ability to provide a nurturing environment for each other in a very effective and meaningful way.
  • Participating youth and adults are encouraged to improve their personal growth through increasing self-awareness, expression of feelings, interpersonal communication, and self-disclosure.
  • Participants are taught social skills, refusal skills, and appropriate knowledge and healthy beliefs about alcohol and drugs, which provide a strong defense against environmental risk factors that can lead to negative outcomes for youth.
  • Also provides parents and other caring adults with family management, family enhancement, and communications training.
  • All participants are provided opportunities to practice these skills in a safe, peer-group setting.

Supplemental

Educator

 PSC

 SSS

Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment (COPE)

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-based (CBT) programs designed to help children, teens and young adults dealing with anxiety, stress and depression by showing them how to develop the skills needed to stop negative thoughts and start thinking and behaving in more positive ways.
  • COPE2Thrive provides all-inclusive evidence-based programs (including instructor training and materials) delivered using standardized student manuals and concepts, ensuring that all components of CBT are covered with students
  • Offers two cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based, instructor-delivered programs (7- and 15-session) that are easily delivered (using age-focused student manual/workbook) by counselors, school nurses, and many teachers to students in either one-on-one or group sessions at primary and secondary schools, and colleges/universities.
  • Programs include all program materials, training for one instructor/teacher and five hard-copy student manuals/workbooks (additional manuals/workbooks available separately).
  • 3-hour on-line training.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Curriculum-Based Support Group (CBSG)

  •  Support group intervention designed to increase resiliency and reduce risk factors among children and youth ages 4-17 who are identified as being at elevated risk for early substance use and future delinquency and violence (e.g., they are living in adverse family situations, displaying observable gaps in coping and social skills, or displaying early indicators of antisocial attitudes and behaviors).
  • Based on cognitive-behavioral and competence-enhancement models of prevention, the CBSG Program teaches essential life skills and offers emotional support to help children and youth cope with difficult family situations; resist peer pressure; set and achieve goals; refuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; and reduce antisocial attitudes and rebellious behavior.
  • Delivered in 10-12 weekly, 1-hour support group sessions, the curriculum addresses topics such as self-concept, anger and other feelings, dreams and goal setting, healthy choices, friends, peer pressure, life challenges, family chemical dependency, and making a public commitment to staying drug free and true to life goals.
  • Lesson content and objectives are essentially the same for all participants but are tailored for age and developmental status.
  • Groups are formed with 6-10 participants no more than 2 years apart in age.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

 

 

 

 

Cyberbullying Research Center 

  • Information on cyberbullying for schools including identification, prevention and response.
    Recorded presentations on cyberbullying including Actionable Strategies for Administrators, and presentations for educators, students and parents.
  • Tips to prevent and address cyberbullying provided for educators. 
  • Tips provided for teens on cell phone safety.
  • Fact sheets provided for parents on what to do when your child is cyberbullied.
  • Information on case law and legislation along with visual mapping of state laws, including Texas bullying laws.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

  • Systematic therapy that organizes treatment into stages and goals, or targets.
  • Goals of the first stage of DBT focus on decreasing life-threatening behaviors, including addressing depression, suicidality, substance dependence, and PSTD.
  • Skills taught in DBT groups by a mental health professional and focus on improving behavioral, emotional, and cognitive instability.
  • DBT groups focus on the development of the following four skills: mindfulness meditation, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. 

Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Defiant Children by Russell Barkley, Ph.D.
 

  • Outlines strategies for parents and educators to recognize and apply positive interventions to reduce the behavioral symptoms related to Oppositional Defiance Disorder and other defiant related mental health struggles.
  • Each handbook contains educational tools, assessments, and evidenced based strategies to help parents, educators, and mental health professionals understand the causes of noncompliant, defiant, oppositional, or socially hostile behavior at home or in school; take systematic steps to reduce it; and reinforce positive change at home, school, and the community.
  • Several instructional editions available for educators, clinicians, and parents based on setting and child’s developmental age.
  • Recommended only for child clinical and school psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, nurses, & psychiatrists.

Supplemental

 

BHC
 

Defiant Teens by Russell Barkley, Ph.D.
Resource - Book

  • Outlines strategies for parents and educators to recognize and apply positive interventions to reduce the behavioral symptoms related to Oppositional Defiance Disorder and other defiant related mental health struggles.
  • Each handbook contains educational tools, assessments, and evidenced based strategies to help parents, educators, and mental health professionals understand the causes of noncompliant, defiant, oppositional, or socially hostile behavior at home or in school; take systematic steps to reduce it; and reinforce positive change at home, school, and the community.
  • Several instructional editions available for educators, clinicians, and parents based on setting and child’s developmental age.
  • Recommended only for child clinical and school psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers, nurses, & psychiatrists.

 

Supplemental


 BHC

DFPS Trauma Informed Care Training

  • • Training to assist families, caregivers and other social service providers in fostering greater understanding of trauma-informed care and child traumatic stress.
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.

Training

Educator

PSC

 SSS

 Administrator

Helping Traumatized Children Learn
Volume I: A report and Policy Agenda & Volume II: Creating and Advocating for Trauma Sensitive Schools

  • Volume 1 describes the impact of trauma on learning and summarizes the research from psychology and neurobiology that documents the impact trauma from exposure to violence can have on children’s learning, behavior, and relationships in school.
  • Report also introduces the Flexible Framework, a tool organized according to six core operational functions for schools that can help any school create a trauma-sensitive learning environment for all children.
  • Volume 2 offers a guide to a process for creating trauma-sensitive schools.
    This material is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.
  • These volumes provide detailed information on trauma sensitive schools and teach how to implement a trauma sensitive school framework.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

HOPE Squads

  • School-based peer support team that partners with local mental health agencies.
  • Peers select students who are trustworthy and caring individuals to join the Hope Squad.
  • Squad members are trained to watch for at-risk students, provide friendship, identify suicide-warning signs, and seek help from adults.
    NOT taught to act as counselors, but are educated on recognizing suicide warning signs and how to properly and respectfully report concerns to an adult.
  • Students must get a permission form signed by their parents and go through training after being invited to be a member.
    The goal is to reduce self-destructive behavior and youth suicide by training, building, and creating change in schools and communities.
  • The objectives are to:
       o Train students and staff in schools to recognize suicide-warning signs and act upon those warnings to break the code of silence.
       o Train students and staff to identify adolescents with undetected, untreated, or emerging mental disorders.
       o Build positive relationships among peers and faculty in schools to facilitate acceptance for students seeking help.
       o Build strong relationships with local mental health agencies and communities while educating students, parents, and school staff about available community mental health resources.
       o Change the school culture regarding suicide by reducing stigmas about suicide and mental health.
       o Change community perceptions of mental health by creating awareness about suicide and the tools available to prevent suicide
  • 6 hr. in person training for Advisors; 2-3 hr. training for students.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

