Returning to School: Considerations for Students with the Most Intensive Behavioral Needs. A Guide to Supporting Students with Disabilities, Their Families, and Educators

This guide is a set of strategies and key practices with the ultimate goal of supporting students with the most intensive behavioral needs, their families, and educators in their transitions back to school during and following the global pandemic in a manner that prioritizes their health and safety, social and emotional needs, and behavioral and academic growth. It provides recommendations for leadership teams and support staff, which involves general educators as they develop and implement supports for students with intensive needs, including students with disabilities, in their (in-person or remote) classrooms, groups, and other settings. These recommendations are also for special educators as they collaborate with families and other specialists to develop intensive individualized supports for students in the fall. This guide is a companion to the recently published Center on PBIS's guide "Returning to School During and After [a] Crisis." This guide was originally released in Fall 2020 but has been revised as of April 2021. [For the 2020 version of this report, see ED609018. For "Returning to School during and after Crisis: A Guide to Supporting States, Districts, Schools, Educators, and Students through a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Framework During the 2020-2021 School Year," see ED609017.]