The following glossary provides definitions for concepts discussed within the Comprehensive School Behavioral Health Implementation Playbook for Virginia Public Schools.
B · C · D · M · P · R · S · T · U
B
Behavioral Health Interventions
Coordinated services and supports provided in schools to promote student mental well-being and address identified behavioral health needs. They include both universal and targeted mental health supports.
Behavioral Health Services
Sometimes referred to as “services” within this guide, refer to specialized interventions provided by trained professionals to address the mental health needs of students. They include individual counseling, referrals, crisis intervention, and other interventions offered by school mental health professionals (such as: school counselors, school social workers, and school psychologists).
Behavioral Health Supports
Sometimes referred to as “supports,” these are efforts to promote mental well-being in students and can be implemented by a range of school staff (such as educators, bus drivers, school nurses, and administrators). They include classroom prevention programs, calming rooms, and school assemblies.
C
Capacity and Readiness
Refer to a school or division’s ability to effectively implement a selected SEB screener. Together, they ensure that screening is implemented smoothly, ethically, and sustainably.
Readiness reflects the school’s or team’s preparedness, including clarity of roles, established protocols, and commitment to using data responsibly to inform interventions and decision-making.
Capacity encompasses the resources, staff expertise, training, and infrastructure needed to carry out screening and follow-up supports.
Comprehensive School Behavioral Health (CSBH) Needs Assessment
A step-by-step process for collecting, reviewing, and using data to determine what students and staff need in terms of mental health, social-emotional support, academics, and behavior. This process helps ensure that behavioral health services and supports are purposeful, data-informed, equitable, and truly meet the needs of the school community. At a minimum, this process is conducted annually to allow teams to identify trends, establish goals, and action plan effectively.
A CSBH needs assessment includes both quantitative data (such as attendance, behavior referrals, screening results, counseling referrals, and academic indicators) and qualitative data (such as feedback from students, staff, and families, focus groups, and observations). These data sources help teams identify patterns, strengths, service gaps, and areas of concern.
Consistent Meeting Structures
Teams convene on a predictable schedule with clear expectations for participation. This allows meetings to result in clear actions, assigned responsibilities, and follow-up timelines.
D
Data-Informed Decision-Making (DIDM)
The use of multiple types of relevant data to guide problem-solving, planning, and action. This approach incorporates professional judgment, contextual considerations, and stakeholder input. Decisions are grounded in evidence and refined over time through systematic analysis and reflection, rather than relying on assumptions or isolated data points.
Decision Rules
Clearly defined criteria and procedures that school teams use to determine when students should receive Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions. Effective decision rules establish shared expectations for identifying need, matching students to the appropriate level and intensity of support, and determining when interventions should be intensified, adjusted, or faded. When grounded in multiple data sources and communicated clearly to staff and families, decision rules support timely access to services, promote consistent decision-making, and help prevent unnecessary delays or the escalation of student needs.
De-implementation
A deliberate and systematic process of reducing or stopping practices that are ineffective, low-value, or potentially harmful to make space for more effective or aligned practices.
M
Multidisciplinary Collaboration
When teams include varied roles and perspectives to address the full range of student needs.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)
A systemic, data-driven approach that allows divisions and schools to provide evidence-based practices and interventions to meet the needs of their students. This is done through a clearly defined process that is implemented to fidelity by all stakeholders within the school and/or division.
P
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
A three-tiered framework for implementing school-wide evidence-based practices to promote a safe school setting by supporting social, academic, behavioral, and emotional needs of all students. It is an evidence-based, three-tiered framework designed to improve and integrate data, systems, and practices for supporting students.
Protective Factors
Include conditions, skills, relationships, and supports that reduce risk, promote resilience, and improve positive social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes. They help buffer individuals from adversity by strengthening coping abilities, fostering connection and belonging, and increasing access to supportive environments and resources across family, school, and community settings.
R
Referral Pathway to Outside Agencies and Behavioral Health Providers
A clearly defined process that outlines the steps schools take to identify and connect the student and their family with behavioral health professionals or agencies outside of the school system for specialized support and treatment. This process is typically initiated when a student’s needs go beyond what the school’s resources, staff training, or short-term interventions can address, such as when long-term therapy, diagnostic evaluations, medication management, or highly specialized services are needed. For more information, visit the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Guidance for School Behavioral Health page.
Resource Map
A tool that involves identifying and organizing a range of supports, services, and programs available within the school and broader community to address student needs. This process enables School Behavioral Health teams to visualize the entire support ecosystem, identify available resources, detect service gaps, and pinpoint opportunities for improved coordination. There are various ways to create a resource map, and school and division teams should select a method that fits their unique needs.