I Can Problem Solve

  • Universal school-based program designed to enhance the interpersonal cognitive processes and problem-solving skills of children.
  • Proven to prevent and reduce early high-risk behaviors such as impulsivity and social withdrawal, and to promote prosocial behaviors such as concern for others and positive peer relationships.
  • Lessons speak to children on their own level, using games, stories, puppets, illustrations, and role-plays.
  • Key program principle is that the child, not the teacher, must solve the problem at hand; therefore, it teaches children how to think, not what to think.
  • The Center for Schools and Communities provides training and consultation for schools, facilities, or organizations nationwide.
  • Book describing social and emotional learning program.
  • Organization also provides training and technical assistance.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Leader in Me

  • Leader in Me endorsed by CASEL. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a renowned authority on the promotion and practice of social and emotional skills. In particular, their work promotes the integration of academic, social, and emotional learning for students from pre-K through grade 12.
  • Through their collaborative work with researchers and educators, CASEL has identified five core social-emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
  • These competencies directly align with the components of the social emotional learning as required by the Texas Health and Safety Code Section 161.325.  
  • The skills of social and emotional learning (SEL) are foundational to a successful life and career.
  • When these skills are applied in social contexts, they promote successful self-management, communication, collaboration, and meaningful, high-trust relationships. When applied in educational settings, social and emotional skills strengthen effective learning by developing vital skills such as responsibility, resilience, focus, goal-setting, prioritization, empathy, communication, collaboration, and motivation.   The end in mind is to develop leadership competence in students, starting with Leading Self then Leading Others.   The Student Leadership Portrait is comprised of twelve competencies across four leadership domains.  
  • The six competencies of Personal Effectiveness and Interpersonal Effectiveness are at the heart of life-ready leadership, and broadly represent.  As a student develops SEL competencies, aligned to each of the 7 Habits, their ability to apply them to both their life and academic pursuits expands.
  • When paired with an empowering school environment (physical and emotional), along with student voice, student choice, and student-led learning, leadership competencies transform into lifelong skills for success.
  • This further development is represented in the Leading Self and Leading Others domains.  

Training

Framework

Educator

SSS

PSC
Administrator

BHC

Lessons in Character

  • Designed to promote elementary and middle school students’ knowledge about core character education values and, through that knowledge, shape children’s positive behaviors and support academic success.
  • Consists of 24 lessons organized around weekly themes, writing activities, and class projects.
  • Teachers introduce the theme with a story that shows a value in action; students then engage in that topic with a variety of activities.
  • Also includes daily oral language development and weekly writing assignments which are optional parts of the program’s implementation.
  • 1-day training; 24 class lessons

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Life Skills Training (LST)

  • Evidence-based substance use and misuse, and violence prevention program used in schools and communities throughout the US and in 39 countries around the world.
  • Extensively tested and proven to reduce tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use by as much as 80%.
  • Long-term follow-up studies show that it produces prevention effects that are durable and long-lasting.
  • Main goals are to teach prevention-related information, promote anti-drug norms, teach drug refusal skills, and foster the development of personal self-management skills and general social skills.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Lions Quest, Skills for Adolescence

  • Lions Quest programs are built on the foundation of an educational approach known as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
  • Lions Quest programs support, encourage, and celebrate diversity. The programs guide students to learn the social, emotional, and thinking skills they will need in a safe and supportive environment.
  • Lions Quest programs offer a comprehensive and coordinated approach to prevention that creates the conditions and teaches the skills to prevent risky behaviors while cultivating positive social behaviors.
  • Lions Quest helps provide protective factors by creating a strong connection to school, involving parents in the lives of their children, and helping students gain the knowledge, skill, and commitment to make healthy choices when they face pressure to use alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. Unit 4 of Lions Quest focuses more specifically on the elements that research consistently identifies as critical to preventing adolescent drug use.

These elements are:

  • Normative beliefs and personal commitments: to recognize that using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is not the norm among young people, and to have a personal commitment not to use drugs.
  • Social Influences – to recognize the internal and external pressures that influence drug, alcohol, and tobacco use and to have positive peer pressure and support for non-use.
  • Resistance skills and other emotional/social competencies – to have the self-management, problem-solving, stress reduction and assertiveness/refusal skills that help prevent drug use.
  • Expectations of drug effect – to have accurate, age-appropriate information about the short and long-term impact of drug use on a young person’s health, friendships, interests, and future goals.
  • Bonding and pro-social peers and caring adults – to have positive commitments, constructive role models, and supportive, friends, family and community members who reinforce key prevention concepts and skills.

Supplemental

Educator

PSC

 SSS Administrator

Mental Health America

  • Aims to increase emotional intelligence and self-regulation through materials for parents, school personnel, and students.
  • Prevention and Early Intervention page includes information on genetics and brain development, risk and protective factors, statistics, fact sheets on prevention and early intervention, links to programs, strategies, research and Webinar recordings.
  • Includes posters, media materials, handouts, social media, and web content for youth and adults easily linked to and shared in electronic newsletters and over social media.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)

  • Teaches individuals who work or live with adolescents (ages 12 - 18) how to help these youth when they experience a mental health or substance use crisis.
  • Training includes identifying risk factors and warning signs of mental health and substance use problems that may start in adolescence; information on a 5-step action plan to help someone in crisis; and where to turn for help – professional, peer, and self-help resources.
  • Teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.

Adult Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA)

  • Teaches individuals how to help someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
  • Training includes identifying risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems; information on depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and addiction disorders; a 5-step action plan to help someone developing a mental health problem or in crisis; and where to turn for help – professional, peer, and self-help resources.
  • Teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.       

Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA)

  • This in-person training teaches high school students about common mental health challenges and what they can do to support their own mental health and help a friend who is struggling.
  • It’s equipping young people with the knowledge and skills they need to foster their own wellness and to support each other
  • It is designed to be delivered in schools or community sites in three interactive classroom sessions of 90 minutes each or six sessions of 45 minutes each.

