Evaluating Universal Screening with Community-Oriented Collaboration on Students’ Receipt of Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Intervention

ABSTRACT Tiered response models encourage a proactive approach to identification of social-emotional needs and intervention. However, schools experience barriers to adopting and implementing such models that use data to allocate interventions. The current study examines the utility of a universal social-emotional learning (SEL) screening system embedded in an empowerment evaluation framework to improve intervention receipt. Teachers at two primary elementary schools rated all students with an SEL screening system in a tiered response model. The intervention school received screening results with empowerment evaluation supports while the comparison school did not receive screening results and proceeded with intervention decision-making as usual. Intervention receipt results were analyzed with chi-square tests and descriptive comparisons. The intervention school served a greater number of students with interventions, was more likely to intervene for students with SEL need, and implemented a greater number of small-group interventions than the comparison school. Limitations and future directions are discussed.