CCSD’s lessons learned leading to improvement in MTSS

Carson City schools slowly are seeing a decrease in student behavioral hearings. Point systems and rewards gradually are working to reinforce the positive actions and deeds students are taking in school.

Teachers and administrators are putting in the hard work to flip the Multi-Tiered System of Support triangle that focused on the most critical population of students who were challenged academically and socially, and the results gradually are coming.

“The amount of growth is remarkable,” Stephanie Keating, MTSS coordinator, told the Appeal about Carson’s schools. “It’s nice to see schools really advancing at their own perfect pace for doing what’s best and right for kids.”

Christie Perkins, director of grants and special projects, Keating, and Hannah Etchison, foster care liaison, shared with the Carson City School Board in May that the district’s work built to provide wraparound services for all students has grown. Schools are bolstering community partnerships and resources in academics, attendance, mental health, its Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education) program and other areas to help all students.

Keating, completing her first year as MTSS coordinator, said the goal is to apply what has been learned from all three tiers of MTSS and apply evidence-based efforts to boost certain areas for Carson’s 10 school sites, with a specific focus on tier two.

Community partnerships have included working with the University of Nevada, Reno’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Technical Assistance Center (PBISTA Center), which is facilitating a Nevada Multi-tiered System of Supports Project, among others. Keating said UNR’s resources and board certified behavior analysts offer Carson City’s district staff members insights for students’ mental health issues and help contextualize specific needs in the classroom.

“We’re going to add more options so we can better meet our students’ needs,” Keating said.

Staff members will be able to include evidence-based practices and curriculum to enhance strategies to further prevent chronic absenteeism, as an example. Staff members can partner and train on the use of an attendance intervention called Check & Connect to keep students engaged.

“In our intervention that’s going to come with the training, we’ll have staff and mentors … help remove the barriers that are hindering students from coming to school,” Keating said. “It gives schools the framework to have that conversation that traditionally would be done by social workers or counselors or deans.”

Perkins and Etchison also addressed specific needs for the district’s homeless youth through the McKinney-Vento Students in Transition. Ongoing expansions help increase educational opportunities for all students, Perkins said.

This year, there were 256 currently enrolled in Students in Transition. Etchison said she enrolled 312 in total throughout the year, of whom 48 are unaccompanied youth. A district liaison remains in communication with families to ensure the students’ needs are met, and Etchison provided an update on event successes throughout the year.

Keating said the work continues to help students as life for children and teens changed sharply after COVID-19.

“We’re all different,” she said. “Humans are different now. And as I’ve stated before, clear is kind. Our job is to make sure kids are getting what they need. MTSS is not designed to be perfect. There’s always going to be some kind of continuous improvement. But now there’s a new dynamic shift, and we have little pockets of things happening.”

Next year’s professional development to help staff members strengthen their MTSS systems and assess their action plans at sites will begin in September, she said.

“The most beautiful thing is every school is its own system,” she said.