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC)

  • Website that offers array of numerous mental and behavioral health trainings and educational aides to better improve the knowledge of mental health professionals, educators, and agencies.
  • Offers webinars and community-based opportunities to fulfill subject matter interest and required trainings for agencies.
  • Maintains a culturally and linguistic competent approach to all offered trainings.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Midwest PBIS  - Trauma Informed Schools

  •  Understanding how trauma impacts performance in the educational setting can change how we interact with our most vulnerable youth.
  • Training will build participant’s fluency in defining trauma, describing how trauma may look in the classroom, discussing how trauma can affect student development and impact learning, and how to assess current school-wide and classroom systems with a trauma informed lens.
  • Participants in this training should engage in the professional learning necessary to install and coach utilizing a trauma-informed lens in a systemic, efficient, and effective way.
  • This will include:  1) providing professional development to school staff, 2) supporting assessment of school-wide and classroom systems and practices, and 3) supporting action planning for trauma-informed school and classroom data, systems and practices.

Training

Educator

PSC

SSS

 Administrator

NAMI - Ending the Silence

  • Engaging presentations that help audience members learn about the warning signs of mental health conditions and what steps to take if you or a loved one are showing symptoms of a mental health conditions.
  • Presentations include two leaders: one who shares an informative presentation and a young adult with a mental health condition who shares their journey of recovery.
  • 50-minute presentation designed for middle and high school students that includes warning signs, facts and statistics and how to get help for themselves or a friend
  • 1-hour presentation for school staff members that includes information about warning signs, facts and statistics, how to approach students and how to work with families.
  • 50-minute presentation for students; 1-hr. presentation for staff, parents.

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

National Association of School Psychologists - Online Resources and Publications

  • Website provides handouts for parents and teachers which contain up-to-date information and proven, solutions-based strategies for home and classroom applications.
  • All handouts are taken from Helping Children at Home and School III, which contains over 280 total handouts contributed by leading experts and experienced professionals.
  • Length of time varies

Supplemental

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator


 

National Child Traumatic Stress Network

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Office of Juvenile Justice Prevention

  • Model Programs Guide (MPG) contains information about evidence-based juvenile justice and youth prevention, intervention, and reentry practices/programs.
  • Resource for practitioners and communities about what works, what is promising, and what does not work in juvenile justice, delinquency prevention, and schools.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Olweus Bullying Program

  • Multicomponent program aimed at preventing or reducing bullying among middle school students.
  • Provides comprehensive framework focused on systemic change to create a safe and positive school climate.
  • Utilizes online courses, web conferences and in-person program implementation seminars.
    Interactive programs provide key information about bullying, cyber bullying, and dating violence, and explain how schools, community organizations, and parents can create safe, healthy environments.
  • Trained members make it possible to sustain program by training new staff members year after year.
  • 2 day in-person training; website does have some tip sheets which are FREE as well as online trainings.

Framework

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

PAX Good Behavior Game

  • Classroom based system that teachers use to teach skills for self-regulation, co-regulation, and self-control during any school or after school activity.
  • Builds self-regulation in young people by creating shared classroom/school purpose and vision with adults and peers to create more peace, productivity, health and happiness.
  • Students work together—reinforcing desirable behaviors (called PAX) and inhibiting unwanted behaviors (called Spleems).
  • Students build skills to increase their pro-social behavior and self-regulation, paving the way for better immediate and lifetime academic, behavioral/health, and positive lifetime outcomes.
  • Develops and strengthens peer networks to improve relationships now and in the future, with lower risk of self-harm or harm to others.
  • Provides teachers and administrators with practical tiered-intervention strategies to implement PBIS in the classroom.
  • Length of training unknown.

 

 

Intervention

Training

 

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Peer Assistance and Leadership (PAL)

  • Peer helping program that seeks to build resiliency in youth by pairing youth with peer helpers who receive training and support from teachers participating in the program.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Positive Action (PA)

  • Aims to promote character development, academic achievement, and social-emotional skills, and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior.
  • Based on the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you think and do positive actions, and there is always a positive way to do everything.
  • Lessons are scripted and use classroom discussion, role-play, games, songs, and activity sheets or text booklets.
  • Optional components include site-wide climate development; drug education for grade 5 and middle school; conflict resolution; counselor, parent, and family classes; and community/coalition components.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

Tiered Interventions Using Evidence-Based Research (TIER)

  • TIER provides information, modules  and resources on pathways to implement multi-tiered systems of support; including Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) Inter-connected framework for mental health.
  • It is is an operational framework for achieving academic and behavior outcomes for all students.
  • Ensures all students have access to effective and accurate instructional and behavioral practices as well as interventions.
  • Is a decision-making framework using data to guide selection, integration, and implementation of evidence-based academic and behavior best practices.
  • This practice framework is specifically designed to educate about PBIS.
  • This schoolwide framework includes practices that are delivered by school personnel, including in the classroom.

Framework

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

 

Positive School Discipline 

  • Comprehensive approach that uses discipline to teach rather than punish and, as a result, helps students succeed and thrive in school.
  • Promotes positive student behavior while preventing negative and risky behaviors.
  • Integrated into the policies, programs, and practices of a school and applied system-wide—in the classroom, school, and community—to create a safe, supportive learning environment for all students. 
  • Helps guide school leaders to create an environment where students can learn and thrive.
  • Team User’s Guide for group learning among leaders within a school or district.
  • This is a school-wide practice-framework.
  • Self-paced, interactive course for school leaders.

Framework

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Prevent Cyberbullying  

  • Provides information and strategies for schools on cyberbullying regarding: awareness, warning signs that a child is being cyberbullied or is cyberbullying others, and what to do when cyberbullying happens. 
  • Includes prevention strategies for establishing policies, engaging parents, students and the community in prevention. 
  • Guidance is provided to build a safe environment at school, including a recommendation for PBIS strategies to reward students when they show thoughtfulness and respect for peers, adults and the school.
  • A searchable database includes resources for bully prevention tips, facts, campaigns and curriculum for both bullying and cyberbullying.
  • Length of time varies.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Preventing Bullying

  • General Topics include: School and Community Prevention and Intervention, Cyberbullying, and Preventing Bullying in Early Childhood.
  • Create an action plan based on who you are (parents, educators, community partners), topic chosen (understanding, prevention, intervention), and specialty (School and community prevention and intervention, Preventing Bullying in Early Childhood, Cyberbullying).
  • Website includes tools, articles, handouts.

