While Restorative Practices (RP) may be used informally by individuals, best practice suggests that a school-wide approach to Restorative Practices should be implemented intentionally and systematically to create culture change and ensure success of all students. Restorative Practices can easily be embedded into a Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. Districts and schools that are already implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), can integrate RP. MTSS provides the backbone for data, systems and practices across a hierarchy of supports for all students.

• Tier 1: Focuses on prevention of problem behavior by emphasizing universal supports.

• Tier 2: Designed to prevent the development and escalation of problem behaviors for students who are identified as being at risk for developing chronic behavior problems.

• Tier 3: Designed to reduce the intensity, frequency, and/or complexity of problem behaviors by providing individualized behavior supports using evidenced-based interventions. 

MTSS in Nevada

The Nevada Department of Education (NDE) and the Nevada Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Technical Assistance Center are working collaboratively to build capacity to establish, scale-up, and sustain a Multi-tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) in Nevada Local Educational Agencies (LEAs). This team has spent the past 9 years partnering with LEAs to build local capacity around the implementation drivers of MTSS. During this implementation period, school sites implementing with high fidelity have seen increased capacity to identify student needs and respond early, reductions in discipline, improvement in academic outcomes, and improvement in overall school climate.

School Climate Transformation Grant

The School Climate Transformation Grant (SCTG), funded by the Federal Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, was released in 2014 as a competitive grant to support state educational agencies to develop, enhance, or expand systems of support for, and technical assistance to, local educational agencies and schools implementing evidence-based, multi-tiered systems for support for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for all students (Source: US Department of Education).

The Nevada Department of Education, in collaboration with the Nevada PBIS Technical Assistance Center, was awarded the five-year grant in October 2014, with the Nevada School Climate Transformation Project (SCTG) officially beginning on January 1, 2015. The SCTP provides the necessary resources to allow for ongoing on-site training and technical assistance through a hierarchy of coaching on behavior and data systems. The multi-tiered behavior framework utilizes School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) to create long lasting climate changes in schools while preventing challenging behavior and teaching social and emotional skills to all students. Capacity of each school district will be built during a 3-year period in which State Coordinators from the Nevada PBIS Technical Assistance Center work closely with External Coaches within each local education agencies (LEA), who are, in turn, working directly with Internal Coaches at each school. Through this project, 7 districts will be provided comprehensive training and technical assistance in building capacity for SWPBIS and 93 schools will be implementing SWPBIS systems by the end of the 5-year period. This project will also build the capacity of the Nevada Department of Education to sustain behavioral systems in Nevada school districts. The districts included in this project were: Washoe, Clark, Humboldt, Pershing, Lander, Lyon and Douglas.

In October of 2018, The Nevada Department of Education, again in collaboration with the Nevada PBIS Technical Assistance Center, was awarded a second five-year round of the School Climate Transformation Grant. The scope of this grant is to continue to scale-up and implement MTSS for new local educational agencies as well as to enhance advanced tier supports for continuing LEA's from the first SCTG.

The overall project objective is to build infrastructure both at the SEA and LEA levels to integrate all of Nevada's school climate practices and initiatives including PBIS, Social Emotional Academic Development (SEAD), Restorative Practices, Trauma Informed Care, and School Mental Health within a single comprehensive framework for delivery.

Project objectives include:
(1) integrate initiatives and resources into a comprehensive MTSS,
(2) build SEA capacity to support LEAs in implementing MTSS,
(3) scale and enhance LEA capacity in implementing MTSS, and
(4) address the opioid crisis within a MTSS.

Some specific project activities include:
(1) aligning leadership teams at the local, district, and state levels,
(2) improving the SEA capacity for MTSS integration and data collection,
(3) integrating initiatives and enhancing fidelity of implementation, especially at the advanced tiers, and
(4) incorporating opioid prevention and treatment into the MTSS framework, including evidence-based practice selection and data-based decision making.

This integrated MTSS framework will serve as the infrastructure needed in Nevada and to address the many rising needs of the student populations in both our urban and rural districts as well as evaluate the student outcomes of Nevada's school climate initiatives. The integration of initiatives aims to reduce time, effort and resources, and maximize student outcomes including improved school climate, reductions in discipline, and improved academic outcomes. In addition to the above-mentioned outcomes, the proposed project intends to address the opioid crisis in Nevada through focusing on improvements in school climate in our most vulnerable and high-needs LEAs as well as integrating specific drug prevention and treatment practices into the MTSS. The LEAs included in this current project include: Pershing County School District, Lander County School District, Lyon County School District, Humboldt County School District, Clark County School District, Washoe County School District, Churchill County School District, Nye County School District, State Public Charter Authority, Pyramid Lake Schools, and Carson City School District.