Tier 2 Overview: Academic - Social Emotional - Behavioral 

Given that 80% of students are likely to be successful with effective Tier 1 support,  it is expected that some students will need additional and/or different support.  Moving to Tier 2 marks the shift from prevention to early intervention. 

Targeted Tier 2 interventions are supplemental and provided in addition to Tier 1. For example, a student who receives a Tier 2 intervention for reading should never be pulled out of core reading instruction for the intervention. Targeted Tier 2 interventions must be matched to student needs and characteristics. For example, when a student is facing a challenge with their behavior we may aim to address skill gaps that foster student-self-awareness and coping skills and that enhance supportive relationships between students and others in the school community. Tier 2 support should be consistent and implemented in a standard protocol way to students with similar needs, allowing for quick access as soon as a need is identified. Generally speaking, Tier 2 interventions can be delivered by any staff trained to implement the intervention with fidelity. This means the staff delivering the intervention should have the time in their schedule to both deliver the targeted supports as well as analyze the data.

At Tier 2, data is used continuously to make decisions about both student response to the intervention, as well as effectiveness of the intervention. Before implementing the intervention, decision rules about entry into, matching, and exit out of the intervention are established.  With regards to behavior needs, the data identifying behavior function, as well as the setting conditions, and lagging skills, guide the matching process.  Graphed progress monitoring and fidelity data inform decisions about continuation or changes in support answering questions such as- Have we implemented as intended? Are most students on track to meeting their goals or are most students not making progress? How is each individual student doing? 

Implementation of Tier 2 is context dependent and therefore differs somewhat across the grade span due to both organizational and student differences.  With effective implementation of Tiers 1 and 2, we reduce the number of students who need more intensive support, thus conserving resources to be able to meet the needs of all.

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