UC Santa Barbara

The education of students struggling with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) continues to be a serious and challenging problem facing educators and school systems in the 21st century. Legislation has been established by the Individuals Disabilities Act (IDEA) to include the provision of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to students identified as emotionally disturbed. However, many schools do not have adequate supports to meet the unique needs of children and adolescents with EBD. Scholars and practitioners have responded with efforts resulting in a collection of intervention strategies found to be helpful for supporting students suffering from emotional and behavioral challenges. However, much remains to be known regarding optimal programming for students with EBD in schools. The present study is a preliminary evaluation of the effectiveness of the Tiers of Intensive Educationally Responsive Services (TIERS) program. TIERS is a treatment package consisting of a combination of evidence-based practices designed to improve the academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes of students with EBD. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the effectiveness of the TIERS service delivery model for increasing positive classroom behaviors (PCBs) of students with severe EBD, and 2) to identify the degree to which implementation fidelity and grade level moderates the effectiveness of TIERS to affect their PCB. Results suggest that 1) students with severe EBD enrolled in a TIERS program show an increase in PCBs after a period of four months, 2) mean PCB scores are higher for programs implementing TIERS with higher fidelity when compared to programs implementing TIERS with partial fidelity but not programs implementing TIERS with little to no fidelity, and 3) there is no significant three-way interaction between fidelity of implementation of TIERS, grade level (elementary and middle school compared to high school), and time on PCB. Limitations of the study and implications for future research in the area of programming for students with EBD in restrictive school settings are discussed.