Supplemental

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Project Toward No Drug Abuse (PTND)

  • Drug use prevention program for high school youth.
  • Designed to help students develop self-control and communication skills, acquire resources that help them resist drug use, improve decision making strategies, and develop the motivation to not use drugs.
  • Packaged in 12 40-minute interactive sessions.
  • Curriculum was developed for high-risk students in continuation or alternative high schools.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies - PATHS

  • The PATHS® curriculum is a comprehensive program for promoting emotional and social competencies and reducing aggression and behavior problems in elementary school-aged children while simultaneously enhancing the educational process in the classroom.
  • This innovative curriculum is designed to be used by educators and counselors in a multi-year, universal prevention model.
  • Although primarily focused on the school and classroom settings, information and activities are also included for use with parents.
  • Over the past 35 years, more than 40 published research studies (by ourselves and others, both nationally and internationally) have documented the effectiveness of the PATHS® program.
  • A wide variety of results has consistently shown improvements in seven major goals of education needed for the development of healthy, happy children and future adults:
  • Improved academic achievement.
  • Decreased emotional suffering & behavioral problems
  • Increased happiness, health, and emotional well-being
  • Improved emotional literacy, self-control, & problem-solving skills
  • Healthy relationships and social skills
  • Preparation for the future: Workforce
  • Skills for the future: Life satisfaction, good health, & citizenship

Intervention

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Psychological First Aid (PFA) for Schools – Field Operations Guide

  • Evidence-informed intervention model for assisting children, adolescents, adults, and families in the aftermath of a school crisis, disaster, or terrorism event. 
  • Designed to reduce the initial distress caused by emergencies, disasters and critical incidents (e.g. school violence), and to foster short- and long-term adaptive functioning and coping. 
  • Potential to mitigate the development of severe mental health problems or long-term difficulties in recovery by identifying individuals who may need additional services and linking them to such services as need.
  • Contact your ESC or the School Safety Center to arrange for training.

Intervention

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Putting Positive Youth Development into Practice: A resource guide

  • This resource guide presents the principles of positive youth development and was published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the Family and Youth Services Bureau.
  • Length of time varies.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

QuaverSEL

 

  • Fully online curriculum easily accessible in the classroom or at home for distance learning.
  • Teachers can create assignments and student accounts for online learning.

Intervention

Educator

PSC

SSS

Reconnecting Youth

  • Reconnecting Youth (RY) is an award-winning, prevention program that helps at-risk youth achieve in school and decrease their drug use, anger, depression, and emotional distress.
  • Designed as a semester-long class offered for school credit, the RY curriculum focuses on skills training within the context of a peer group and adult support.

RY Program Goals

  • Increased School Performance
    Decreased Drug Involvement
  • Decreased Emotional Distress

The RY curriculum:

  • There are 75 lessons in the RY curriculum. It is typically offered as a semester-long, for-credit class by a teacher/facilitator who works well with youth at risk and who is trained to implement the RY program.
  • Social and School Bonding Activities:
    An important component of the RY Program is increasing RY student involvement in healthy social activities and engaging them in activities that increase bonding to their school. The curriculum describes a variety of ways this can be done.
    The RY School Crisis Response Plan prepares school staff members 1) to identify and respond to students who are suicidal and 2) to respond, if necessary, with post-suicide intervention strategies.

Supplemental

Educator

 PSC

SSS

Administrator

Responding in Peaceful Positive Ways - RiPP

  • (RiPP) is a school-based violence prevention program designed to provide students ages 10–14 in middle and junior high schools with conflict resolution strategies and skills.
  • RiPP is designed to be implemented along with a peer mediation program. It combines a classroom curriculum of social/cognitive problem solving with real-life skill-building opportunities.
  • Students learn to apply critical-thinking skills and personal management strategies to personal health and well-being issues.
  • Delivered over the school year, RiPP teaches key concepts that include:
  • The importance of significant friends or adult mentors.
  • The relationship between self-image and gang-related behaviors.
  • The effects of environmental influences on personal health.
  • Using a variety of lessons and activities, students learn about the physical and mental development that occurs during adolescence, how to analyze the consequences of personal choices on health and well-being, learn that they have nonviolent options when conflicts arise, and experience the benefits of being a positive family and community role model.
  • Multiple studies reported benefits in self-reported experience of violent and aggressive behavior for students who received RiPP compared with peers who did not receive the intervention, including:
  • Lower rates of being injured in a fight in the past 30 days in which the injuries required medical attention
  • Higher rates of participation in peer mediation
  • Among girls only, lower rates of threatening to hurt a teacher
  • Among 7th-grade RiPP participants, less frequent violent behavior at 6-month follow-up
  • Lower frequency of physical aggression, despite the observation that both RiPP participants and their peers demonstrated an increase in problem behaviors over time
  • At 9-month follow-up, reduced rates of bringing a weapon to school, threatening someone with a weapon, and sustaining fight-related injuries in the pas 30 days

Intervention

Educator

PSC

SSS

 Administrator

Restorative Justice / Restorative Practices

  • Trauma-informed practice that fosters belonging over exclusion, social engagement over control, and meaningful accountability over punishment.
  • Integrating Positive and Restorative Practices to Supporting Student Behavior, a training available at the 20 ESCs, has been designed to help schools develop Restorative Discipline practices within a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports framework.
  • Restorative Discipline Practices (RDP) in Texas began in the Fall of 2015. The Texas Education Agency partnered with the Institute for Restorative Justice and Restorative Dialogue at The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work to participate in a statewide roll out.
  • This is a school-wide practice-framework that involves training.

 

Framework

Training

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Ripple Effects

Strengths-based assessment tools

  • Digital planning tools
  • Multi-tiered learner-directed skill building
  • Data tracking tools embedded
  • PK-12
  • Can be implemented by paraprofessionals

Outcomes

  • Reduced school suspensions
  • Greater high school retention
  • Greater attendance
  • Improved GPA
  • Reduced depression
  • Greater empathy
  • Improved problem solving

Intervention

Educator

PSC

SSS

 

Road to Recovery: Supporting Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Who Have Experienced Trauma 

  • Training from NCTSN that provides an overview for providers on how to work with children and families who are living with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD) who have experienced trauma.
  • Toolkit consists of a Facilitator Guide and a Participant Manual which are designed to teach basic knowledge, skills, and values about working with children with IDD who have had traumatic experiences, and how to use this knowledge to support children’s safety, well-being, happiness, and recovery through trauma-informed practice.
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care and individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
  • 2 day in-person training; website does have some tip sheets which are FREE as well as online trainings.

