What are YOU doing about your Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 Students?
By now you’ve seen your fair share of SEL programs. That’s a good thing, right!? Not so fast.
Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) caught on like wildfire during 2020. Student mental health needs (which existed long before COVID) were finally brought to the forefront of priorities. For the first time in educator history, federal dollars came pouring in for mental health support in the form of ESSR, Title One, Title Two, grants, and privately funded initiatives.
Schools found themselves under fire to put an SEL program into place and did so at a feverish pace in the hopes that what they selected was enough. Some of the dilemmas educators faced when implementing SEL included: weighing out adding another thing on teacher plates, selecting a character-ed box-checker solution to save time, and whether to hit prevention or intervention.
Most of the SEL solutions you likely came across only targeted one population. You had a choice to make, and you made it hoping you’d done the right thing for the majority of your students.
In an effort to cover the most ground, decisions and dollars largely went toward Tier 1 prevention. And then there came the hope that students would resonate with and engage with the chosen program. Tier 1 solutions show extreme variations in delivery modalities from video clips with worksheets, animated computer deliveries, and teacher-led lessons to evidence-based clinical initiatives. Many educators struggled to find the right approach. With this onslaught of Tier 1 approaches saturating the education system, the Tier 2 and 3 programs took a back seat. Many educators didn’t know they didn’t have to choose one or the other.
Supporting Tier 2 and Tier 3
The MTSS framework stratifies students into tiers relative to need. To get a sense of your student population’s breakdown, the rule of thumb is approximately 80-85% of your students are in Tier 1 (this is your general population). Tier 2 covers approximately 10-15% of your student population, these are kids who benefit from smaller instruction and intervention practices. Tier 3 kids represent approximately 5% of your student population. These kids benefit from intensive, frequent, and consistent monitoring of progress. To put that into monetary terms, the national per pupil average in K12 education is $15,120. Multiply 20% of your student number x $15,120 and your total is the amount of funding you risk losing each year.
Tier 1 prevention programs are essential to maintaining a strong and healthy base of students, but Tiers 2 and 3 (approximately 20% of your population) have vastly different needs that may not be getting met (despite your best efforts).
Research shows that mental health issues among students were high prior to the pandemic. Despite the abating statistics regarding COVID, students continue to need support – they always have.
With your Tier 1 students likely receiving some type of support from teachers or counselors, have your Tier 2 and 3 students remained a priority?
Requiring solid, clinical, evidence-based interventions, 20% of your population may be in need of individualized attention in alternative education, virtual learning, in-school suspension, team time, group time, detention, pro-social behavior efforts, and personalized counseling.
BASE Can Help with IEP Compliance for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Students
Your teachers are maxed out, your counselor average is 415:1, and providing individualized attention is difficult at best. Your demands are not going to let up and your students will continue to need your support. If you’re learning that your Tier 1 SEL program isn’t addressing your Tier 2 and Tier 3 students, you’re not alone. Educators are quickly realizing that in the mad dash for an SEL solution, they may have missed the essential tools that apply to all students.
It’s not too late to provide customizable tools for assessing and fostering your most vulnerable students. You don’t have to make a choice between the recipients for mental health support. BASE Education was here before the mad dash and BASE Education will be here to support all tiers for as long as students need us. Once you’ve tried BASE, we firmly believe you will refer to our program as “the best tool for ALL tiers”.
Learn how BASE can help with IEP Compliance.
What are our partners saying? (This is the fun part)
“100% of school officials report it makes a difference, and after their first experience, incorporate BASE school wide.”
“Not only did BASE help our students graduate, but we learned a lot about our students’ social/emotional health and thoughts that we would not otherwise have known, and it led to great conversations and getting some much needed help to those students.”
“Schools are seeing a change in some of our students’ behavior as a result of engaging in BASE modules. The firewords alert is essential and has allowed schools to be proactive in preventing a crisis.”
– BASE partner.
We have prevented suicides, school shootings, drop-outs, bullying, dangerous relationships, drug overdoses, and more (partner reports). All this in a student to device 1:1 model designed to give you, educators, a break, and your students, privacy and ownership over their experience. We know our stuff; we’re clinicians doing what we’ve always done – foster growth, resilience, and personalized strategies for success.
Are we CRT? No. Never have been, never will be, but that’s another blog…
Call us, email us, or just come hang out with us, we’re here for all of it, we’ve got you covered.
