Through its partner agencies, the Kentucky Center for School
Safety will provide training in best and promising practices
with regard to supporting students, teachers, and other
school and community providers. Training content will be
organized in terms of a multi-level model of intervention.
This
research-based model
has been widely used in public health, but only recently has
it been applied to the social sciences, including social
services, education, mental health, social work, and law
enforcement.
Universal intervention strategies focus on
enhancing existing protective factors in schools and
communities and are intended to prevent individuals from
falling into risk. Such interventions are applied to all
individuals in a population (e.g., all students in a school
building) through the efforts of all staff.
Targeted intervention involves activities
that provide support within the school setting such as
mentoring, skill development, and assistance to individuals
who, because of their demographic or behavioral
characteristics (e.g., poverty, history of disruptive
behavior), are at risk. The purpose of targeted intervention
strategies is to prevent further occurrences of problem
behavior and/or negative coping strategies. These
interventions focus on specific problems of individuals for
whom universal intervention strategies have not been
effective within the school setting itself.
Intensive intervention targets individuals
with serious problems and attempts to minimize the effects
of their condition within daily functioning. These
strategies typically include the involvement and
coordination of the educational setting with outside
agencies that provide for coordinated planning of
multi-agency involvement.
Intensive Intervention
A school-based example is a plan for a very troubled
student that integrates school, home, and community life
domains.
Targeted Intervention
Focus is on providing support within the school setting
to individuals for whom universal intervention
strategies have not been effective (e.g., implementation
of systematic instruction in social skills for a group
of students who exhibit poor or inappropriate
interactions with peers or adults).
Universal Intervention
Applies to all individuals in a population through the
efforts of all staff. The focus is on prevention. A
school-based example of a universal intervention is a
school-wide focus on positive student discipline (e.g.,
adopting school-wide behavioral rules and supporting
students in following them).
Intensive Intervention
2 - 3% of children
Targeted Intervention
5 - 15% of children
Universal Intervention
80 - 90% of children