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Safe Schools

  • Completely automates your staff and student training. 
  • Access high quality courses on important school safety topics by leading experts. 
    Implementation is fast and easy and your subscription-based system can be set up in just a few hours.
  • Our courses are written specifically for school staff members and students.
  • An annual subscription includes access to hundreds of school safety courses, written by industry experts.
  • Length of training varies.
  • *This training platform may include BSME depending on the products purchased by LEAs.

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

SAMHSA Programs

  • Offer information, training, and technical assistance to improve the quality and delivery of behavioral health services across the nation.

 

Supplemental

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrator

Sanford Harmony

  • Available at no cost, Sanford Harmony is a social emotional learning program for Pre-K-6 grade students designed to foster intergender communication and understanding, connection, and community both in and outside the classroom and develop boys and girls into compassionate and caring adults.
  • Online Learning Portal provides Pre-K-6 grade teachers with everything you need to successfully integrate our social emotional learning program into your classroom, including one-click navigation for all classroom activities, SEL stories, role-playing games and sing-along songs
  • Online training, on demand training, live training webinars, community discussion forum

Training

 

Supplemental

 

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrator

 

School Climate Improvement Resource Package 

  • The way students, families, teachers, and other school staff experience the school and school-related activities affects student attendance, learning, and achievement.
  • Provides district and school leaders, teachers, school staff, and other members of the school community with the basics on how to initiate, implement, and sustain school climate improvements.
  • Length of time for school-wide implementation varies.

Supplemental

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

School Climate Practice 

  • Website includes a resource center with briefs, tools, case studies, and effective practices for building and sustaining a positive school climate.
    Information available on measuring school climate and access to a comprehensive school climate inventory.
  • The center provides a school climate building process that is integrated with social and emotional learning, bully prevention and diversity inclusion best practices.
  • Length of time for school-wide implementation varies.

Supplemental

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

School Climate Survey 

  • U.S. Department of Education (ED) provides survey with reports to guide initiatives designed to measure and strengthen a positive school climate.
  • School climate is measured across three domains including: Engagement, Safety and Environment. 
    Items assessed within the domains include: Cultural and Linguistic Competence, Relationships, School Participation, Emotional Safety, Physical Safety, Bullying/Cyberbullying, Substance Abuse, Emergency Preparedness/Management, Physical Environment, Instructional Environment, Physical Health, Mental Health and Discipline.
  • Surveys are available for engaging stakeholders in the process including educators, community members, parents and students.
  • Length of time for school-wide implementation varies

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Second Step Suite

  • Provides instruction in social and emotional learning with units on skills for learning, empathy, emotion management, friendship skills, and problem solving.
  • Includes bully prevention and child protection modules and has a strong evidence-base for increased positive behavior, reduced conduct problems, reduced emotional distress, improved social and emotional skill performance.
  • Contains separate sets of lessons for use in prekindergarten through eighth grade implemented in 22 to 28 weeks each year.
  • Uses four key strategies to reinforce skill development: brain builder games (to build executive function), weekly theme activities, reinforcing activities, and home links in English and Spanish.
  • Tools are available for administrators for embedding SEL concepts into school policies to sustain a culture of caring, learning and achievement.
  • Lessons implemented over a period of 22 to 28 weeks each year.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Signs of Suicide - SOS

  • Universal, school-based prevention program designed for middle and high school students
  • Goals are to:
    • Decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression
    • Encourage personal help-seeking and/or help-seeking on behalf of a friend
    • Reduce the stigma of mental illness and acknowledge the importance of seeking help or treatment
    • Engage parents and school staff as partners in prevention through “gatekeeper” education
    • Encourage schools to develop community-based partnerships to support student mental health
  • Through a video and guided discussion, students learn to identify warning signs of suicide and depression in a single class period.
  • At the end of the session, students complete a seven-question screening for depression (anonymous or signed –the school can decide) to further encourage help-seeking and connect students at risk with trusted adults.
  • The curriculum raises awareness about behavioral health and encourages students to ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) when worried about themselves or their peers.

Training

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Soar With Wings

  • BSME curriculum includes digital lesson bundles, video resources and home connections.
  • Program that seems to align closely with trauma sensitive schools.
  • Focus on relationships, community, emotional regulation, positive behavior management, decision making, giving and receiving feedback, conflict resolution, and empathy.

Training

Supplemental

Educator

PSC

SSS

Social Programs that Work

  • Site seeks to identify those social programs shown in rigorous studies to produce sizable, sustained benefits to participants and/or society, so that they can be deployed to help solve social problems.
  • The specific purpose is to enable policy officials and other readers to distinguish credible findings of program effectiveness from the many others that claim to be.
  • Site focuses on the results of well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which are widely regarded as the strongest method of evaluating program effectiveness.
  • Site identifies programs that, based on careful review of the studies in consultation with outside experts, meet the criteria for “Top Tier,” “Near Top Tier,” or “Suggestive Tier.”
  • Length of time varies by resource.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

BHC

Administrator

Starr Commonwealth Training on Trauma Informed Care and Resiliency

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program

  • Schoolwide intervention designed to prevent bullying behavior and counter the personal and social effects of bullying where it occurs by promoting a positive school climate.
  • The program aims to:
    increase school staff's awareness and responsiveness to bullying situations,
    foster socially responsible beliefs among students,
    enhance social and emotional skills to counter bullying and to promote healthy relationships,
    promote actions (e.g., joining groups, resolving conflict) associated with general social competence, and
    reduce bullying (and related problems) and improve positive bystander behavior.
  • The program has three components: schoolwide program guide, staff training and classroom curriculum.
  • Schoolwide Practice.
  • Includes in-person training, at the minimum 3 hours.

Framework

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

 

Strengthening Families - 14 sessions (SFP 6 - 16)

  • Family skills training program designed to increase resilience and reduce risk factors for behavioral, emotional, academic, and social problems in children 3-16 years old.
  • Comprises three life-skills courses delivered in 14 weekly, 2-hour sessions.
  • Parenting Skills sessions are designed to help parents learn to increase desired behaviors in children by using attention and rewards, clear communication, effective discipline, substance use education, problem solving, and limit setting.
  • Children's Life Skills sessions are designed to help children learn effective communication, understand their feelings, improve social and problem-solving skills, resist peer pressure, understand the consequences of substance use, and comply with parental rules.
  • In the Family Life Skills sessions, families engage in structured family activities, practice therapeutic child play, conduct family meetings, learn communication skills, practice effective discipline, reinforce positive behaviors in each other, and plan family activities together.
  • Participation in ongoing family support groups and booster Family focused program. 
  • Groups of Parents and Youths are each involved simultaneously in their own separate youth and adult curricula lasting for 14 sessions.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Strengthening Families - 7 video sessions (SFP 10-14)