Root Cause Analysis
A step-by-step process for identifying what is really causing a problem or trend, rather than just looking at the obvious symptoms. The aim is to understand why an issue occurs so that solutions address the source and lead to lasting improvements.
For example, a school team may notice an increase in office discipline referrals during the last period of the day. The symptom is the spike in referrals, but through root cause analysis, the team might discover that students in that period experience inconsistent classroom routines, fatigue from a lack of structured transitions, or unclear behavioral expectations. By addressing those underlying factors, rather than simply increasing consequences, the team is more likely to reduce the referrals in a meaningful and sustainable way.
Root cause analysis involves examining both quantitative and qualitative data to identify contributing factors across students, staff, systems, environments, policies, and practices. Tools such as the Five Whys, fishbone diagrams, and data trend analysis are commonly used to support this process and are available in the Data-Informed Decision-Making Folder.
S
School Behavioral Health (SBH)
Encompasses both mental health and observable behaviors that impact learning and school climate. Behavioral health includes the promotion of positive behaviors, prevention of problem behaviors, and intervention for behavioral concerns such as aggression, withdrawal, chronic absenteeism, or disruptive conduct. In schools, this means operating within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports framework and incorporating evidence-informed approaches such as: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP), and Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA), and data-informed behavior supports, alongside mental health services. Behavioral health recognizes that behavior is influenced by emotional, social, and environmental factors.
Behavioral health emphasizes universal prevention, early intervention, and systems-level approaches that support all students. Together, they form a comprehensive framework that supports student well-being, behavior, and academic success.
School Behavioral Health Referral Pathway
A clearly defined process within a school that guides staff in identifying, documenting, and referring students with elevated or intensive social-emotional or behavioral needs. The pathway specifies who may initiate a referral, the required supporting data and observations when applicable (such as attendance patterns, behavior incidents, screening results, and teacher input), the review process by the school’s behavioral health team, and the procedures for connecting students to targeted (Tier 2) or individualized (Tier 3) interventions. The primary objective is to ensure timely and consistent access to supports that address students’ behavioral health needs.
School Behavioral Health Professionals (SBHPs)
Includes trained staff members who provide prevention, early intervention, and treatment services within the school setting to support students’ social, emotional, and behavioral well-being. These professionals use specialized training to deliver interventions such as counseling, consultation, crisis response, and collaboration with families and community providers. Common examples include school counselors, school social workers, school nurses, and school psychologists.
School Climate
Refers to the quality and character of school life, reflecting norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures that shape the experiences of students, staff, and families.
School Mental Health (SMH)
SMH focuses primarily on students’ emotional and psychological well-being. It includes efforts to promote positive mental health, prevent mental health challenges, and provide early identification and treatment for mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, trauma-related concerns, or mood disorders. In schools, mental health supports often include counseling services, social–emotional learning, crisis intervention, and partnerships with community mental health providers. The emphasis is on thoughts, feelings, coping skills, and emotional regulation.
Strengths-Based Approach
Emphasizes students’ assets alongside their needs when interpreting data and determining interventions.
Survey vs. Screening vs. Diagnosis
Survey collects general perceptions or experiences about SEB topics to inform system-level understanding and improvement, but it is not designed to identify individual student needs or assign interventions to individual students or groups, the way a universal screener would.
Screening is a brief, systematic process used with all students to identify strengths and potential areas of need or risk and to determine who may benefit from additional support; it does not provide a diagnosis.
Diagnosis is a clinical determination made by a qualified mental health or medical professional using established criteria and a comprehensive evaluation; schools do not diagnose through screening or assessment
T
Targeted or Tier 2/3 Mental Health Screener
Used with students who have already been identified as needing additional supports. It is more focused and in-depth, helping to assess specific needs, monitor progress, guide interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of targeted or intensive supports. Unlike universal screeners, it is not administered to all students, but to a defined subset who require additional attention. Because these screeners inform high-stakes intervention decisions, they must be administered and analyzed by appropriately trained school-based mental health professionals to ensure accurate interpretation, ethical use of data, and alignment of supports with students’ specific mental health needs.
U
Universal
A school-wide or grade-wide intervention intended for the entire student population rather than for specific identified groups.
Universal Screener
Administered to all students within a school or grade level to identify strengths, social-emotional skill development, and potential mental health needs. Its purpose is early identification, prevention, and informing services and supports, rather than diagnosing or targeting students already known to need additional interventions.
