Welcome to the Salem-Keizer Public Schools
Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)
Behavior & Social Emotional Learning
The Office of Behavioral Learning
503-399-3642
Academics
Secondary and Elementary Curriculum & Instruction
503-399-3000
A prevention framework that organizes building-level resources to address each individual student’s academic and/or behavioral needs within intervention tiers that vary in intensity. MTSS allows for the early identification of learning and behavioral challenges and timely intervention for students who are at risk for poor learning outcomes. The increasingly intense tiers (i.e., Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3), sometimes referred to as levels of prevention (i.e., primary, secondary, intensive prevention levels), represent a continuum of supports.
The MTSS Umbrella
MTSS is often shown as an umbrella that includes a wide range of supports for students: academic, behavioral, social & emotional, language, and cultural.
MTSS Pyramid
A problem-solving model with increasing intensity of supports based on student needs
What is a Multi-Tier System of Supports?
Colleen Riley, State Director of Early Childhood Special Education and Title Services in Kansas, explains how an effective multi-tier system supports students, educators, as well as parents, for entire system of support for the school community.
Secondary Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
Salem-Keizer’s MTSS framework addresses this philosophy by implementing 4 Essential Components:
- Multi-Tier Support System
- Culturally Responsive Practice
- Screening & Monitoring
- Data-Based Decision Making
In Salem-Keizer Public Schools, we do our best to anticipate students’ needs and prepare lessons that best support their learning. We use a variety of effective teaching practices to ensure that all students are able to learn at their appropriate grade level.
Because all students’ experiences and development are different, however, they sometimes need additional support to help them be successful. To make sure they get that additional help, Salem-Keizer uses a Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework to address students’ needs. This is a research-based model that meets students where they are and builds on their strengths to improve learning, behavior, and/or social emotional needs.
Every student qualifies for this support, and school teams meet regularly to look at data and decide how they can best meet the needs of their students. This may mean, for example, that students receives an additional reading or math class, they have a peer or adult tutor that works with them, they are part of a friendship circle, or schools/teachers provide extra support within a student’s existing schedule. Whatever the case, we are doing everything we can to provide the right support at the right time for each student.
Elementary Response to Intervention (RTI)
Our district is working with Oregon RTIi to develop an integrated intervention support system at the elementary level. Learn more about what this looks like by visiting Oregon RTIi’s website!
See the district’s vision for Response to Intervention (RTI), Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS), Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) in our Strategic Plan.
Investments in MTSS
Social-Emotional & Positive Behavior Supports
At the start of the 2016-17 school year, Salem-Keizer Public Schools, like many other districts across the state, experienced an increased number of students who were struggling to self-regulate and appropriately manage emotions, often becoming disruptive or making unhealthy decisions during the school day. Our district leaders and staff quickly realized that the social-emotional/mental health of our students was just as important as cognitive/academic development. SKPS made a commitment to prioritize social-emotional learning (SEL) and behavioral health services and supports right alongside our academic instruction, which would initiate our whole child learning philosophy. Since the fall of 2016, SKPS has more than doubled funding for SEBH support, from approximately $18,000,000 annually to approximately $38,000,000 annually.
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Timeline
Additional Staff
Direct Student Support
District Office Support and District Trainers
Total FTE
Number of district staff devoted to behavior support
Number of school-based behavior support staff
SEBH Glossary
Behavior Cadre
A school-based role that provides temporary support and assistance to special education and classroom staff throughout the district for extreme behavior issues, acute medical situations, and difficult student transitions.
Behavior Intervention Center (BIC)
Program designed to aid students needing substantial support to regulate emotions and behavior. Program placement is temporary by design, with the goal of equipping students with the skills necessary to join their peers in a general education setting.
Behavior Specialists
A school-based role that assists building administration in the planning, implementation and assessment of the schoolwide student management program and contributes to a positive school culture and climate. Works directly with students in the SEL and the development of SEBH and with school-based staff in the creation of positive and supportive classroom environments.
Mandt
A positive behavior support approach that trains adults how to resolve and interrupt escalating student behavior before it becomes a serious issue. Mandt advocates a move away from control and coercive techniques and a commitment toward restraint reduction and wherever possible, restraint elimination.
Office of Behavioral Learning (OBL)
A newly formed department in the fall of 2016, OBL was established to support schools with the SEBH of students and to allocate behavior resources to those areas where they were most needed.
Panorama
Panorama helps schools and districts support student and adult SEL with research-backed surveys and actionable data reports.
Restorative Practices
A social science that studies how to strengthen relationships between individuals as well as social connections within communities. Human beings need strong and meaningful relationships to thrive, and Restorative Practices centers relationship within adult and student responses to behavior. Restorative practices, though new to the social sciences, has deep roots within indigenous communities throughout the world.
School Counselor
A school-based role that plans, promotes, and delivers a comprehensive, developmental program of guidance and counseling to assist students in the areas of academic achievement, career decision making, personal, social growth and community contribution. School Counselors act as a consultant, in this regard to; school staff, parents and community members.
School Psychologist
An itinerate role that enables students to benefit from educational opportunities by conducting psycho-educational evaluations, engaging in consultation services, offering staff training, and providing direct service to students and staff. School Psychologists collaborate with educators, parents, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community.
School Social Worker
A school-based role or district-level itinerant role that works cooperatively with school personnel, parents, students, and community agencies, helping to facilitate student educational and interpersonal success.
Social-Emotional and Behavioral Health (SEBH)
Social, emotional, behavioral, and mental health and well-being that affects how we think, feel, communicate, act, and learn. SEBH contributes to resilience, relationships, stress and emotions, and our choices. The knowledge and skills that promote and support SEBH include: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-Making, Social Awareness, and Relationship Skills that support well-being and academic success.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
SEL is the process through which all people acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. SEL supports positive SEBH.