  • Family skills training intervention designed to enhance school success and reduce youth substance use and aggression among 10- to 14-year-olds.
  • Theoretically based on several etiological and intervention models including the biopsychosocial vulnerability, resiliency, and family process models.
  • Includes seven 2-hour sessions and four optional booster sessions in which parents and youth meet separately for instruction during the first hour and together for family activities during the second hour.
  • Sessions provide instruction for parents on understanding the risk factors for substance use, enhancing parent-child bonding, monitoring compliance with parental guidelines and imposing appropriate consequences, managing anger and family conflict, and fostering positive child involvement in family tasks.
  •  hildren receive instruction on resisting peer influences to use substances.
  • Sessions are typically held once a week. 
    Family focused Youth Prevention Universal program.
  • Groups of Parents and Youth are each involved simultaneously in their own separate youth and adult curricula lasting for 7 sessions.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Student Success Skills

  • Student Success Skills (SSS) is a school counselor led program based on the principle that students can improve academically when surrounded by a supportive environment that involves skill-building activities in self-management, prosocial behaviors, and cognition. It is a humanistic approach to school counseling that focuses on the following areas:
  • (1) cognitive factors, including memory and learning processes,
  • (2) attitudinal skills,
  • (3) self-regulation and metacognitive abilities,
  • (4) behavioral strategies and goals, and
  • (5) social skills training.
  • Significant Positive Findings: reduced problem behaviors, increased cooperation, reduced bullying, reduced anxiety, improved impulse control, improved motivation

Intervention

PSC

Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) - Schools

  • Why Address Suicide Prevention - 
       o Maintaining a safe school environment is part of your school's overall mission.
       o Students' mental health can affect how well they perform in school.
       o Suicide can affect the entire school community. How Schools Can Take Action - 
       o The best way to prevent suicide is to use a comprehensive approach that includes these key components:
       o Promote emotional well-being and connectedness among all students.
       o Identify students who may be at risk for suicide and assist them in getting help.
       o Be prepared to respond when a suicide death occurs.
  • Learn More -
       o See the Recommended Resources below selected by SPRC personnel.
       o See All Resources Related to Schools for a full list of materials, programs, trainings, and other information available from SPRC. Use the filters on the left to narrow your results.
       o For more on other settings and groups, see our Settings and Populations pages.
  • Multiple resources - fact sheets, programs, practices, trainings.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrator

Texas Behavior Support Initiative Training

  • The Texas Behavior Support Initiative (TBSI) training is a state-level training mandated by Senate Bill 1196 and the Texas Administrative Code §89.1053.
  • TBSI training is designed to provide foundational knowledge for the use of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) for all students, including those with disabilities.
  • While the TBSI training meets legislative requirements related to procedures for the use of restraint and time-out, it also provides a framework for sharing a wide range of foundation-level behavior strategies and prevention-based school-wide, classroom, and individual interventions.
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about PBIS.
  • On-line, self-paced courses

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC)

  • Official university-level research center at Texas State University.
  • Serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of safety and security information through research, training, and technical assistance for K-12 schools and junior colleges throughout the state of Texas.
  • Also builds partnerships among youth, adults, schools, law enforcement officers, and community stakeholders to reduce the impact of tobacco on all Texans through prevention, training and enforcement initiatives.

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrator

The Four Pillars of Wellbeing

  • The Contentment Foundation has created a universal, evidence-based, whole-school transformation that supports the mental health of entire communities from the inside out.
  • Digital platform and live trainings empower large educational systems and the families who surround them to create safer, healthier, and more psychologically-well environments worldwide.
  • The Four Pillars of Wellbeing is scientifically evidenced to improve school performance and safety metrics across the board - reductions in bullying, increased teacher retention, improved academic performance, and reduced anxiety and stress are common outcomes of our program.
  • Additionally, provides analytics systems that allow entire nations to track, monitor, and successfully implement wellness interventions with every stakeholder in the school ecosystem - teachers, students, staff, and families.  

Training

Supplemental

 

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrator

The 7 Mindsets Social and Emotional Solution

  • The 7 Mindsets are based on a 3-year study resulting in the writing of the 7 Mindsets book and the development of an online Social and Emotional solution for elementary, middle, and high school students.
  • The 7 Mindsets have been designed to promote self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making in students.
  • Web-based social and emotional curriculum
  • Professional development offerings

Intervention

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

SUPS

BHC

Administrator

The Emotional Backpack Project

  • Education and awareness program led by the Center for School Behavioral Health at Mental Health America of Greater Houston.
  • Teaches educators, children, and parents about protecting their mental health so that every child feels supported and able to come to school ready to learn.
  • Training modules, lesson plans, and activities implemented by 2 Emotional Backpack Leaders selected by participating schools who participate in train-the-trainer learning sessions and implement modules on youth mental health signs and symptoms, trauma informed classrooms, advanced trauma-informed teaching practices, self-care and suicide prevention throughout school year.
  • Emotional Backpack Leaders receive certification after completing the training allowing for continued implementation in subsequent years and providing a cost-effective way to train other campus personnel as Leaders.
  • Emotional Backpack Leaders will receive technical support and coaching throughout the entire school year.
  • Training modules fulfill TEA requirements for mental health and suicide prevention training.
  • Year-long program; school orientation (2 hrs), summer training (8 hrs), winter training (4 hrs).

Training

Educator

PSC

SSS

 Administrator

The Heart of Learning: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success

  • Handbook for teachers written and compiled by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Western Washington University staff.
  • Contains valuable information that will be helpful when working with students whose learning has been adversely impacted by trauma in their lives.
  • This resource is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.
  • Free pdf download handbook

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

The Incredible Years

  • Set of three interlocking, comprehensive, and developmentally based training programs for children and their parents and teachers.
  • Child program designed for children with challenging behaviors and focuses on building social and emotional skills.
  • Lessons can be delivered to children referred for difficult behavior or to an entire classroom as a preventative measure.
  • Program consists of 20- to 30-minute lessons, 2-3 times a week, which are reinforced by small-group activities, practicing skills throughout the day, and communicating with parents.
  • Lessons cover recognizing and understanding feelings, getting along with friends, anger management, problem solving, and behavior at school.
  • Parent training programs focus on positive discipline, promoting learning and development, and involvement in children’s life at school.
  • Program focuses on strengthening teachers' classroom management strategies; promoting children's prosocial behavior, emotional self-regulation, and school readiness; and reducing children's classroom aggression and noncooperation with peers and teachers.
  • Also helps teachers collaborate with parents to support parents' school involvement and promote consistency between home and school.
  • A required teacher training program is delivered to early childhood and elementary school teachers of young children (3-8 years) and consists of 42 hours (6 days) of monthly workshops delivered by a trained facilitator.

