03 · Implementation Science
Grounded In Implementation Science
As with every BHSSA deliverable, the Collaborative is designed around the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) Active Implementation Frameworks. Three elements of that framework shape the Collaborative directly.
Implementation Stages
The sequence of convenings follows the stages participating LEAs move through. It begins in fall 2026, as the first screening windows open and the Educator Portal is built. Initial Implementation runs through spring 2027, as sites complete their first full cycles and begin acting on data. Full Implementation and sustainability follow in Year 2, as longitudinal data accumulates and the cohort turns toward recommendations for scale. Each convening is matched to where the cohort actually is in that progression. Because LEAs entered the project at different points and with different existing structures, the Learning Collaborative expects sites to be at different stages at the same time, and treats that variation accordingly.
Implementation Drivers
The Learning Collaborative attends to all three driver categories.
| Driver | How The Collaborative Addresses It |
|---|---|
| Competency | The role-specific breakouts, where counselors, site leaders and district leads practice interpreting and acting on their own data. |
| Organization | Recurring attention to the decision-support data systems (the Educator Portal and the public Dashboard), to the existing school and LEA processes that behavioral health information must fit into, and to policy, privacy and cross-initiative alignment. |
| Leadership | The participation of district and county leaders, and the Collaborative's function as a channel for raising barriers to SCCOE and, through the Quarterly Summaries, to the Commission. |
Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)
Each convening is structured as a study-and-act cycle for the cohort as a whole. Participants arrive with data and implementation experience from the prior quarter, study cross-LEA patterns together, decide what to act on, and leave with commitments that are revisited at the next session. Across the full series, this creates a continuous improvement loop at the cohort level that mirrors the PDSA cycles school and LEA teams are running locally under Pathways 1 and 2 of the technical assistance curriculum.
Content
First, the purpose of BHPM is not to administer a screener but to make behavioral health data usable. What matters after the screener is whether a student is growing in a competency or not, and what the adults around that student decide to do as a result. This is what each convening is built around: what participants did with their data since the last session, what got in the way, and what the cohort can do differently.
Second, the Collaborative keeps behavioral health information connected to the outcomes schools already care about. Linking the six competencies to attendance, engagement, academic progress and student support decisions is what makes this work meaningful to teachers, credible to boards and county partners, and sustainable beyond the grant. This is a through-line across every session.
Each convening is matched to where the cohort actually is, and each one closes a study-and-act cycle the next one opens, so the series runs as a continuous improvement loop rather than six separate meetings.

