The MTSS Tier Three Supports Badge is a workshop series designed to equip members of a Student Support Services Team (administrators, directors/coordinators of support, support teachers, counselors and general educators) with the knowledge and tools to deliver intensive, individualized interventions within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). This series focuses on supporting students with the most significant academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs through data-driven, evidence-based practices. Participants will review how to conduct observations, utilize assessments, develop individualized support plans and monitor progress to ensure meaningful, sustained growth for each student.

Session 1: Enhancing Tier Three Academic Support

• Revisit the MTSS framework with a focus on the role of Tier Three as highly individualized, intensive academic intervention.

• Learn how to effectively use diagnostic, standardized, formative, and summative assessments, as well as ongoing progress monitoring, to inform student placement decisions and adjust supports as needed.

• Identify effective evidence-based instructional programs and review how to write a simple individualized learning support plan that connects with chosen interventions. 

• Examine the characteristics of effective one-on-one or small-group instruction tailored to students with significant and persistent learning needs.

• Reflect on current practices for individualized intervention and identify actionable steps to strengthen outcomes for students who require the highest level of academic support.

Session 2: Additional Behavior Supports to Address Complex Student Needs

• Deepen understanding of Tier Three within the MTSS framework as the most individualized and intensive level of behavior support.

• Investigate the impact of childhood adversity and trauma (ACE’s) on behavior and learning, and apply trauma-informed practices to foster safety, trust, and emotional regulation.

• Study how to use tools such as the AMISA Behavior Observation Forms and FBA/BIP process to identify behavior patterns, determine root causes, and inform individualized planning.

• Explore best practices for developing and implementing simple Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs), including clearly defined replacement behaviors and plans to teach identified behaviors. 

• Recognize how to apply evidence-based strategies, in one-on-one or highly individualized settings, to support students with persistent maladaptive behaviors.

Session 3: Additional SEL Supports to Address Significant Social-Emotional Needs

• Consider the role of Tier Three SEL within MTSS as individualized, targeted support for students with persistent social-emotional challenges.

• Review common lagging SEL skills associated with neurodiversity (such as ADHD, autism, ODD) and explore strategies to increase awareness while building regulation and executive functioning skills. 

• Build capacity to design and deliver more engaging one-on-one or small-group interventions that include evidence-based strategies that students actually enjoy. 

• Develop Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs) that include identifying the explicit teaching of lagging SEL skills as part of replacement behaviors.

How to Earn the Badge:

• Complete the online sessions

• Complete the AMISA Learning Survey at the end of the course