Intervention

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

The Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF)

  • A structure and process to integrate Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and School Mental Health (SMH) within school systems.
  • Goal is to blend resources, training, systems, data, and practices to improve outcomes for all children and youth.
  • Emphasis on prevention, early identification, and intervention of the social, emotional, and behavior needs of students
  • Family and community partner involvement critical to this framework.
  • Training intended for schools or communities to identify needs in supporting students beyond acting out problem behavior.
  • Training will assist teams in exploring the need within their district and identify how an integrated system might improve desired outcomes within their school community.
  • Participants will learn about key messages of the ISF and how ISF enhances core features of PBIS.
    Includes engaging stakeholders to work differently, establishing a structure for integrated work, and creating a shared system.
  • Participants will develop an action plan for taking key learning back to engage district and community leadership.
  • The Midwest PBIS Network page has a variety of resources, training materials, tools and recorded webinars -
  • This practice framework is specifically designed to educate about PBIS and social and emotional learning.
  • This schoolwide framework includes practices that are delivered by school personnel, including in the classroom.

Framework

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

The Search Institute – Developmental Assets

  • Website provides tools for classroom activities to measure and improve academic motivation. 
  • Resources examine social and emotional factors along with other key variables that affect student motivation and engagement.
  • Keep Connected is a parent engagement program for schools. 
  • Offers FREE resources

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Too Good for Drugs 2(TGFD)

  • Universal K-12 prevention education program designed to mitigate the risk factors and enhance protective factors related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use.
  • Lessons introduce and develop social and emotional skills for making healthy choices, building positive friendships, developing self-efficacy, communicating effectively, and resisting peer pressure and influence.
  • Teaches five essential social and emotional learning skills, which research has linked with healthy development and academic success:
       o Setting Reachable Goals
       o Making Responsible Decisions
       o Bonding with Pro-Social Others
       o Identifying and Managing Emotions
       o Communicating Effectively.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Transition of Youth and Young Adults with Emotional or Behavioral Difficulties

  • Evidenced Supported Approaches that assist high school students with mental health disorders in finding and maintaining employment, establishing positive relationships, learning tools to achieve goals, and build strengths when transitioning to adulthood and out of the home and school setting.
    Outlines systemic approaches from the educational, justice, mental health, and other community settings to support positive outcomes that are developmentally and culturally appropriate and reduce common transitioning risk behaviors through strength-based prevention planning and coordinated care.
    Book

Supplemental

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents - TGCT-A

  • • Program is suitable for either individual or group applications in clinical or school settings.
  • • Manual provides detailed descriptions of the sessions, focusing on trauma psychoeducation, activities to enhance emotional awareness, identification of personal trauma/grief symptoms and trauma/loss reminders, development of a personal set of coping skills, and how to access different types of support
  • Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) 2.0

  • • Online training course for mental health professionals learning Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT).
  • • Developed in close collaboration with the TF-CBT developers and incorporates all the most recent developments in the model.
  • • Comprised of 11 learning modules, each with a pre- and post-test, that cover the foundations of TF-CBT and each of the treatment components.
  • • Each module has a concise explanation of the treatment component, video demonstrations of treatment procedures and techniques, and clinical materials and resources.
  • • Self-paced course with each module taking approximately one hour.
  • • All 11 modules and the final evaluation must be completed in order to access the certificate of completion.
  • • Initially the course must be completed sequentially; however, once a learner completes the course, s/he will continue to have access for the lifetime of the course.
  • • To find a TF-CBT therapist, search this national database: https://tfcbt.org/members/.
  • Can only be delivered by a qualified behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Trauma Sensitive Schools

  • Whole-school approach to creating trauma sensitive schools.
  • Seminal materials produced by Massachusetts Advocates for Children, including Helping Traumatized Children Learn, and Creating and Advocating for Trauma-Sensitive Schools, as well as the Compassionate Schools work carried out by the state of Washington are the foundation of this curriculum.
  • Curricula, assessment tools, and models for implementing a trauma-informed approach for schools are provided.
  • The South-Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center trained state and regional educators to become facilitators of the Trauma Sensitive Schools curriculum and provides ongoing coaching. Continued opportunities for training on this curriculum will be offered as demand allows.
  • This practice is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.
  • Curriculum / program for implementing a school-wide framework.
  • Length of time varies for school wide implementation.

Framework

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

BHC

Administrator

Triple P Positive Parenting Program

  • An approach to parenting that gives parents tools and strategies to raise their child in an environment that is safe, loving and predictable.
  • Gives parents the confidence and skills to build good relationships with their child or teenager, set boundaries and rules, and follow up with consequences that are not harmful.
  • Triple P Online covers all of Triple P’s positive parenting strategies for parents of toddlers to tweens (0-12 years) in eight modules.
  • Teen Triple P Online is for parents of pre-teens and teens (10-16 years) and covers all of Teen Triple P’s strategies in six modules.
  • Each module usually takes between 30-60 minutes, and includes a fun mix of videos, worksheets, tips and activities.
  • Can also sign up for podcasts, emails and text message reminders.
  • Online training for parents.

Supplemental

Parent

Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI®) and Trauma-Informed Classrooms Training

  • An attachment-based, trauma-informed intervention that is designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children.
  • Offers practical tools for parents, caregivers, teachers, or anyone who works with children, to see the “whole child” in their care and help that child reach their highest potential.
  • Uses Empowering Principles to address physical needs, Connecting Principles for attachment needs, and Correcting Principles to disarm fear-based behaviors.
  • While the intervention is based on years of attachment, sensory processing, and neuroscience research, the heartbeat of TBRI® is connection.
    TBRI® 101 is offered as an on-line self-paced learning option
  • This training is specifically designed to educate about trauma-informed care.
  • 8-hr introductory training

Training

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

What Works Clearinghouse

  • The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was established in 2002 as part of an initiative of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education.
  • The mission of the WWC is to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.
  • It is an important part of IES's strategy to use rigorous and relevant research, evaluation, and statistics to improve our nation's education system.
  • The work of the WWC is done under contract to the U.S. Department of Education (via the National Center of Education Evaluation at IES) by several firms with expertise in education, research methodology, and dissemination.
  • The WWC developed an infographic that describes how the practice guides can help teachers.
  • Website with programs, resources; length of time varies.

