Purpose Of The Curriculum

The BHPM curriculum builds the capacity of school teams, LEA leaders, and system partners to use behavioral health information within the systems and practices they already manage.

Learning to use the screening platform is one component of implementation. The broader curriculum prepares participants to interpret behavioral health information, connect it with other information already available to schools and LEAs, use it within existing student-support and improvement processes, and review repeated evidence over time.

The curriculum provides a common set of capacities while allowing professional learning to be adapted to participant roles, local practices, organizational structures, and implementation needs.

How The Three Pathways Work Together

Pathways 1 and 2 address related practices at the school and LEA levels.

Pathway 1 prepares school teams to interpret behavioral health information and use it within student support, school improvement, and other existing practices.

Pathway 2 prepares LEA leaders to examine aggregate behavioral health and implementation information across schools, support site implementation, and use findings in program, professional learning, and resource decisions.

Pathway 3 addresses responsibilities that extend beyond individual school and LEA practice. County and state partners work on system conditions that affect implementation and sustainability, including interagency coordination, governance, reporting, financing, and policy.

This distinction is consistent with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) Active Implementation Frameworks. Pathways 1 and 2 include substantial attention to competency and organizational drivers within schools and LEAs. Pathway 3 places greater emphasis on leadership, facilitative administration, and systems intervention across organizations.

Implementation Science

The curriculum uses the NIRN Active Implementation Frameworks to guide implementation and capacity building.

Implementation Stages. Exploration, Installation, Initial Implementation, and Full Implementation help teams understand the status of a practice and determine what support is needed next. Implementation may differ across schools or practices within the same LEA.

Implementation Drivers. Competency drivers address staff selection, training, coaching, and fidelity. Organization drivers address decision-support data systems, facilitative administration, and systems intervention. Leadership drivers address the technical and adaptive leadership required to support implementation and address barriers.

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA). PDSA provides a continuous-improvement method for Pathways 1 and 2. Teams identify an improvement aim, implement or strengthen a practice, review implementation and outcome information, and determine the next action.

Curriculum-Wide Principles

Asset-Based Use Of Behavioral Health Information

Participants learn to identify student strengths and positive change as well as areas for growth. Data review begins by asking what students are demonstrating, what existing practices may be relevant to those strengths, what should be reinforced or extended, and where additional inquiry or support may be useful.

Participants are taught to distinguish observed patterns from explanations that require additional evidence and not to infer causation because a behavioral health pattern appears alongside a particular program or practice.

Universal And Targeted Supports

Behavioral health information can inform schoolwide practice as well as targeted or individualized support.

Depending on the information and context, a team may reinforce an existing universal practice, adapt a support, gather additional information, adjust professional learning, revise a workflow, monitor progress, or use an established response or referral process.

Integration With Existing Processes

Participants identify where behavioral health information can be incorporated into existing decision-making and improvement processes.

At the school level, these may include multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), student-support teams, wellness teams, professional learning communities (PLCs), instructional leadership teams, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Community Schools, school improvement, professional learning, and family communication.

At the LEA level, these may include student-services leadership, district MTSS, principal meetings, program reviews, data and accountability routines, professional learning, and executive leadership structures.

At the system level, these may include interagency leadership structures, county planning and reporting, governance processes, and existing state and local accountability structures.

Use Of Information Across The Three Pathways

As decisions move farther from direct student support, behavioral health information is used at increasingly aggregate levels. Any data sharing across organizations remains subject to applicable privacy requirements, agreements, governance decisions, and the specific purposes established by participating agencies.