Expanding Multidisciplinary Threat Assessment and Intervention Teams

ABSTRACT (397/400 words)

West Clermont Local Schools (WCLS), a Tier II suburban public school district located near Cincinnati, OH (Clermont County), is requesting $954,850 in funding under the BJA Stop School Violence Category 2 to develop and implement a multidisciplinary behavioral threat assessment project for its nine schools, which serve a total of 7,821 preK-12th grade students. The project’s purpose is to prevent and reduce school violence. Primary activities will include the following.

Implement expanded multidisciplinary threat assessment and intervention teams composed of mental health professionals, school psychologists, and teachers within each of the district’s nine schools. Per Ohio House Bill 123 and the SAVE Students Act, the teams at the WCLS’ middle and high schools will be in effect by March 2023.
School Resource Officers (SROs) will be given a class by school mental health professionals on how to identify and report potential behavioral threats to the Director of Student Services.
Identify students who have suffered from ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences).
Administer behavioral threat assessments and screening tools (i.e. the Columbia - Suicide Severity Rating Scale, Signs of Suicide, and The Student Experience 21) to identify potential risk factors and/or threats that students may commit an act of violence.
Provide age-appropriate individual and group counseling sessions to all WCLS students.

Expected outcomes are as follows.

Resources and strategies for responding to students in mental health crisis that are trauma informed, protect student privacy rights, and, most importantly, involve mental health professionals at all stages of training and in practice
Three full-time qualified licensed therapists will rotate between all nine schools to provide counseling services to WCLS students, in the form of individual or group counseling sessions.
Existing WCLS counselors (including a 1.0 FTE Licensed Advanced Social Worker from Child Focus who is currently contracted with WCLS) will coordinate with the three new QMHS staff members to develop a series of PBIS-based individual and group counseling sessions.
The district will reduce negative behaviors (i.e. bullying, harassment, intimidation, verbal threats, vandalizing school property, etc.) exhibited by students by at least 10% per year during each year of the grant.

The proposed project’s service area includes the 54 square miles within Union Township Amelia Village, and portions of Batavia, Monroe, Ohio, and Pierce Townships in Clermont County. WCLS is located 30 minutes east of Cincinnati. The project’s intended beneficiaries include all 7,821 preK-12th grade WCLS students.