Registry

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

Wraparound Services - YES Waiver

  • The Youth Empowerment Services Waiver is a 1915(c) Medicaid program that helps children and youth with serious mental, emotional and behavioral difficulties.
  • The YES Waiver provides intensive services delivered within a strengths-based team planning process called Wraparound. Wraparound builds on family and community support and utilizes YES services to help build your family’s natural support network and connection with your community.
  • YES services are family-centered, coordinated and effective at preventing out-of-home placement and promoting lifelong independence and self-defined success.

The program aims to:

  • Reduce the amount of time children are out of their home and community because of a mental health need.
  • Expand available mental health services and supports.
  • Improve the lives of children and youth.
  • A Wraparound facilitator will meet with youth and their family weekly to work on creating a Wraparound Plan. The Wraparound Plan is also developed with help from your Child and Family Team, which meets once a month. The team includes you, your child and people who are important in your child’s life. This may be professionals, family, friends, coaches or teachers who want to help your child meet their goals. Together, the team develops a plan of care to meet the specific needs and goals of your child and family using YES services, community resources and family strengths.

YES services include:

  • Specialized therapies:
  • Nontraditional services that provide alternative and creative forms of therapy to help improve the youth’s health, welfare and functioning in their community. This includes:
    • Animal-assisted therapy.
    • Art therapy.
    • Music therapy.
    • Recreational therapy.
    • Nutritional counseling.
    • Community living supports:
  • Help families adjust to special challenges related to the youth’s mental health needs by using proven practices and strategies.

Family supports:

  • Connect family members with others who can support them by sharing similar lived experiences.
  • Employee assistance and supported employment:
  • Help youth find a job and be successful in it.

Paraprofessional services:

  • Help with stressful situations through coaching and mentoring.

Respite services:

  • Allow families and caretakers to take a temporary break from caring for youth enrolled in YES.
  • Nonmedical transportation:
  • Take youth to YES Waiver services when no other transportation is available.
  • Supportive family-based alternatives:
  • Provide support and model healthy interactions for the whole family while the youth temporarily lives in a therapeutic home.

Adaptive aids and supports:

  • Supplement YES services with medically necessary supports to prevent out-of-home placement.
  • Minor home modifications:
  • Support the youth’s ability to function independently at home and in the community.

Transition services:

  • Help with the costs associated with a youth moving into their own home.

Intervention

BHC

Youth Thrive

  • Puts research knowledge on adolescent brain health into action by shifting attention away from a primary focus on risk reduction toward one that builds those Protective and Promotive Factors associated with risk reduction and promotion of youth well-being.
  • Identifies key characteristics and conditions associated with youth well-being, such as: Youth Resilience, Social Connections, Knowledge of Adolescent Development, Concrete Support in Times of Need, and Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence.  Includes practices that are implemented in the classroom.
  • Length of time varies for school wide implementation. Initial training is 3-4 days. 

Framework

 

Educator

PSC

SSS

Administrator

 

Intended Audiences:

Educators - A person who works in a classroom setting who is responsible for teaching or a person who supports classroom teachers by directly advancing the integrated social, emotional and behavioral health of students within their specific role. A program, practice, training, or resource in this category may also be applicable to other multi-disciplinary school personnel, such as nurses, behavior coordinators, coaches, classroom aides, behavior specialists, bus drivers, lunch personnel, etc.                            

Professional School Counselor (PSC)  – A person, who holds a school counselor certificate in the state of Texas who has successfully complete a school counselor preparation program that meets the requirements of §239.10 of this title (relating to Preparation Program Requirements) and §239.15 of this title (relating to Standards Required for the School Counselor Certificate), successfully complete the examination based on the standards identified in §239.15 of this title; holds, at a minimum, a 48-hour master's degree in counseling from an accredited institution of higher education that at the time was accredited or otherwise approved by an accrediting organization recognized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; and has two creditable years of teaching experience as a classroom teacher, as defined in Chapter 153, Subchapter CC, of this title (relating to Commissioner's Rules on Creditable Years of Service) and the Texas Education Code, §5.001(2)."                                                    

Student Support Staff (SSS) - A person working to provide supports for student mental and behavioral health needs. Personnel who work in this category can include LSSPs, Social Workers, School Nurses, Behavior Specialists, Behavior Specialists, Behavior Coaches, Case Managers, and Behavior Health Clinicians.

Administrators- A person, in an educational leadership position, who oversees daily operations of a school or school district, and who serves as an important link between students, teachers, parents, and local communities. These people may include, a principal, associate principal assistant principal, dean, superintendent, assistant superintendent, district director, and others who participate in strategic planning, curriculum design, organizing professional development, and evaluating system outcomes.

Behavioral Health Clinician (BHC) – A person who holds a valid Texas clinical license in a behavioral health field of study - Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT), Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP), and Advance Practice Psychiatric Nurses and Clinical Psychologists are considered Non-Physician Mental Health Professionals in Texas Statute. These credentials are also examples of Behavioral Health Clinicians and may be authorized for 3rd party payments such as Medicaid reimbursement for services.  All clinical license holders must practice under the scope of their licensure board. If a BHC is the only Audience listed for a program, practice, training or resource it should ONLY be provided by a BHC.                     

Substance Use Prevention Specialist (SUPS) - A person working to prevent substance use and misuse through the delivery of evidence-based prevention strategies developed by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).  People working in this capacity for state-funded organizations either hold or are working toward an Associate Prevention Specialist (APS) designation, or Certified Prevention Specialist (CPS) or Advanced Certified Prevention Specialist (ACPS) certifications. If a SUPS is the only Audience listed for a program, practice, training, or resource, it can ONLY be provided by a SUPS.                                       

Resource Type:

Framework - Comprehensive school-wide or district-wide approach to implementing strategies or procedures, that is evidence-based and acknowledges the unique needs of your school or district

Intervention -a tool, practice or process put into place to support student needs

Registry – a resource that describes and outlines multiple frameworks, interventions, trainings and practices

Supplemental - Comprehensive school-wide or district-wide approach to implementing strategies or procedures, that is evidence-based and acknowledges the unique needs of your school or district that could include information, training, lessons, interventions, literature, and technical assistance to improve the quality and delivery of behavioral health services across the nation

Training - Online or In-person

Updated 4.13.20

 

Contact Information

Division of Highly Mobile & At-Risk Student Programs

Julie Wayman, Mental/Behavioral Health Coordinator
512-463-9414
julie.wayman@tea.texas.gov